UK Trip Day 12 York!

UK Trip Day 12

A bright and early start today.  In fact very bright and very early .... like 3am early!  Why on earth were we up in the middle of the night?  Well we didn't want to.  There was no need to.  However the fire escape safety light in our room had other ideas: last night it had been glowing a ghostly green but in the small hours chose to flip into megawatt bright white light.  We both woke thinking it was broad daylight.  Sadly we couldn't turn it off.  Oh well.  (Says Barb.  Oh bugger says I.)  Consequently we were up, showered and amongst the first ones down in to breakfast.  When we mentioned  our problem with the light to the young lady waiting tables she seemed very unsurprised.  Apparently there have been some issues before and an electrician was already booked.

At least our early start also meant we arrived at the park and ride station early enough to park right near the bus stop.  The park and ride also shares car parking space with the Designer Outlet shopping precinct - we were lucky.  When we returned mid-afternoon the vast car park was choc a bloc with vehicles for said Designer Outlet and there was scarcely room to move.

It was good to be in a bus instead of fighting the traffic and trying to find a park in York.  It's a very busy tourist city with many tourist attractions in the city centre.  The most obvious of these is the Minster which dominates the skyline.  You don't need a map to find your way there.  If you can't actually see it there are many strategically placed signs pointing you in the direction of all the major sights.

Minster in the distance, and Barb

Thus we gravitated to the Minster as our first port of call.  It is truly impressive and we circumnavigated it looking up in wonder.  Crowds were already gathering outside, so rather than go in, we walked on towards Clifford's Tower.  (As the day progressed we discovered ourselves to be not of a queuing disposition).   

The frontage of the Minster

Minster from one side

It's truly enormous, too much so to get it all in one shot

On the way  there we found "The Shambles", which is a quaint old market area.  We were sucked into several shops including a tourist tat shop, a delightful haberdashery shop appropriately called Duttons for Buttons, and a Marks & Spencers shop where John found some nice shirts and socks.  To complete his shopping frenzy we then found a Clarke's shoe shop where John bought two pairs of deck shoes.  Oh the profligacy!  (Clothes.  Oh the trauma!)

 

The Shambles

 

The Little Shambles market

 

 

Duttons for Buttons - Susan had recommended
this and Barb was delighted to find it

Duttons ...

 

Ah.  A sweetie shop ...

... and a tourist shop

John, in the distance, patiently waiting for Barb in Duttons

Buying shoes.  Ugh!

Quite unnerved by John's spending spree we needed to find a good café.  And there it was, right opposite the Jorvic Viking Centre!  We watched the extraordinary queue - probably a couple of hundred metres long - while we sat sipping our flat whites, which with three shots of coffee actually met with John's approval.  By the time we emerged the queue snaked around several street corners and we felt justified in avoiding this attraction completely.

The head of the Jorvik queue, with John awaiting coffee

As yummy as it looks!

 

More Jorvik queue

It was only a little further on to Clifford's Tower.  This was definitely a wow!  Our English Heritage passes secured us a rapid entry and then when we climbed the spiral staircase to the top of the tower the views were just stunning.  John said it gave him uncomfortable feelings in his nether regions to be so close to the edge, but Barb was too happy taking photos to be too scared.  (Is there no privacy in this world? Nope!). 

Clifford's Tower

We could see the York Museum below the Tower and there was an old fashioned carousel outside it in the forecourt, but it didn't appear to be too busy.  On the other hand the museum was really worth the admission fee.  You could spend hours here looking at the exhibits.  There were dioramas depicting the inside of houses through the ages.  There were costumes from many different eras.  There was a whole 18th century street scape that you could actually walk around in and be part of, and this included period costumed staff to chat to.  In the 1950s and 1960s displays I identified much of my youth - the small TV with doors, the open fire with mirror over the fireplace, the dining table in the living room, the Brownie 127 camera, the drop down leaf kitchen cupboard - the list goes on.  Barb was a little surprised, but still more so when I identified the coal stove and ovens and stone sink from my elderly aunt and uncle in Lancashire in the 1950s.

Then there was a whole section on the York Prison, the world wars etc etc.  We found it very interesting but it was pretty tiring to walk around it all, so we bailed out at 2pm to avoid getting caught in the peak hour exodus, and also to take a quick look at the Designer Outlet back at the car park.

So, back at the park and ride car park we went to dump our bags in the car we were more than a little shocked when the car alarm went off.  It's loud!  Very LOUD!!  John was pressing buttons feverishly to try and make it stop.  He finally stopped it by starting and then stopping the engine.  Phew!  No security came running, so was a good job we weren't car thieves.  Once in the Designer Outlet it was all pretty predictable, but we wanted food.  Imagine our delight and excitement when we stumbled over Ed's Easy Diner.  Yay!  This was the chain of hot dog diners we'd found a few days ago in Cambridge and the food was just as good, as was the service.  John ordered a salad and felt really virtuous.

Back at Escrick and the Black Bull Inn the wayward emergency light appears to be fixed.  Woohoo!