Welcome back 🙂 Here is part two of my United Kingdom adventure! If you remember any of my little trip outline from the beginning of my Edinburgh post (it’s ok if you don’t) you’ll recall that we did a one night stopover in the charming town (city?) of York to break up the trip from Edinburgh to London. Here is what we did, what we saw and what we ate. Please enjoy!

York is a lovely, historic, walled-in city in the northeast of England. York is best known for York Minster Cathedral, one of the largest Gothic Cathedrals in England; the Shambles, a very Harry Potter-esque street lined with timber-framed buildings dating back to the 14th century; and of course the wall that surrounds the old city is also a very popular tourist attraction for those visiting York.

I wish I could say that I had a phenomenal time in York, because it is a very charming city, but due to extenuating circumstances I unfortunately did not have a stellar time. The extenuating circumstances being that 1. I was completely exhausted, 2. I was hit hard with a gross flu-like bug the day we arrived in York (making me a very grumpy Ashley), and 3. we had God awful weather while we were there. I’m sure that if the circumstances had been different that I would have had a better time.

Despite it being terribly overcast, rainy, and bone chillingly-cold while we were there, we still walked around all day. We only had 24 hours in York to see the sights, so it was a very long day of walking to say the least.

I’m sure that if you ask anyone who has experienced the “damp” cold that is very common over in the UK that they will agree with me when I say that UK “damp” cold is 1000x worse than the “dry” cold we get over here in Canada during our winters.

Sights to See in York:

• The York City Walls
• The Shambles + Shambles Market
• York Minster Cathedral

The Shambles + Shambles Market

After we had checked in to our hotel, we walked into the city and ventured up the Shambles. The Shambles offers a pretty even mix of cheesy tourist stores and cute independent shops.

While we were walking, the streets began to open up and in a pedestrian square we stumbled upon The Shambles Market, a seven days a week outdoor market in the heart of old York. As you probably know by now I am a huge sucker for markets. I always try to track down local markets when I’m in a new place. Finding the Shambles Market was the highlight of my day.

There were rows upon rows of vendors selling baked goods, fresh produce, meats, artisan cheeses, and lots of flowers. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to buy anything because we were due to depart for London the following morning, but I was still quite happy to just browse.

We stopped in at Gert and Henry’s to warm up our frozen bodies and to have a bite to eat for lunch. Gert and Henry’s is a classic British pub in a charming old building just on the edge of the Shambles Market. The food wasn’t anything too special, it was what you would expect to be served in a touristy pub, but the atmosphere was very cosy.

After we had eaten and attempted to warm up a bit, we headed back out on to the streets of York in search of York Minster Cathedral. As we walked we popped in and out of stores. I found one that I quite liked called Hebden Tea. I am a big time tea enthusiast and am always looking to expand my collection of teas with new and exciting flavours. My all-time favourite tea is a strawberry green tea that my brother brought back from Paris last year. I’ve been trying to find a good strawberry green tea ever since, but haven’t had much luck. Hebden Tea does have a strawberry green, but it was (of course) all sold out, so I opted for the Sencha Rhubarb green and the Gunpowder Temple of Heaven China green teas. If you’re a tea lover like me, this place is pretty cool. The walls are all lined with shelves which are stocked with different teas from all over the world, I was a big fan.

York Minster Cathedral

This was our last stop of the day. By this point I was so exhausted that I was barely awake and I felt like absolute garbage 🙁 My mom and sister did a guided tour of the cathedral, but I just didn’t have it in me to stand up for that long. Instead of the tour, I walked around and took lots of picture of the inside of the cathedral and had a much needed sit down on one of the pews. York Minster truly is a beautiful piece of architecture and a brilliant work of craftsmanship.

I would suggest looking up the York Minster Cathedral because there is just so much history on the site as well as in the cathedral, 1000s of years worth. It is all very interesting, but would be too much to write down here, this post would turn into a novel haha.

Following our lengthy visit at the cathedral, we returned to our hotel and decided that it was probably best to order dinner in. We got Indian food delivered right to the hotel and settled in with a movie after our meal.

You may notice that I didn’t write about the York City Wall, that is because we didn’t do the wall walk. The weather was just too dreary to do the walk, so we opted not to. But, if you ever find yourself in York on a nice sunny day I would suggest walking along, at least part, of the wall.

Well, this concludes my stopover in York. In case you forgot, London was the next destination on my trip, so I’ll see you all in London haha.

xx

Ashley

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