Monday 17th July
It was mostly a day of travel today with an early flight (8.20 am) from Reykjavik to Manchester and then a drive from Manchester to York. Our accommodation in York for 3 nights was sourced through Booking.com and located at 3 Emperors Wharf. It was a lovely, big, 2-bedroom apartment, very clean and filled with lots of good natural light and with a wrap-around balcony offering great views out over the River Ouse.
It was about 5 pm by the time we got back out for a walk though as, Brett will sympathise here, we had to do a load of washing after having the four nights in hotels. It was just a 10 minute walk from our apartment up to the York Minster, the oldest Gothic Cathedral in Europe, and we called past there to check the start location for tomorrow’s 11 am walking tour. We were catching up on this walk with Geoff and Lorraine, the couple we’d met in Seattle, and were greatly looking forward to this reunion. With out meeting place identified, we then drifted back towards home making a stop at the Kings Arms, for Mark to have a beer, and then upstairs at the Slug and Lettuce for dinner followed by a quick shop next door at Tescos for some groceries. Mark then threatened to head across the road from our apartment to have a beer at the pub but settled for a wine on the balcony instead. It had been a long and full day but we were glad to be back in our comfort zone of the UK.
Our first impressions of York were most favorable, the Old Town part of York that’d we’d seen that is. It is a most beautiful medieval walled city, with narrow and winding cobbled lanes, a magnificent Gothic Cathedral, Roman ruins and loads of lovely boutiques, cafes and restaurants. It is also very walkable, being rather compact and flat, making for very easy sight seeing. This destination offered such a welcome break for us and an opportunity for a bit of a rest after the very active and rugged sight seeing of the previous week.
Tue 18th July
It was a big day today; we were waiting to hear of news about the birth of Matt and Annabelle’s baby and so I was up early manning the phone. We both ventured out for a morning walk, whilst waiting for news, and Mark found a great cafe along the River Ouse; The Perky Peacock.
We were catching up with Lorraine and Geoff again today as they were joining us on our walking tour of York. It was on a walking tour of Seattle where we had first met them and so this meeting point in York seemed rather appropriate. We had a lovely two hour walking tour wandering through York with our group and guided by Shaun who discussed elements of the extensive history of the area that delved back to the Roman, the Viking and on to the Norman periods of history. However, whether it was just sheer fatigue after our previous busy week or just my stupidity, I struggled to fit all the bits of history into a comprehensive sequence. It’s at this point it’s worth noting that I had also found an audio guide historical walking tour for York and, if we’d had more time here, I would probably have taken this as well to see if this presented York’s history in a more logical sequence that I could process.
Our tour finished at around 1 pm as the rain started and so the four of us then went in search for a place for lunch and, after a few circles, we ended up at this great venue called House of Trembling Madness. We had a lovely meal and a great time chatting and catching up with our walking tour buddies. It was still drizzling a bit after lunch so we all went back to our apartment for more of a chat before Geoff and Lorraine left to catch their 6 pm train back to Nottingham. We have tried to get them to bump up a visit to Australia on their to-do list so we shall see but we hope it’s not too long before we see them again.
Wed 19th July
It was an overcast morning but Mark got out for his first ride in the UK with Dagwood. Today was only our second full day in York but also our last as we head to the Lakes District tomorrow. Our plan for the day was to walk the City Walls, visit the York Minster and the Jorvik Viking Centre Museum.
We used the Voice Map audio guide for walking the City Walls and it was very useful as it helped us to navigate the path, which isn’t completely straightforward, and gave us a reasonable amount of historical background. There was one strange turn of event here though. The commentary on this tour was almost verbatim the commentary from our guide yesterday. So either Shaun, from yesterday, copied James, the audio-guide narrator from today, or vice versa. We will never know who was the chicken and who was the egg here but, either way, it helped to reinforce facts that had ‘slipped through to the keeper’ on me yesterday so there was some value in the repeat. The whole city wall walk took about 2 hours and we ended up back near York Minster where we stopped off for a bite to eat at Bennets Tea rooms before tackling the Cathedral. I know that if ever I need a job I could surely get one baking scones for Bennet’s Tea Rooms as theirs were very unsatisfactory.
York Minster was just across from the tea rooms though so we headed there in time for the 12:30 pm guided tour that lasted for just over 1 hr. Our guide was an older York Native and he took us around the various parts of the Cathedral pointing our the major historical features but also embellished with funny anecdotes and tales which made the time fly and the tour very interesting. I would highly recommend taking the free tour that comes with part of your entry ticket fee as it makes the visit so much more meaningful.
We were pretty exhausted by the time we left the Cathedral but made one more stop at Trinity Church and at a pub for us to rest our legs and for Mark to have a drink. There was a visit to Jorvik Viking Centre that we still wanted to take but we needed to go home for a bit to recharge our phones. The audio guides suck the phone battery dry and we’d forgotten to take our charger.
It was 3.30 pm by the time we had recharged enough to head out and we ventured to the Jorvik Viking Centre. Excavations were carried out here from 1976 – 1981, prior to the building of the car park for the Coppergate Shopping Centre, and archeologists uncovered 40, 000 Viking relics and the museum was created in 1984, above the site of these excavations, to house all of these relics. It was a fascinating walk back through time to see such well preserved specimens from such a distant era, apparently the water-bogged soil had helped to keep the specimens well preserved. This is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in York.
Our next stop before dinner was back to York Minster to the 5.30 pm Evensong service where we were lucky to score a seat. The service was performed by a visiting choral group from Glasgow and it was a pleasant enough experience but it was nothing compared to the choir boys from Eaton that I had heard at Evensong some years ago at the chapel in Windsor Castle; that had been something that was hugely special.
We were thoroughly flat on our feet by this stage but waddled across from the Cathedral to the 22 Yards for dinner that had been recommended by Lorraine. We enjoyed a great meal there before ambling home for our last night in York. We’d loved our time here and probably could have done with at least one extra day. York is a beautiful town and well worth a visit so add it to your to-do list. We depart tomorrow for The Lakes District.
