York England June 2002

We have been trying to make an effort to get out more - I mean, lets face it, we didn't come to Glasgow to get stuck in Gorbals (read: much scarier than East Van). So, as a result, we try and do at least one trip every month just to get out city. This weekend we chose York.

England - York - I always think about York or Oxford or Blackpool or even Edinburgh as these far away places, where in reality Edinburgh is less than hour away, York is about 3 (via Edinburgh and Newcastle), and Oxford is only about 4-5 hours away. The hardest part is planning where we want to go, and actually getting around to it. So, for this trip, our only planning was on Wednesday, I asked if I could work the early shift, and Kim was able to get off a little early, and that night we booked our train tickets. Friday afternoon we had our travelling UK book, and we were riding the rails. Now, even with the extensive planning that I just mentioned, we hadn't a place to stay. Off to the local travel centre and they recommended an area just a short walk from the train station across the river. Bags in hand and we were off.

On the left side of the river is the city side, and on the right is the residential / B&B area of the city.

The next day, we were off exploring the local parks and we stumbled upon this little gem. From here, well, it looks like a turret, or an archery tower. Nothing really very special. But, if you look more closely, you will notice that instead of being round like the normal turrets, it actually has 10 sides. It's a decaturr. Ok, I just made that last part up, but it sounds good. Another interesting feature about York, is they have miles of the old city walls still intact. We walked around the walls for quite a bit.

This castle was very interesting. The hill that it is on, is totally man made. The castle itself, is about 4 or 5 stories tall, but that's another story.

And what did we stumble upon in the busy downtown core? None other than Blake Street. Ok, we didn't actually stumble upon it, we actually saw it on the map and hunted for it. It's a nice little street, full of interesting shops.

Looking down the city streets towards the Minster.

Another picture looking down the city streets. The streets are actually quite wide, compared to some other places we have been. It is really nice for the tourist and shoppers that a lot of cities have restricted traffic, or pedestrian only streets.

Hiding atop the windows, is this little devil. I am not sure what his purpose is, or how he got up there, but there he sits. He actually has a chain around his waist, so I guess he can't torment the city. Just behind him through the archway was an old midieval house. It wasn't exactly just one house, but several joined together. They had working examples of how they lived, the garden, kitchen, pantry and had live demos, including the "Priest Dance" which Kim and I were instant stars. I am glad that we didn't have a video of that performance, although it was quite fun. I know that you have seen movies like "Pride and Prejudice" or some of the Shakespeare movies, where they have this big formal ball, and the people ponce around like little Nancy boys, well, this dance was for the common folk. It was more of a grass roots level of dancing. The only comparison I can come up with is ballroom dancing compared with square dancing, although it wasn't half as hokey as square dancing.

On the top of this building is the York city crest. I think this was the York City Hall, but I can't 100% remember. Let's just say it is.

As we all know, Europe was run by the Romans for quite a while about 2000 years ago (except for one small village in France). This is a statue of Caesar Maximus, who lived in York in around 200.

Here is a close-up of York Minster.

And a closeup of the stained glass.

And a side view of York Minster.

As you can tell from the outside picture, the Minster is just massive. Unfortunately these black, fuzzy pictures don't really do it justice. Hopefully you can squint, and imagine the sheer size of the Minster inside. Unfortunately you are not allowed to use a flash in most churches. Quite a few don't even allow pictures, which is quite a shame. They say that it is a sign out of respect, however, they will sell you slides, posters or postcards.

The church organ almost reached the roof.

One problem in takings picture of stained glass, is they never show the true marvel, size or intensity of the glass.

One end of the Minster.

This the stained glass from the front of the building. With this inspiring picture, I will end the tour of York. Bye for now.