Skip to main content

A birthday weekend in York

We were surprised to discover that York is only a 90 minute drive from our house. It's somewhere we'd been thinking of going for a few years, but I'd assumed it was much further away. So when we wanted to go away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday in January, York was the obvious choice. The city did not disappoint us.


I'd been to York years ago, and my only clear memory was of a tower on top of a grassy mound. That was Clifford's Tower, owned by English Heritage, and recently updated with a rather snazzy series of platforms and staircases inside. We saw a 13th century toilet which had been inaccessible for 400 years (I think I was more excited about this than the boys) and got a great view of York from the rooftop viewing platform.


View from the top of Clifford's Tower

Most people's memories of York probably involve the Shambles - an ancient street of shops - and York Minster. Apparently there isn't a clear difference between a minster and a cathedral, so don't even ask. Whatever you call it, it's impressively spectacular. 








We spent some time sitting in the niches in the Chapter House, pretending to be bishops and wondering what a prebendary is (it's a type of canon, but if you search for canon you just get cameras). Theo discovered a seat in the choir with his name on it, and we admired the new statue of HM Queen Elizabeth II on the West Front.

The Chapter House

Theologus, it says, but close enough



After all that, it was time to refuel. We walked past the famous Betty's Tea Rooms, which had mounds of macarons in the the window and a large queue at the door, and found a more modest place round the corner. Mannetti's was tiny but well stocked with interesting teas and cakes. We wedged ourselves into a corner table and enjoyed some of them.

Outside Betty's

Inside Mannetti's


York runs a very efficient Park and Ride system. The electric double-decker buses were a highlight of the trip, Toby and Theo agreed. And the car park was conveniently close to our hotel.

On the bus


Probably best not to mention the evening meal. We ordered a takeaway curry, and it was not a success. Still, the Holiday Inn breakfast the next morning made up for it. There was almost everything you could possibly imagine for breakfast - and you could eat as much as you wanted.

Suitably fortified, we got back on the electric bus for another day in York. It was much quieter on a Sunday morning, so we spent a little while looking around some shops. Toby bought a colour-changing potion lamp in The Shop Which Must Not Be Named.


The main activity for the day, however, was walking the medieval city walls. We started off at Bootham Bar, one of the old city gates - and promptly bumped into some friends from Derby! I rather wondered who we would see next, but we completed the loop without recognizing anyone else. 




It was a beautiful day for the walk; sunny and not too cold. Much of the walk took us along the top of the walls, with some sections at street level, and we saw everything from Roman ruins and manicured gardens, to dual carriageways and an old waste incinerator chimney. There was a short detour owing to the River Ouse being in flood - but as it isn't every day that you see benches and bins up to their necks in water, that rather added to the excitement.


Can't go this way...

By the time we were on the final section, going past the railway station and dropping down to cross Lendal Bridge, lunch was feeling decidedly overdue. However, each of us had a different idea of what to eat. So we found an outdoor table at the Shambles Market, and purchased crepes, Thai curry, sandwiches, burritos, and a nice hot cup of Hebden Tea Company tea. That kept everyone happy!



We drove home listing all the places in York that we hadn't been to that weekend, as well as discussing which bits we'd enjoyed the most. York will definitely need a return visit at some point. After all, it's only 90 minutes up the road!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

One hundred churches

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...

Derwent Valley Heritage Way: Steep drops ahead

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor   Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...