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| York is seriously beautiful with river views, pubs, a cathedral and a coffee shop set inside the ancient city walls. |
It's been a few years since we visited England, and I never finished blogging about it. Lately, I've been watching the BBC series "North and South," which is set in the fictional Milton but makes me think of York.
Ah, York. Lovely, beautiful York. London is great, but York is something else.
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| For a newspaper reporter and a former newspaper reporter, this was an exciting sight. Alas, it no longer houses a newspaper. But how cool is this building? It overlooks the river in York. |
So get ye to York if you have the time. And buy me a house there.
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| Harry Potter is alive and well in York. Seriously, there are wanted posters for him along the crooked streets that supposedly inspired Diagon Alley. |
For the Romans, York was Eboracum. The Romans turned York/Eboracum from a sleepy meadow into a city. We met some of the people who populated Eboracum at the Yorkshire Museum. They included this guy:
Near the museum are the ruins of an abbey. As someone once wrote: "Here we must leave the venerable pile in the evening of its glory."
The ruins are pretty glorious. This was one of the wealthiest monasteries in England. It started tumbling down in the 1530s, when Henry VIII decided to get a divorce and started dismantling the Catholic Church's wealth and influence.
From history, we moved to chocolate. Yum! York easily could be home to Willy Wonka.
There's a lot to do in York. We couldn't do it all. So I rattled off a list of options to Glenn. He picked the chocolate museum. This was one of our favorite things in York.
The Quakers brought chocolate to York. They thought it was better for them than alcohol. The River Ouse also helped since it provided a convenient means of transporting chocolate to the rest of the world. York brought you KitKat bars and those chocolate oranges you open with a whack at Christmas.
We learned all of this at the chocolate museum. And we got to make chocolate lollies (lollipops).
After our chocolate lesson, we wandered through York and got turned around. We looked up and found ourselves at the bottom of a steep hill topped by a castle tower. Somehow, we'd stumbled across Clifford's Tower. I imagine many a Yorkshire school child has rolled down that hill.
As you can imagine, the view from atop this tower is spectacular.
From Clifford's Tower, we decided to walk the city walls. York City Centre is encased by ancient walls. In fact, the city boasts more intact walls than any other city in England.
Fun fact: the gateways in the walls are called bars. These are where the good people of York used to put the severed heads of traitors on pikes. You know, as a warning.
Glenn found a Yorkshire tap room near one of the bars. A bar near a bar.
We devoted nearly an entire day of our trip to York to a side trip to Castle Howard. I read about Castle Howard eons ago and always wanted to visit it. Turns out, you can hop on a city bus from York and eventually end up at Castle Howard.
The hotel desk clerk warned us it would be a boring ride through the country. As if! I was fascinated by a glimpse at life outside the City Centre: Stops at a massive strip mall where we collected passengers who got on with their shopping bags and departed at little villages.
Then we rolled past this:
This, my friends, was built when King Stephen was on the throne. Guess who slept here? Richard III. It was long thought that Richard's only legitimate son was buried in Sheriff Hutton, where this castle is located. That's been disproven.
Yep. Nothing interesting to see on that bus ride!
Finally, we arrived at Castle Howard, famous as the setting for "Brideshead Revisited." It's a house that makes you think of governesses and the moors and "Downton Abbey." We really wanted to move in. Bailey would have so much room to roam!
There's recently been a dustup within the Howard family. The brother who'd been running the estate for decades was evicted in favor of an elder brother who previously chose not to take on the white elephant.
I didn't hear any family gossip on the tour. Instead, I encountered a lovely tour guide who once lived in Florida and attended exercise class with Burt Reynolds' blonde girlfriend. So much for butlers and governesses.
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| Constantius was York's forgotten emperor. You probably are more familiar with his son: Constantine the Great. |
Near the museum are the ruins of an abbey. As someone once wrote: "Here we must leave the venerable pile in the evening of its glory."
The ruins are pretty glorious. This was one of the wealthiest monasteries in England. It started tumbling down in the 1530s, when Henry VIII decided to get a divorce and started dismantling the Catholic Church's wealth and influence.
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| Remains of the Day: St. Mary's in York. |
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| The Tudor influence still is felt in York. |
There's a lot to do in York. We couldn't do it all. So I rattled off a list of options to Glenn. He picked the chocolate museum. This was one of our favorite things in York.
The Quakers brought chocolate to York. They thought it was better for them than alcohol. The River Ouse also helped since it provided a convenient means of transporting chocolate to the rest of the world. York brought you KitKat bars and those chocolate oranges you open with a whack at Christmas.
We learned all of this at the chocolate museum. And we got to make chocolate lollies (lollipops).
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| Our chocolate lollipops! |
After our chocolate lesson, we wandered through York and got turned around. We looked up and found ourselves at the bottom of a steep hill topped by a castle tower. Somehow, we'd stumbled across Clifford's Tower. I imagine many a Yorkshire school child has rolled down that hill.
 |
| This tower was built by Henry III. The king and queen were supposed to stay here when they visited York. However, they rarely ventured that far north so the tower became a place to store valuables. |
As you can imagine, the view from atop this tower is spectacular.
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| The view from Clifford's Tower. |
Fun fact: the gateways in the walls are called bars. These are where the good people of York used to put the severed heads of traitors on pikes. You know, as a warning.
Glenn found a Yorkshire tap room near one of the bars. A bar near a bar.
We devoted nearly an entire day of our trip to York to a side trip to Castle Howard. I read about Castle Howard eons ago and always wanted to visit it. Turns out, you can hop on a city bus from York and eventually end up at Castle Howard.
The hotel desk clerk warned us it would be a boring ride through the country. As if! I was fascinated by a glimpse at life outside the City Centre: Stops at a massive strip mall where we collected passengers who got on with their shopping bags and departed at little villages.
Then we rolled past this:
This, my friends, was built when King Stephen was on the throne. Guess who slept here? Richard III. It was long thought that Richard's only legitimate son was buried in Sheriff Hutton, where this castle is located. That's been disproven.
Yep. Nothing interesting to see on that bus ride!
Finally, we arrived at Castle Howard, famous as the setting for "Brideshead Revisited." It's a house that makes you think of governesses and the moors and "Downton Abbey." We really wanted to move in. Bailey would have so much room to roam!
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| Castle Howard |
There's recently been a dustup within the Howard family. The brother who'd been running the estate for decades was evicted in favor of an elder brother who previously chose not to take on the white elephant.
I didn't hear any family gossip on the tour. Instead, I encountered a lovely tour guide who once lived in Florida and attended exercise class with Burt Reynolds' blonde girlfriend. So much for butlers and governesses.
