He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again
(Richard may only be one man, but he will definitely go to the top of every hill...and down again)
Ahhh the north of England. The wet, windy, cold…did I mention wet…north of England. York somehow manages to be both unique and typical all at the same time. Geographically speaking it is north of the Humber which qualifies it as being in the North of England but it is also south of Middlesbrough and when driving north if you think you’re almost in Scotland when you arrive in York, think again as you’ve still got almost 3 hours until finding your way to Coldstream. On this trip our dear friends Ginny and Richard joined us as we explored this somewhat modern yet largely medieval city.
We found York to be very walkable staying a few blocks
outside the medieval portion of the city at a local AirB&B.
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| (not our AirB&B) |
After strolling over to the Cathedral we started our touring day with guided walk along, around and through the old medieval walls of the city. At 3.4 kilometers they are the longest medieval town walls in England. The city does a great job maintaining them and if you want to know more or I’d recommend visiting Friends of York Walls.
One of the great things about traveling with friends is they
often encourage you to do things you otherwise would have skipped out on. Such
as a brewery tour. I know, this probably seems like a no brainer for most of
you reading this but in truth Amanda and I don’t really care for Beer. At all!
Yet the UK is truly one of the great brewing nations of the world and more than
two years into our time this is an aspect of the culture we had largely paid
little attention. Enter York Brewery. After a long morning of walking the walls
that stretched into what are now failed photo ops at Clifford’s Tower a
relaxing sit with a nice dark ale.
On Day 2 we spent the morning at the National Railway Museum York. This was a truly fascinating stop. The museum is huge and has a full-sized functioning round house on the inside and dozens of locomotives and rail cars from all ages of rail travel as well as some from locations as far afield as China. You can also pick up replica’s of promotional posters from days gone by. Here are a couple we picked up.
While it was a short trip we truly had a great time in York and would absolutely recommend to anyone who’s looking for somewhere to go that’s perhaps a little off the beaten tourist track!
