York

York’s old town is encircled with the most complete city walls in England. Mainly built in the 13th century, we were able to walk all the way around the city using the walls. There are a few places where it is not continuous, but it was a great way to see the city from a different perspective. The Minster is visible from almost every foot of the wall, so the walk allowed us to view the cathedral from every angle. The walls stretch about 2.8 miles around York with four main bars. We learned that a bar is a gate, and a gate is a street. The bars vary in degrees of impressiveness. My favorite two were Monk Bar and Bootham Bar. At Monk Bar, we walked up a narrow stone staircase and in through the side of the building to the top of the wall. At Bootham, it was possible to walk through the gate building, where an old wooden door, with a cast iron knocker, was still visible. The medival vibe was fun for the day, but the walls history goes farther back. Not to be repetitive, but the Romans developed York, as well. Along the wall, there was a marker where we could see the foundation of the original walls built by the Romans. Although the Romans established a fort here in 71 AD, it took several decades before they built their first stone walls. Once the Romans left, the Anglo-Saxons moved in, but they were replaced by the Vikings, who were later replaced by the Normans. York has a colorful history.

We have arrived at the end of the Spring color. There are thousands of daffodils along the base of the walls, and those are punctuated with cherry blossoms at the end of their bloom. I’m guessing the peak colors were probably last week, but it’s still gorgeous with a smaller portion of blooms. We often stopped on the walls to look down at the landscape. As we rounded one corner, we could hear the bells of the Minister ringing. It continued to grow louder as we got closer to town. By the time we reached Bootham Bar, the bells had been ringing at least 45 minutes. We decided to walk down to the Minster, where the ringing continued. We took photos, and the bells finally stopped ringing after a full hour. We assumed the extra long ringing was due to Palm Sunday, because I can’t imagine they do that every day or every Sunday. More to come on the Minster, after we tour it tomorrow or Tuesday.

During our walk around the wall, we popped into town a couple of times. First, we went into the Shambles which is a mixed up, muddled up, shook up shopping area. It includes an outdoor market with food stalls. I had to get out of there after lunch because it was an overload for my senses. I cannot imagine what it’s like here in the high season; the walkways and streets are narrow, and people are everywhere. For example, I had found an offbeat ghost store on Atlas Obscura. (This is my favorite site to find hidden and unusual travel gems.) I arrived, and the line was down the street. At first, I thought I was at the wrong place, but the vendor came out and let us know it was going to be about 45 minutes. Luckily, he told me they have a second less busy store about five minutes away, so we headed there. This turned out to be fortunate, for I had forgotten that Atlas Obscura also noted that York has a thing about cats. For about two centuries, the residents have been affixing statues to their homes and businesses. From what I gather, the original cats were placed around town to scare away rats that were known to carry the plague. The tradition continues, and cat statues can be found around the city. I spotted the first one on the way to the ghost store. It was on the front of a pub. Nikki immediately made a contest out of it, and the search was on. Score at the end of the day: Dana-4, Nikki-2, Kim-1, and Deb-0. We will continue tomorrow.

The other part that I loved about York were the Snickelways. These are small, and frequently hidden, passageways around the city. They often have quirky names (eg: Mad Alice Court), though we didn’t come across any unusually named ones today. They are fun to wander through because there is so much to discover, including cat statues. I kinda just wanted to walk around all afternoon, with no worries about where we ended up. It seems like no matter where you are, you can always spot the Minster to get oriented…or use Google maps. Next time I visit, I’m going to set aside an entire day to explore all of the Snickelways.Read more