2018-04 - Indulging in the Yorkshire Museum (York, UK)

Ruins of St. Leonard's Hospital

We were walking along, looking for the Yorkshire Museum, when we stumbled upon some ruins located just in front of York's Public Library. A placard listed these as St. Leonard's hospital, originally built in the 1200s AD and used until the 1500s. The arches and one facade still remain.

Multangular Tower

More ruins drew us further from the street to the Multangular Tower, constructed by the Romans in the 200s AD. On the green grass inside of the tower are some stone coffins, some of which are now in use as flower beds.

Ruins of a cathedral

Continuing along the path brings us to the entrance of the Yorkshire Museum. However, we are distracted by something more eye-catching: the remains of three walls of an old church. It's arches frame the sky as a glimpse of the magnificent building that once stood here. More on this church later, when we visit the exhibits in the museum. Just behind the ruins is a small cemetery. After many photos on this partly cloudy day, we finally entered the museum.

Fossils of sea dinosaurs from the Yorkshire coast

Currently at the museum, there is a very interactive exhibit of dinosaurs and their fossils. There's a hands on area where kids (or those young at heart) can search for the "fossils" in the dirt. Posters explain the different time periods that the dinosaurs lived. There are several fossilized remains on display from the coasts of Yorkshire. These are all ocean dinosaurs: pliosaur, ichthyosaur and plesiosaur. However, the very best part of the exhibit is the opportunity to don virtual reality goggles and feed virtual branches to a sauropod!

Roman floor mosaic

The museum is broken up into different immersive experiences. The next one was about the Romans in York, which the Romans called Eboracum. It began with a floor map of the Roman empire during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-122 AD). It covered England, a strip along the entire north of Africa, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and part of Syria.  There are two rooms of artifacts from the Roman time found in and around York, including skeletons of a wealthy young woman from North Africa and a man who was possibly a gladiator due to his stature and how he was brutally killed. In a third room, there is a Roman floor mosaic as well as Roman replica sandals and robes that you can try on.

Escrick Ring

York as a royal capital is the the theme of the next exhibition. It covers the time periods after the Romans, namely the Aglians from Germany (410-866 AD), the Vikings (866-1066 AD), the Normans from France (1066-1154) into medieval (1154-1485) and then Tudor (1485-1603) York. If I've learned anything on this trip, it is that Britain has been conquered and over-ruled by non-Britons since the Romans invaded. The highlight of this room are a few exquisite gold pieces. The Escrick Ring is from the Aglian time period, probably made in Merovingian France.

Star Carr pendant

The upstairs of the Yorkshire Museum is currently dedicated to artifacts from the Mesolithic Era. These have been recovered from the Star Carr site within Yorkshire. The most interesting pieces are deer skulls with antlers that have holes drilled into them that could possibly eye holes (to be worn as masks). There is also a minute shale pendant with engravings on it. My camera couldn't capture the details behind the museum glass.


NOTES:
- the ruins outside are free and open to the public
- the adult admission to the museum is 7.50 pounds

2018-04 -- Walking the City Walls of York

York has a long and fascinating history. It has been around since at least the Roman invasion into England in 43 AD. In fact, while we were here, there was an article in the local newspaper about builders finding several Roman skeletons dating from 60 AD while excavating to renovate a hotel.

Roman East Tower ruins

While the Romans began the York City Walls, the sections that remain to walk upon today started as earthenworks by William the Conqueror. He was a Norman who invaded England in 1066. Today, only 2 miles of walls remain standing. However, the entire loop, including the walking between wall sections is a 5K (3.1 miles).

City Walls of York

Our hotel (Premiere Inn on Blossom Street) was less than a block from Mickelgate Bar. This is a proper gate, with insignia and the sculptures of men standing on the top of the turrets. At this gate, stone steps lead up to the city walls. There's the option to either go toward York Castle or toward York Minster. Let’s check out the sights going counter clockwise, starting toward York Castle.

The first stop along the wall is Baile Hill, a tower built in the “motte and baile” manner of erecting towers from earthworks and timbers in a short 6 days in the time of William the Conqueror. Today, it is a circular, flat stone section at the corner of the wall.

