It was hard to photograph the Minster. It is so big, I couldn't get all of it in the picture at the same time.
Day 5 - Monday, May 17
It was about a 10 minute walk from our B&B up to the town center.
York is best known for having preserved its medieval character, with its
old city walls and gates (bars) mostly still intact. Our first stop
was the York Minster, the largest gothic church in Britain and northern
Europe. The Minster is not with monuments, tombs, and tourists like
Westminster Abbey. We waited at the information desk for about 10
minutes to catch the next free tour, offered by church volunteers.
At that time, we discovered to our delight that the Durham School Choir
was to sing the evensong service that evening. Normally evening prayers
are not sung on Monday, but the presence of a visiting choir gave us the
opportunity to attend the service we had missed at Westminster.
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It was hard to photograph the Minster. It is so big, I couldn't get all of it in the picture at the same time. |
The guide started by showing us the Minster's biggest claim to fame
- its medieval windows. Whereas nearly all English medieval stained
glass was destroyed in the reformation, the revolution, or the world wars,
York's was spared. Three windows are particularly stunning.
The west window has distinctive heart shaped tracery, the north transept
has a rare gray glass window and the east wall is completely covered by
the largest medieval window in the world (it's bigger than a tennis court).
During the tour, the guide explained that the history of the site goes
back as far as the Romans. During excavations of the tower, workers
found the remains of the headquarters building of the original Roman city.
It was here that Constintine ruled prior to becoming emperor and establishing
Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Another
American on the tour was dumbfounded to find that such a momentous event
of world history happened right under his feet. I found that Americans
(including us) have a fascination with old things. Where we live,
a one hundred year old building warrants an historical marker. In
England, the site where Constintine ruled gets second billing to windows.
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The alter at the end of the Nave is in the foreground. Notice the unique heart shpaed tracery in the window. |
The bottom of the window is partially obscured by the screen at the back of the quire. This was the view we had during the evensong service. |
Susan had recently found she had some Yorkshire ancestors, so she had fun looking for monuments and plaques of family members. I was more interested in the architecture, which had elements of every gothic period, plus a Norman crypt. We spent most of the morning in the Minster, and still didn't see all of it. Next we walked to the train station to pick up our rental car. On the way we stopped at the post office to get some stamps for our post cards. We also stopped at a bakery to get some lunch. British bakeries are wonderful. There is almost always one nearby and they have lots of great things for lunch, such at meat pies, sausage rolls, scones, and sandwiches. We also stopped at another money machine. It is amazing how fast you can loose 100 pounds.
We picked up our car at the station with no hassles. Learning
to drive on the left was not as straightforward. Even though it was
only a short drive on main roads to our B&B, I still managed to get
hopelessly lost. I guess we weren't really lost since I knew exactly
where we were. I just didn't know how to get to where we wanted to
go. No matter what I did, I would run into a one way
street going the wrong way, or a turn lane forcing me to go the wrong
direction. After about ten minutes, I succeeded in getting us back
to the train station. My second try worked much better. We
finally got back to the B&B, parked the car, and walked back into town.
Next we shopped our way to Clifford's Tower. Susan was delighted to find her favorite perfume (which is no longer available in the US) in a lager department store. With the perfume we also got a designer duffel bag as a "free" gift, which came in very handy later on. Clifford's Tower is a ruined castle, built soon after the Norman Conquest, to help establish William I's hold on the north. As castles go, this one is relatively simple, but the view from the top was excellent. However there had been a change in the weather. Instead of the warm, muggy weather we had in London, it was now cold, windy, and raw, so we didn't linger at the top for long.
We then walked back to the Yorkshire Museum Gardens to take a guided
walk around the city walls and back streets. Many of the cities in
England have these guided walks, each focusing on a different topic.
About seven of us showed up for the walk, led by an elderly but extremely
energetic woman. We started by walking around the Museum Gardens
which have the ruins of an old abbey and remnants of the old Roman fortifications.
In most places, the 1600 year old Roman wall was in better condition than
the 600 year old medieval wall that had been built on top of it.
The abbey once rivaled the Minster in size and beauty. But while
one flourished, the other diminished to become the picturesque ruin it
is today. We then took a walk along the old city wall where you get
an excellent view of the Minster. The walk ended by going down some
snickleways (back alleys common in old cities). The most famous is
the Shambles, the old butcher's street. This is regarded as the most
authentic medieval street in Britain, although the butcher shops have now
been replaced with trendy boutiques.
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One of four original gates to the city. Our B&B was a short walk from here. Notice the slits for the archers. |
Just about every one who visits York walks down the Shambles and takes this same picture. |
Next we went to the Jorvik Viking Center where we explored a bit of York's Viking heritage. Here you go on a ride underneath the city where archeologist have uncovered the remains of the Viking city. The effect is sort of like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Eric the Red. You get in a little cart which takes you "back in time" past a series a Viking tableaux with recorded narration. At the end, you see the actual archaeological dig and, of course, the gift shop. It was cute, but I thought it would have been overpriced, had it not been for the half-off coupon we got at the train station. After Jorvik, we had just enough time to get back to the Minster for the evensong service. For me this was the highlight of the trip. Sitting in the quire of this incomparable building, listening to the Durham School choir and the organ, looking out the east widow...the experience can not be duplicated.
Having been spiritually uplifted, we now faced a significant dilemma.
We were very hungry, but we had walked way too much and had no desire to
wander around looking for a place to eat. We decided to walk
toward our B&B, hoping we would find something along the way.
Unfortunately, we found that many places were closed (apparently Monday
is their day off). When we got back to the B&B, we asked our
hosts for some advice. They recommended a place across town.
Since we had a car, we thought we would give it a try. I successfully
found my way to the recommended restaurant, only to find it too was closed.
So we just started to drive, hoping we would run into something.
We stopped at a couple of pubs, but they weren't serving food. We
passed by another promising place because we couldn't find a parking place.
We finally found a fish and chips place that was just about to close for
the evening. After dinner, we went back to the room to collapse.
Once again, I got my second wind and went out to try a Yorkshire Ale at
the near by pub. Fortunately, pubs are much easier to find than restaurants.
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