Arrived in York. Can overlook the fact that our room at the hotel is through a maze of corridors at the back of the hotel and a total fire hazard because we are just across the road from York Minster, which is amazing.
Dropped our bags off and headed for the wall. We walked the high section behind York Minster heading for the Black Swan, which is one of the oldest pubs in York. We never made it to the Swan because at the bottom of the steps was the York Model Shop! With a gleam in his eye and muttering “Good job Mike isn’t here” Ed headed into the shop with me following muttering, “We are going to need a shipping crate to get home”.
To my surprise Ed bought nothing and we continued on through the Shambles.
The Shambles’ is sometimes used as a general term for the maze of twisting, narrow lanes, which make York so charming. At its heart is the lane actually called the Shambles, arguably the best-preserved medieval street in the world. It was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086!
The lane was a street of butchers’ shops and houses, many complete with a slaughterhouse at the back of the premises. The pavements are raised either side of the cobbled street to form a channel where the butchers would wash away their offal and blood twice a week. In some sections it is possible to touch both sides of the street with your arms outstretched and the houses are very close at the top to prevent sunlight reaching the meat.
We arrived back at York Minster and went to Evensong. They had a visiting choir and the service was very beautiful. They have a wonderful organ and I’m sure when it booms out all sinners repent, as the sound is overwhelming
That night we went to a pub called ‘The Hole in the Wall’ and, because we were in Yorkshire had a Yorkshire pudding. Very different to the ones we know as it was a dish and the roast beef was inside.
Next morning, whilst I was still surfacing, Ed disappeared to ‘go for a walk’. He appeared sometime later with a large bag containing – you guessed it – models! Apparently the shop is absolutely fabulous and has scale models of almost everything – so Cath; if you ever come to York, hang on to Mike!!
We walked the other section of the wall and came across a guy walking his pygmy hedgehog along the wall – no doubt not game to let him loose in the grass, but not really what you expect to see.
From there we went to the Jorvik Viking Centre which is situated on the site where, between the years 1976-81, archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust revealed the houses, workshops and backyards of the Viking-Age city of Jorvik. As part of the exhibition you travel in a cart through a reconstruction of Viking-Age streets, as they would have been 1000 years ago, complete with noise and smells!
Back into the modern day streets of York, we picked up our modern day car and headed for the seaside town of Colwyn Bay to catch the Irish Ferry.