<b>June 16th: Arriving in York</b>

Considering that my son (19 at the time, turns 20 tomorrow!) and I were only in York 24 hours, this should be a fairly short report. But, then, I'm writing it!

We arrived around 12:30 on June 16th and left about the same time the next day. Our trip there, well the London part of it anyway, was a bit of a misadventure. As a result, we spent the train trip in the area between cars. If you're interested in the details, they're at the end of my London report:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-to-london.cfm

I couldn't really see much as my back was to the window most of the time. But when I did make the effort, the countryside looked much like the midwestern US. Pleasant but nothing exciting!

One thing that came out of our frustrating morning was my decision that I was done dragging luggage! We took a taxi to our B&B. I think the fare was &pound;4.30. I know I gave him a five.

This is where we stayed:

http://www.number34york.co.uk/

I'd posted here asking for recommendations and got some very good ones. But every one I tried was booked, had a two night minimum, didn't have twin rooms or didn't answer. I found this place in Rick Steve's Great Britain guide and it had some good reviews on TripAdvisor. We were very happy with it. Amy, our hostess, was friendly and helpful. The room was very nice and the location convenient. The cost was &pound;32 per person. We made the reservation in February.

After settling in, we set off to explore York. It was probably a ten to fifteen minute walk into the town centre/Minster area. Our first order of business was to find something to eat!

We chose The Hole in the Wall pub:

http://gouk.about.com/od/getawaysand...passages_3.htm

Unfortunately, it wasn't until I looked for a link just now that I found out about the real hole in the wall near the pub! But we enjoyed our lunch there. I had a roast beef sandwich with horseradish sauce. My son started with the soup of the day, split pea with mint. It was good but he wasn't crazy about the mint. He also had very good fish and chips. It's a very pleasant pub and I'm sure, had we been staying in York longer, we would've returned. They advertised some very interesting dinner specials. As with most pubs, you go to the bar to order. I paid cash and must not have gotten a receipt. I can't remember how much it was but seem to recall their lunch prices being pretty good. The only negative was that we were there for a while. The service was definitely on the slow side. Which wouldn't have been a problem except that we had so little time in York.

Our next stop was the Minster. This was the absolute "must do" on our agenda for York. The time stamp on our receipt is 14:10. I went for the adult Minster Plus admission which included a choice of the undercroft or the tower (I chose the undercroft) for &pound;8. My son chose the student Do Everything admission which included both the undercroft and the tower, also &pound;8. Unfortunately, our Great British Heritage Passes didn't cover York Minster.

We spent a couple of hours in the Minster and really enjoyed it. My son loved the fact that it was the first cathedral we'd visited that allowed picture taking inside. And he took advantage of that! A link to his pictures:

http://europeanadventure2009.shutterfly.com/418

When my brother saw them he said, tell him next time he's in York he should try to get a few shots of the Minster!

Those are really great shots inside York Minster. I still haven't made my way up to York yet... it's high on my list!

Great pix!

Only 24 hours is better than no hours for sure.

The last time I was in Yorkminster it was still free w/ a suggested donation. One visit I gave something - probably around £10 or £15 but I don't remember - and they gave me a vellum sheet printed w/ a beautiful image of the Minster and wording to the effect "the Dean and Chapter thank me for my donation which maintains the Minster for a period of 4 1/2 minutes". My name and the '4 1/2' were done in calligraphy and it looks like a formal proclamation or something. The whole thing is about 14 x 20 inches and its one of my favorite souvenirs ever. I have it framed and it really is beautiful.

I think you'd like it, yk. I know we did anyway!

Wow, that <i>is</i> a nice souvenir, Janis. But only 4 1/2 minutes! Sure makes you realize how expensive the upkeep must be!

Thanks for the compliments on the photos. I'll pass them along.

This last June I visited York for the fourth time, and I still haven't seen everything. Like janisj I think that on my previous visits I only left a donation but afraid there was no such souvenir for me. Perhaps it wasn't quite as substantial, although I'm usually generous in that regard. There was no one visiting the undercroft except for me. Loved that! This year the queue was so long I decided to wait. I'll be back.

Great pictures! You really managed to see quite a bit of York with your limited schedule.

Thanks, historytraveler! At least we saw enough to know that it's somewhere we'd like to go again! As you said, we did fairly well for the amount of time we had. I think we got a fair overview. It's such a cool little city! I envy you your four visits!

I'm off to celebrate my son's birthday. My daughter's picking us up on her way home from work so that we can spend tonight and tomorrow in the city with them. So I probably won't get back to this until at least Saturday. Kind of frustrating as I know how I want to start the next segment and will probably forget by then! Oh, well!

Happy birthday to your son, and enjoy your weekend!

