Weekend trip to York, England

Easter weekend we had a 4 day weekend and decided to hop the train to York.  It is about a 5 hour train ride from Helensburgh. 

Upon arriving in York, we checked into our hotel, staying right on the River Ouse.  

(Park Inn, big red brick building on the right)

We spent the next few days exploring the city, enjoying it's amazing history and architecture.

The Shambles is a street with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the 14th century.  It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, named for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat.  As recently as 1872 there were as many as twenty-five butcher shops in the street.  Although the butchers have now vanished, a number of the shops on the street still have meat-hooks hanging outside and, below them, shelves on which meat would have been displayed.  The street is now known for it's souvenir shops, bookstores and cafes.

We enjoyed walking downtown, browsing the shops and seeing the sights.  As it turns out, they also had a market and a chocolate festival going on while we were there.  So of course we had to partake in the festivities!

York Minster is the cathedral of York, England, and is the second largest Gothic cathedral of Northern Europe.  The present building was begun in about 1230 and completed in 1472.  Approximately two million individual pieces of glass make up the cathedral's 128 stained glass windows.  The 76-foot tall Great East Window, created in the early 15th century, is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world.   The Minister also contains a rose window, a heart-shaped design colloquially known as 'The Heart of Yorkshire' and the Five Sisters Window with each lancet being over 52 feet high.

York is a historic walled city founded and built by the Romans around 71 AD.  The Roman walls survived into the 9th century when, in 866 AD , York was invaded by the Danish Vikings.  The Vikings buried the existing Roman wall under an earth bank and topped with a tall wooden fence.  The wooden fence was replaced with the stone wall in the 13th and 14th centuries using the foundations and the line of about half of the original Roman walls.  The medieval city walls originally included 4 main gates or ‘bars’ (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar), 6 secondary gates and 44 intermediate towers.  The defensive perimeter stretched over 2 miles encompassing the medieval city and castle.  To this day, substantial portions of the walls still remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England.

We took a walk around the walls, which is about 2.5 miles and consists of very narrow walkways, steep stairways and amazing views of the city.

The York Museum Gardens and St Mary's Abbey ruins.

Clifford's Tower, York Castle
The original mound of Clifford's Tower, with a timber structure at the top, was constructed by William the Conqueror in 1068 as a statement of his power over the region.  This building stood for just over a century before being burnt down.  Between 1190 and 1194, it was repaired at great expense, and the mound was raised to its present height.  The second timber structure was destroyed by a gale in 1245.  Henry III ordered the tower to be rebuilt and strengthened, this time in stone.  The result was a tower some 50 ft high and 200 ft in diameter.  It was designed with four overlapping circles, resembling a four leafed clover.  A massive explosion in 1684 destroyed the roof, floor and central pillar of the tower, leaving only the walls intact.

We were rewarded with fabulous views from the top of the tower.

 

 We enjoyed some great food, (fabulous Steakhouse, Italian and Mexican restaurants) drank some local beers and found a few fun pubs.   It was a great weekend exploring York and we would definitely put it on our "We would love to visit again list." 
Now it was time to hop the train back home, as we had house guests for the next few nights.  As it worked out we met up with our guests, Katelyn and Sadie, on the train ride home.  Look for our next blog about our all girls adventure to Inverness.

Much love to all of our family and friends,

John and CJ