Ten on the Tenth: (Old) York

A mix of new and old buildings around the university lake

Hubby studied at York University.  He loved it and regularly reminisces about the pubs and the parties and the people he knew there, but I had never been to York - ever.  Thanks to Tesco points we arranged a short break during the last week of the summer holidays and took my Mum & Child No.3 along too.  The University has grown from 3000 students to 13000 in the last 3 decades which meant Hubby spent a lot of the first hour shaking his head at how things had changed and getting lost while he showed us around the campus!

 

It rained a lot during our first afternoon, but luckily it had dried up by the time we went on our Ghost Hunt ... well hardly a hunt, more like a tour around a few of the "haunted" areas with some storytelling and audience participation humiliation - great fun!

Apprentice stonemasons can train at York

York Minster is a beautiful cathedral and was top of my Mum's list of "Must Sees"; we were fortunate to enter in time to catch a wonderfully informative tour by a volunteer guide. The tour was free, but then we had just paid to enter the building - and like most of the attractions in York the entrance price is quite high, but does allow you free return visits for a year, so if you are staying a few days you can dip in and out of various venues and revisit your favourites.





No visit to York is complete without seeing at least some of the walls that surround the heart of the city.  Due to old legs and limited time we only walked one small section, but I'm determined to return soon and try to complete the circuit.

Child No.3 managed more wall walking than her Granny

I am reliably informed that Betty's is the place to go for Afternoon Tea ... however we baulked at queueing around the block and then paying £16.50 each for it ... so chose a smaller establishment and opted for a Cream Tea instead - it was delicious!










I knew that nobody would put up with me geocaching during our visit, but I did spot that there were two virtual caches that I could collect without disrupting the touring:

The Stonegate Devil

Holes in The Wall

Initially I was looking for a literal hole in the wall, but finally got the joke when I remembered that here in Britain we refer to cash points in banks as "holes" in the wall .... there are four banks here (Roman, Dark Ages, Norman & Medieval) - different levels of fortification over the ages.  This was a new location for Hubby too - though I think he had visited the pub of the same name during his student days!

Possibly the closest I shall ever dare to be to the "Chunnel"!

Our hotel was just outside York and we took the Park & Ride bus in each day to save parking costs and congestion.  On our last day we hopped off the bus early to visit the National Railway Museum - free (but the car park would have cost £9!) and despite three of us not being that enthusiastic about trains, we did enjoy a couple of hours there!

We visited quite a few of the historical attractions in York including Barley Hall (thank you again Tesco points) where there was also an exhibition of film and television costumes through the ages.  We saw wonderful suits, dresses and hats from films like "Elizabeth" and "The Kings Speech" and TV series like "Cranford" and "The House of Eliott".  You were even allowed to try on some of the hats!

Quite a flattering shape of hat

The Yorkshire Terrier

When walking around York you really have to keep looking up as a lot of the beautiful old architecture is still preserved (and some of the doorways are built for much shorter medieval folk) and this building in Stonegate was no exception - Hubby was inside buying some Yorkshire beers for his weekend!  After all he hadn't had a cream tea!

Want to see other people's ideas for Ten on the Tenth? Take a look over at Shimelle's place here!