York

Front of York Minster

Gosh I really am a long way behind in my adventures.  We visited York last year!  Again another really pretty city, the old part of town has been maintained really well.  I think we have the town walls to thank for that.  Apparently there have been people living there for thousands of years, but it was thanks to the Romans that it really kicked off as a town.  We did another walking tour there, I really love them, and the guy giving it was a graduated archaeology student.  I'm guessing if you grow up in York, archaeology has to be a thing, there is just so much stuff to dig up.  In fact it's so popular that the students have to pay to be allowed to go on the digs, poor kids these days.

One of the must-do activities is a walk along the top of the walls, most of the walls are from the 1100-1300's, but it's really the Victorians we have to thank for being able to walk along the top.  They liked the idea of promenading around the town, so had the top of the walls widened.  They are still very narrow though, nothing like Luca say, which had walls that seemed hundreds of metres wide, there really is only a metre or two of width to walk along.  The gate houses are also very impressive, though they call them bars here, the naming convention is slightly confusing in York.

Close-up of stained glass being restored

You have to go to the Cathedral whilst you are there, or the Minster, that's really unbelievable.  Again really quite old, and there are Roman ruins underneath it, from the first Roman fortress.  You can go down into the crypt and there is actually a great museum down there, not overtly religious as most things in churches are, but just giving the history of early York and the Romans.  As you are walking around there are volunteers making sure you don't break anything or touch stuff, as there usually is.  Except every 20 minutes or so these volunteers launch into a discussion on the history for all the tourists who happen to be milling around at that time.  They are certainly very willing to engage with you as you walk around as well, so if you like that sort of thing you will be in for a treat.

What was perhaps even luckier was that they were restoring the main stained glass window at the time, so whilst you couldn't see it in situ, they had done a really good job of recreating the windows at ground level, so you could actually get a really good close up view of the panes for once.  And there was some good descriptions about what each window meant or portrayed, which is usually lacking inside churches.  They are definitely going out of their way to make the visit more than just the inside of a church.

York Minster ceiling

Statue of Constantine - crowned emperor in York

There were some great museums in the town as well, for such a little place they are certainly well-serviced with cultural activities.  There is, of course, the Richard III museum.  This is inside one of the gatehouses, so is actually pretty small and set over a few floors.  They love Richard III in this town, as is to be expected I suppose, and the group running this museum are constantly trying to counteract what they see as Shakespearean propaganda.  Fair enough I guess.  I'm not sure how successful they are at it though.  I think the best they can come up with was that Richard III was probably no worse than any other wanna-be king at the time.

If you want a less biased historical account there is also the York museum, that had some great stuff in it, back to the Roman times.  It's opposite the ruins of St Mary's Abbey which was dissolved during King Henry VIII's time.  In the same park there are the ruins of the hospital of St Leonards, again was shut down during the Tudor time.  York really did not do well out of the Tudors.

Clifford's Tower - part of York Castle

Great helmet in York Museum

Not only do they have the walls, and the minster, but there is also York Castle.  There is not so much left of that anymore, it's mainly just a tower on the old Norman motte.  But there was another museum attached to that which we didn't go into.  The motte was actually really steep and surprisingly high.  It's always funny going into these towers, because you kind of imagine that everyone would have lived in the walls, which is the only structure left, and that they would have had a big open courtyard as well.  But really there would have been a roof, and wooden floors and all sorts of rooms, it's just that none of that organic matter has survived.  It would be great to see a fully restored tower keep at some stage, just to get a feel for how these Normans lived.  I imagine the rooms were very dark, and dirty and small.  Which is a completely different feel to what you get when you visit one now.

If you want something really touristy there is also the Jorvik Viking Museum, which I am sad to say we didn't visit.  I reckon that must be fantastically touristy, like a Viking Disney World.  York was a massive Viking town, after the Romans disappeared.  It's a loooong way from London after all.  There were some old Roman bath ruins, not quite as impressive as Bath's ones.  I think York was a bit surprised to find it had any sort of baths.  They are currently in the cellar of a pub, which found them when extending downstairs.  Now they charge a couple of pounds for people to have a look at some old pools (no water remains).

Definitely worth a visit, a pretty city and more than enough to do over a weekend.