Into the UK - First place to visit - the ancient city of York

Well, I just remembered why I didn't update this as much as I would've liked whilst travelling - the uploading of photos takes time - inconvenient when your paying for every minute in an internet cafe - and if staying with people you normally had other things on your mind (sociallising / resting).


Anyhow - I finally made it to York (staying in Edinburgh with Duncan & his lovely lady) I travelled by train to the fabled city of York. And you see the old city walls as you walk out of the train station (as this picture above shows. York was one of the highlights of my journey. I was not disappointed.


This photo shows the sort of view you get from the old city wall (a large portion of which still exists and is walked on every day.




Walking the walls of the city really was magical. I took a lot of photos of the walls - some inane things as well as these nice views. When you consider how long ago these walls were built it is even more impressive.

Then there is the compulsory photo of me with the wall in the background.

The other thing that was really noticable was the lack of safety fences. If these walls existed in either Oz or the US there would be safety fences erected all along the insite edge & around the parapets. Instead, you could simply jump off front or back (1-3 metres onto a rolling grass embankment (which was fun to do) - simply climbing up 1.5metres was tough (the wall walk has a lip on the inside that I didn't notice till I was trying to get back up.

The wall is broken around the city by these Bars. This one (I think) is Micklegate Bar. The modern world has been nicely woven in with the ancient city.

Heading further into the centre of the city I found this lovely remnant of a medieval castle.

This keep is built on the site where stood originally a wooden keep which burnt down during a sad & shameful part of the history of York (Jews were being persecuted and took refuge in the keep which was burnt around them). This stone keep was built on the site.

Looking out from on top of the keep showed some brilliant views of the town (this is one photo I took) more later.

Wandering away from that lovely keep (I have more photos from the inside) I found the York fire station. I decided it would be great to say high. They welcomed me in and showed me around. I got some photos and left them an Australian Flag bandana.

Following on from this I found the Jorvik exhibition. Unfortunately they don't let you take any photos - they want to sell them to you. I did buy the book and if your round at our place you can have a look - it is a really cool place (it's a display on the diggings into the Viking remains from the city (Originally named Jorvik by the vikings, the name of the city altered over time to York).

Further into the city and you find this wonderful building. This place is brillant (especially for RolePlaying types) as it started out as an Adventurers Guild Hall (Seriously).

Later on they become very influential with the running of the township and ran a hospital type arrangement for the poor out of the basement. The inside was lovely with lots of old things on display around the place (again, I have more photos to show later).

Wandering around the city more I just kept finding cool sites.

On the grounds of the library there are more ruins - including (above) this lovely vestibule (let me know of a better word if you think of one). This was under the ruins of a chapel.

Further into the "backyard" of the libary was this wall & ruined building. Showing both sarcophigi and a history of construction. The red brick line dates back to the Romans, who improved the walls up from that point.

There was much more that I saw in this compact little city - I took many more photos - to be shown at a later date.