Ducks and ducklings on the path between Skeldergate Bridge and Clifford's tower

Walking on, the walls end just before Skeldergate Bridge. You’ll need to cross over this bridge, with plaques listing that it was erected in the mid 1800s and another from the 1940s abolishing the toll to cross the bridge. There was a four-person skulling team in the water as I walked down the stairs on the other side. Their coach was riding his bike along the paved bike path and shouting encouragement while checking his watch for their splits.

Clifford's Tower

A short walk through a park with a couple of duck familes and their ducklings leads to the back of a city wall that is now just the edge of the backyard for a few homes. Crossing Tower Street, look straight up the hill to see Clifford’s Tower, originally a baile and motte structure that was updated in the mid-1200s to the current stone structure still standing today.

Fishergate Tower placard

To continue to the walls, follow the sidewalk around to the right around York Castle and enter the City Walls at the next gate, Fishergate. Fishergate Tower is the latest instantiation on this site, built in 1505. It has a more modern convenience, the “garderobe”, or toilet for the guards to use. There is a little section built out from the tower with a hole opening for a drop to the ground below. From here, you can walk the stairs up to get on the walls again.

The next stop is Fishergate Bar. “Bar” in these instances means a gateway. It also means stairs to go up and down. The runners who passed us on the way down on the steps barely missed being hit by two cycles that zoomed through this gate.

The next stop was Walmgate Bar. Before there were stone walls running around the city, the ramparts were made of earth. There is still part of an arch here from the 12th century, although today’s gate has had additions from the 14th and 15th centuries. In this gateway, there is a tiny coffeeshop. A very interesting place to have a cup of tea. It also meant that we had to take the stairs down on one side of the street, cross over the street and then take the stairs back up to continue along the walls.

Red Tower

Our final stop on this section of the walls was the Red Tower. “Tower” seems to be a bit of a misnomer. It looks more like a small square house. However, the ground level now is higher than when it was built in 1490.  This is the end of the city walls because William of Normandy dammed up the Ouse River so that a lake could be formed. That lake, the King’s Fishpool, provided a defense of the city from Red Tower to Layerthorpe Bridge.

Layerthorpe Tower

We walked along Foss Islands Road until we arrived at Layerthrope Bridge, then climbed back onto the city walls. Layerthorpe was built in the 13th century. Just before the next “bar”, there is scaffolding and construction. However, the metal grated scaffolding stairs might be even safer to walk down with the constant driizzle and rain in York!

The door and stairway up to Monkgate bar

Monkgate Bar

The next stop is Monkgate Bar. This gate hosts the Richard III Experience. It was built in the early 14th century but has had expansions in the 15th century. In the 17th century, stone figures appearing to throw down boulders were added to the very top of the gate. It is the tallest bar in York. To get back on the wall in the gate, we had to squeeze past an old wooden door with metal buttons on it and walk up a narrow wooden stairway. It is defintely only one person wide!

York Minster from the city walls

The next section of the wall highlights a tower (the east tower) of the original Roman Wall. It is such an interesting experience to look down at the remains of a tower from almost 2000 years ago on the edge of a residential neighborhood. This section of wall also has the best views of York Minster.

Portcullis in Bootham bar

It ends at Bootham Bar, just across from the York Art Gallery. Inside the bar, you can see the wooden portcullis. We descended the street here and continued walking along St. Leonard’s Street until we came to some interesting ruins just outside the York Library. This is the old St. Leonard’s hospital, built in the 1200s AD.

Lendal Tower

Continue along Museum Street, and, you’ll see Lendal Tower on this side of the river. It is from the 13th century and was used to as one of two towers to anchor a chain across the River Ouse at night to prevent people from boating into York without paying a toll.

Barker Tower

Crossing over the river, we stopped at Barker Tower, the tower that the chain was stretched to. This tower is from the 14th century. It is also the start of the city walls on the south side of the river. From here, we walked all the way back to Micklegate Bar.

Hope that you enjoyed the tour of the York City Walls!

2018-04 - York Minster (York, UK)

On the way to the side chapel

Today, I had the chance to visit the interior of York Minster to attend the 7:50 am Communion service. To be honest, I didn't leave the hotel until after 7:30, spent a little time getting lost within the downtown area as it started sprinkling and then circled the entire York Minster before finally finding the side door to enter. The was a security guard looked through my rain drop covered glasses questioningly but did lead me to the Communion service. Sad to say, there were only seven other attendees at the service (and, one was a priest, dressed in a long, flowing black robe with wide red band around the waist).