Thanks, yk!

CAPH52:

Photos - excellent

The compulsory entrance fee was started in August 2003. Only 1 in 4 visitors made a voluntary donation. No entrance fee if you attend a service.

B&B's can be a challenge especially for one night. Glad you liked yours.

Sandy

Hope the birthday was a success. [I'm at the point I'm not sure I really want to count those, but the alternative isn't very attractive either. ]

Glad you liked York. That was one of those very pleasant surprises for us. We did a day trip when visiting my SIL in London and enjoyed it so much, we regreted not at least making it a long weekend. But that's for next time!

We particularly enjoyed the Viking digs and really didn't know previously how extensive they were. My wife was entralled since her family is Swedish [but I had to remind her that some of those Vikings weren't very nice people!].

The photos really are good. The Minster was very interesting.

Thanks, Sandy!

I know what you mean, dfr! The worst thing about DS hitting 20 was realizing how old that makes me!

The birthday celebration was fun though. After my less than enthusiastic remarks about the football stadium tours in Barcelona and London, we did a tour of Wrigley Field for his birthday! This one I <I>truly</i> did enjoy though. It certainly helps when you know a little something about the sport and the team! And we realized that it was a little odd that we'd done these other tours but had never been "behind the scenes" at Wrigley. Plus it's nice to know that most of the cost of the tour goes to their charity, Cubs Care.

"but I had to remind her that some of those Vikings weren't very nice people!"

Yeah, but what ethnicity doesn't have a few of those?!

Thanks to you both for the compliments on the photos. DS loves getting those!

<b>Evening of June 16th: Enjoying the River Ouse</b>

After leaving the Minster, we decided to go back to the B&B for a little R & R and to decide what we wanted to do with our evening in York. When I was planning this trip I'd been quite excited at the prospect of doing the Original Ghost Walk of York. I'd read about it in penel523's report ( I also owe her a thank you for help with train info!) and it sounded like a lot of fun. I thought it would be a good way to pick up some of the history of York and get a bit of an overview. But by the time we arrived in York I knew it wasn't going to happen.

DS had never been all that enthusiastic about it. A 56 year old mother who's more excited about a ghost tour than her 19 year old son! Kind of odd, I know! But, as it turned out, it was a good thing he didn't have a burning desire to go because I was in no physical shape to do so. I'm not going to go into detail here because I already have in the other reports in this series on our very long travel adventure! But back when we were in Ireland I'd twisted my knee and had also been having problems with muscle cramps in the calf of the same leg. So walking was uncomfortable. And we'd been doing a lot of it! Even the promise of entertaining stories of York's past wasn't enough to make the possibility of a couple of solid hours on my feet sound appealing!

Earlier in the day we'd picked up a brochure with information on cruises on the river. That was an idea that appealed to both of us. DS has always liked boat tours. The long version of the Circle Line Tour around Manhattan is one of his favorite travel memories. And we hadn't yet had a chance to do one on this trip.

When we got back to the room we looked through the brochure again and decided the Floodlit Cruise sounded the best. The timing was good as it would allow us time to have an unrushed dinner. And there was even a coupon in the brochure for &pound;1 off for each of us.

Once we'd settled that and freshened up a bit we headed back in to find a place to eat. One place that caught our eye, as it had earlier in the day, was the Guy Fawkes Inn in High Petergate near the Minster. I'm not sure what it was that attracted us, possibly just the name. There was a sandwich board out front that mentioned homemade ice cream. But there was no menu posted so we decided to keep looking.

After walking around quite a bit and checking many menus, we settled on a place called Judge's Lodging Hotel. There was a pub/restaurant on the ground floor (we actually walked down a few steps but the rear of the place opened directly onto an outdoor seating area). The menu looked interesting and not expensive. And the bartender was a very nice guy. He asked where we were from. Turned out he'd spent some time in Chicago a few years back so we had quite a nice conversation about that. But unfortunately, we were somewhat disappointed in our meals. It's not that the food was bad. It just wasn't that good. DS had some sort of a seafood plate, I had a tuna steak and we each had a beer. The bill was &pound;25.30.

It was not yet 8:00 when we left so we still had a bit of time before our 9:15 cruise. But we weren't sure how crowded it would be or whether we'd be able to buy tickets ahead of time. So we headed on over to the river. There was nothing and nobody there when we got there! But we knew we were in the right spot. And it was such a nice evening and so pleasant along the river that we decided to stroll a bit and then sit on one of the benches to wait.

The boat didn't dock at the landing until about 20 minutes before cruise time. By then there were a few other people waiting, but there was certainly no danger of not getting seats! The cost for both of us, minus the coupons, was &pound;16.

