Thursday 24 August 2017
We made it through until about 5.30am this morning before
being wide awake – guess we only need about 8 hours and my cold doesn’t really
make sleeping that easy. Lazed in bed
watching breakfast television with a mug of Yorkshire Tea in hand and then
dressed and ready to explore by about 8am.
We walked along the walls along the west side of York which eventually
curve back around to the river Ouse (sounds like ooze). Walked up to the Minster but couldn’t go in
because of the early hour but it was nice to look at it with the sun shining on
it and without crowds of people all around.
We followed a walking route plan I had printed out which took us round
the back to the Treasurer’s House and Garden (also closed) and then up
Goodramgate which has some of the oldest jettied houses in York. One of them contained a cafe that was
actually open and had free Wifi so we had a cuppa and checked our phones (no internet
at the Masons Arms) and waited til 9am for the shop Larry wanted to visit to
open. A great little department store
that sold everything including the kitchen sink but also the sports socks Larry
needed to buy and a new caravan coffee mug Larry wanted to buy. Socks (and mug) bought, we continued
wandering through the streets of York, found the Shambles and the Shambles
markets where we bought strawberries and grapes for one pound per punnet for a
second breakfast. The crowds had started
to pick up by now and it became evident just what a tourist town it is – cars
come a very obvious second to pedestrians during the day!
Eventually we stumbled upon Betty’s tea rooms which is one
of those ‘must do’s’ of York and decided on an early lunch. There was a queue of about six people and we
rolled our eyes and almost didn’t go in but thought we could see an empty table
or two and people finishing so did and only queued for 10 minutes at the most
before being shown to a table. We are
very glad we did as we had a really nice meal (Larry had the bacon and cheese
rosti and I had a Wensleydale quiche and salad) which were absolutely
delicious. We are even gladder that we
decided to go in when we did as the queue continued to form behind us and by
the time we left it had stretched out the door and around the corner. We certainly wouldn’t have queued if it had
been that long when we arrived and we would have missed out on a lovely
lunch.
Continued to wander around the streets of York and Larry
bought a pair of runners and we bought a few little gifts etc. Made our way to Barley Hall which Jenny had
read about and it was certainly very interesting. Basically an intact medieval townhouse which
had been covered with a brick facade over the years and used for all sorts of
other uses over the centuries before the property was bought in the 1980’s and
its original use was discovered. It was
then decided to restore it back to a house and to use all the old, original
construction and furnishing methods to do so.
It even has a bone window (ie the bones, hooves of cattle melted down
and poured into thin rectangular moulds to make small, translucent window
panes). Fascinating. They also had displays of costumes from the
BBC TV series ‘Wolf Hall’ so that was also interesting. Although the street 100 yards away was
teeming with people and tourists because Barley Hall is down a little side lane
and hidden from view there were only a few people going through so it was easy
to see everything at our leisure.
Wandered on through York and realised because of our early
start and early lunch that it was only about 2pm and we had just about done and
seen everything we wanted to do. Larry
wasn’t keen on going back to the Minster so I suggested the Viking museum. Headed down there but because it’s much more
heavily advertised it had a queue alright and we just couldn’t face it. It had become a bit cooler and rainier during
the course of the day so we thought of heading back to a cinema complex we had
spotted earlier in the day. On the way
there, however, we were diverted by a sign pointing to River Cruises’ and
thought an hour or so sitting down looking at scenery was probably a better way
to spend our time. It only became an
even better idea when Larry discovered he could sit on his butt, looking at
scenery AND with a beer in his hand.
The
cruise took us down river to Bishopthorpe Palace which is where the Bishops of
York Minster reside. Apparently it had
to be considerably extended by one of the bishops in the 17th
century by about 20 rooms as we was very productive and had about that many
children!! There are a number of metal
markers adjacent to a door on the ground floor which mark the heights of
various floods over the years. The highest
is from the flood of 2000 so not that long ago.
One the way back to York the original Terrys chocolate factory was
pointed out. Apparently it was bought
out by the Kraft company who promptly moved all production to Poland and the
building was turned into residential apartments the most expensive of which
sells for around 2 million pounds. So
yet another example of a town’s industrial history being lost to capital gain.
After a long and full day we headed back to our room to put
our feet up for a while and to write the blog.
Hopefully we can publish it soon once we have an internet connection
again. Once that was accomplished we
headed down to the bar and tonight I tried the lavender infused Masons gin
which was actually very nice. We
ventured back into town for a fish and chip dinner and marvelled at how different
the place felt without the hordes of tourists.
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