Peaking into the altar area

The service was held in a small side chapel of York Minster. The pews were wooden; and, the kneeling benches were wide with what looked like hand cross-stitched covers. The only part of the service that I knew was the Lord's Prayer. I skipped going forward for communion, even though the priest attending kindly asked if I would like to participate. At the very end of the service, I picked up the red and black books in the back of the pew behind of me. Both were books of common prayer. Underneath them was a piece of paper titled "Eucharist in the Easter Season". (Eucharist is another word for Communion.) It was the entire service, word for word! I folded up the piece of paper and stuffed it in my coat pocket. Only now looking at it do I see at the bottom of the sheet, in all caps: "PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE".

Beautiful stained glass window on the side of York Minster

Old churches, while beautiful, are definitely not handicapped accessible. One of the elderly attendees was slowly working his walker up the four stairs to get out of the chapel into the main church. I and two other women waited behind him. Then, the three of us ladies snuck past an open door into the main altar area where I took a quick photo before slowly sauntering back toward the door that I'd entered. Suddenly, the guard walked around the corner. Without many words, he escorted me to the door, unlocked it and locked it behind me. The elderly gentleman had made his way down the stairs to the sidewalk level and asked me where I was visiting from. He told me that he had retired to York from the US because York is the best place to live in England.

View of York Minster from the city walls

The sprinkling had stopped by this point; and, I hopped back on the city walls at the Layerthorpe Bridge. From Layerthorpe Bridge to Monk Bar and then Bootham Bar, there are great views of York Minster.

View of York Minster from the city walls

View of York Minster from the city walls

View of York Minster from the city walls

2018-04 - High tea at Betty's Tea Shop (York, UK)

My friends recommended that we visit Betty's Tea in York for High Tea. We stumbled across the shop while wondering around looking for The Shambles the previous evening. Since they do not take reservations, the cashier suggested that we arrive before 11 am in order to avoid the lines. We happily obliged and made Betty's Tea our morning breakfast at 10 am.

The view from Betty's Tea

Betty's Tea is a big, beautiful shop with stained glass windows on the intersection of two streets. The location that we had stumbled upon is wedged between two pubs on a pedestrian street. We were the second through seventh people in line at 9:55 am waiting for Betty's to open at 10 am. The man in front of us was a local who told us a bit about Betty's tea shop. The original is actually in a different town called Harrogate. The location that we visited sells tea and scones on the first floor and serves high tea on the second. We were seated just in front of a picture window facing the street.

Tea sandwiches, scone and cakes

For 20 pounds each, we received our own personal pots of tea (with one free refill), four sandwiches, a sweet scone and three cakes. The tea came with a side of milk and above average sized sugar cubes made with large sugar crystals. It also arrived with a strainer to remove any loose leaf tea when pouring into the tea cups. The sandwiches included egg salad, chicken salad and salmon. The scone came with generous servings of clotted cream and strawberry jam. The cakes for the day were a mini chocolate extravagance, a mini fruit tart and a lemon macaroon. 

2018-04 - Bath to York (UK)

Looking down on Bath

It was our last morning in Bath; and, we enjoyed it by jogging upward from our AirBnB to try to get photos of the city sprawled below. We caught glimpses of views. However, then, it started to sprinkle and then rain; and, our sight-seeing ended in favor of getting home and dry.

Looking down on Bath

Our two trains from Bath to York only took 4.5 total hours. It was a pretty uneventful time of reading, naps, and light eats (sandwiches, chips, hot chocolate/tea/coffee all sold on the train). We were even able to snag one of the four seats facing a table for a bit to play Bananagrams.

View of the train station from the York city walls

York is further north than Bath and at least 5 degrees cooler. I've been wearing my fleece jacket since we've arrived. Our hotel is only a short distance from the train station. It's just outside the walls. Plus, it's a short walk everywhere. 

Barker Tower

After we checked in, we walked the city walls from Mickelgate Bar all the way to Barker Tower, just before the Ouse River. Then, we popped off to walk over the river and get our first glimpse of York Minster.

First glimpse of York Minster

Afterward, we walked over to the Shambles, which seems to be narrow streets with buildings defying gravity. Unfortunately, we were too late to enjoy any of these sites, as everything in York closes at 5 pm. However, we were able to scope out what we wanted to see for tomorrow.

Looking down Shambles