We started out on the top deck but we didn't last too long. It was just too chilly once we got out on the water, especially as the sun started to go down. The one group that I think held out for the whole trip was wearing heavy coats, hats and gloves! It was much more comfortable in the enclosed downstairs and we could still see just fine. There was also a bar on that level that served tea and coffee as well as beer, soft drinks, etc.

I couldn't help noticing that both the pilot/guide and the one other crew member were women. The "spiel" throughout the cruise was very informative though I did have a little trouble understanding her at times. We passed under several pretty and very interesting bridges.

We also couldn't help noticing, both as we were walking along the river before the cruise and during it, the large number of boats moored along the river that looked as though someone lived in them. What a variety we saw! Everything from new, state of the art boats to some that were the equivalent of floating shacks! I found them very interesting and would love to have known the "story" behind some of their occupants. We also passed a few fishermen along the way.

It was a very relaxing, enjoyable and interesting way to pass the evening. If we ever get back to York, I'd still love to do the ghost tour! But I'm very glad we chose the boat cruise this time.

I think the cruise ended at 10:30 and by then we were kind of hungry again. We wound up back at the Guy Fawkes Inn and this time we went in. They were no longer serving food but we decided to stay for a drink. It was such a cool place! Once we got out of the bar area and into the small rooms of tables, the entire place was candlelit. We really felt we'd stepped into another era. But it was reading the menus that were still on the tables that made us start kicking ourselves for not checking it out earlier in the evening. The food sounded wonderful! And for about the same prices we'd paid at the other place. The lights came on about halfway through our drinks as it was by then closing time. But we weren't at all rushed, there were several other people there who were nowhere near finished with their drinks. If we ever get back to York, we will definitely have dinner there!

We stopped in a Pizza Express after that but they too were closing. We had to settle for the bag of crisps we had in our room!

<b>June 17th: A Morning in York</b>

The day started with a very good full English breakfast. We were finished eating by 9:15 and didn't need to catch our train until 12:29. So we talked to Amy about the possibility of leaving our luggage there for a while. She said we were more than welcome to leave it in the breakfast room and cheerfully agreed to call a taxi for us when we were ready to go to the train station.

We needed to pick up a few gifts and got in just as the shops were beginning to open. Once that chore was finished we walked back over to the river near where we'd taken the cruise the evening before. We knew we could get on the wall from there. While it wasn't a really nice day, overcast with an occasional sprinkle, it could've been a lot worse. And we thoroughly enjoyed our walk along the wall. It's a great way to see York! I'm not sure just how much of it we walked, probably between a quarter and a half. Of course, we had to keep watching the time. Coming down from the wall and making our way back near the Minster gave us a chance to see parts of the city we hadn't seen before too.

The taxi ride to the train station was slightly more than the ride there had been. I'm guessing because the meter starts when the taxi is called. It was &pound;4.70. And well worth it, IMHO. We made the train on time, no disasters this time!

Our little stopover in York was sort of a happy accident. Early on in our trip planning I picked up a London guide book at Border's and a typed note fell out. It had apparently been written from one traveling companion to another about a trip they were considering to the UK. Among other things, the writer said that he/she had heard that York makes a nice stop between London and Edinburgh. I thought, hmmm....

I know that the time in York could have been spent in London. We certainly wouldn't have had any trouble filling it there. But I'm so glad I found that note which led me to doing research here on Fodor's. It was a relatively easy way to see some of England outside of London and I'm really glad my son had that opportunity. We were both very taken with York and would love to return. As I said to him, I think if we were to go back for a week we'd probably run out of things to do right in the city, but we certainly wouldn't run out of restaurants and pubs! We saw so many that we would've liked to try.

Four down, one more to go!

Caph,

So glad you enjoyed one of our favorite cities. York Minster has always beguiled us. On our visits, there were regular, scheduled reminders that we were visiting a church and inviting us to pray. These were not meant to chide -- indeed we found York one of the most welcoming of England's great churches -- just to reinforce the building's original purpose. When we visited, there was no set charge, just a request for a donation and an additional fee -- maybe 50p -- for a "photographers license." Your son's photos are wonderful and brought back even more great memories as did his photos of the river.

CAPH,

Enjoying your trip reports. When you were at the Minster, did you look up and see how the walls were bowed out at the top of the transcept? Wasn't that amazing? And how the quire was a little off?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were some way to see those windows close up?

I'm glad the photos brought back pleasant memories for you, Virginia. They do for me too! The call to prayer announcements are still made at the Minster. As you said, nothing chiding about them. Just a reminder of the purpose of the glorious building.

Hi, rileypenny. I can't specifically remember noticing the things you mentioned. But I was certainly impressed with the Minster! Yes, it would be wonderful to get a closer look at the windows!