Old York

20^th September 2011 – 9pm

Yo. Wellll, we haven’t seen the sun all day and we’ve travelled from Liverpool to York (about 2-3hrs, which btw is a long distance drive for these brits!) so we are starting to taste the English weather. About a half hour east of Liverpool you pass through Manchester, this place sorta gave me the shits from the beginning… from bumper to bumper traffic on a wet motorway to bumper to bumper traffic in Manchester itself we eventually made our way to Manchester’s shopping and theatre hub… THE LOWRY (aka the lowsy). When we stepped into the shopping centre at about 1030am I swear I heard crickets and a tumble weed.  Seriously this place was deserted! It’s 3 stories high and we went from the top to the bottom and seen maybe 10 people.  We had a coffee in the arts and entertainment centre aways from the shopping centre and upon our return all 10 customers and all the staff where piling out the door. The fire alarm inside was going off and we were told that it was a full evacuation… out into the raining courtyard. Well, not long after we got to high-tail it out of Manchester.

The drive from Manchester to York was uneventful, so much so Amy slept most of it away. Everyone is a great driver over here, albeit fast. The motorways are at least 3 lanes each way and run like clockwork, I have been sitting in the middle lane doing 80Mph+ and people are still buzzing past me. In the cities/towns the alleys and roads can get very tight as there are cars parked everywhere and anywhere but everyone knows what’s going on, when both directions can fit, and if not who gives way etc etc. Beautiful!

Well, anyway, we did get to York and I gotta tell you I love this town. We’ve been city hopping for a while now, and don’t get me wrong it’s been great but the country is where it’s at! York was basically England’s northern stronghold back in the day and the town is built around an ancient stone tower on a hill dating back to the 11^th century, it’s called Clifford’s Tower and it still stands, SORTA. Around the original town was the city wall which also still stands, the wall is sorta like a parapet wall so you can walk along the top of it (about 3km). We only got to walk a small section but still very cool!

CLIFFORD'S TOWER, YORK

WALKING THE PARAPET WALLS OF CLIFFORD'S TOWER

VIEW FROM THE TOP

CITY WALLS

We also went through the ‘York Castle Museum’ which I thought would be interesting but I felt really ripped off as there was literally nothing to do with castles in this museum. It was actually a museum with a look into modern history periods (how people lived etc) up until the 60s or so, which was cool in its own little way but not what we were chasing.

Anyways, afterwards we found a carpark in the city centre and wandered.  We came across the York Minster which I’d have to say is very impressive.. I think Amy might disagree with me here but I reckon it’s better than West Minster Abbey, the scale of this thing is awesome and it’s sorta all spikey and eerie looking!

YORK MINSTER

Afterwards we found a nice Italian restaurant and polished off a bottle of Sauvignon.

That’s about it for now, I thought I’d write todays blog as Amy is dozing blissfully beside me all tuckered out!

Matt