The city of York

Having recovered from our Baron Hill House exploration we woke early and said our goodbyes to "The Smithy" and headed down to our little country bus stop.

We managed to load all of our luggage onto the commuter bus and sat back and watched the Welsh countryside roll by outside our window as we made our way back into Bangor and the train depot.

Luggage, "Can't live with it, Can't live without it". Yeah, we know, we could ALWAYS pack lighter, but just you try heading out on a six week trip and see what you end up with. We're NOT teenagers hitchhiking through Europe for goodness sake! WE HAVE NEEDS!

After about a twenty minute wait we boarded our train heading towards York, England and spent the next three hours playing the fun and exciting game called "let's haul our luggage on and off trains and hope we catch the next correct transfer to York"! It's a REALLY fun game and we'd highly recommend it. Once again that's the difference between traveling on East/West routes like we were today and North/South routes. It's almost impossible to find a direct route.

We finally, through the grace of God, ended up in York and after a half a mile or so walk in close to freezing weather with winds that felt like they were blowing down off a glacier somewhere, (by far the coldest winds we had encountered since arriving in the UK) we rounded a corner and there was our little home for the next four days, "The upside down house" on Bishy Road.

The upside down house was named by the man we rented it from on VRBO because the bedrooms and bathroom are on the first floor and the living room and kitchen upstairs. It's a cute little apartment right above a flower shop on a street with a number of specialty shops and cafes located just outside the original city walls of York's venerable old town.

We met the owner who was waiting for us to arrive and after he gave us a quick tour of the apartment he gave us the keys and left. We got all of our luggage stowed away and after sitting a spell to recuperate from the day's journey we headed outside to have a quick look around, visit the little Sainsbury Grocery store we noticed was just down the street from us and to find someplace to eat as it was already close to five and we were starving.

We found a little Thai restaurant just across the street from our apartment and although it took like an hour to get our food (even though people were sitting around eating who came in after us...who knows?) we were actually served a REALLY good Thai meal. It was frustrating that on one hand the service SUCKED so bad, but that on the other hand the food was SO good. I guess in the end it equaled out. We left the restaurant to little snow flakes drifting about. Nothing serious or anything but a reminder that the weather was taking a turn. We stopped by the local grocery store and bought some much needed supplies and headed home exhausted. We turned in early and saved our energy for the next day.

The next morning we felt much stronger and capable of heading into York for a day of sightseeing. We followed the original city wall towards the city center and although it was much colder than we had been used to we had bundled up and we were feeling quite warm.

We crossed over a river and walked past a couple of amazing buildings and there on a hill in front of us was York Castle.

York Castle, commonly referred to as Clifford's Tower is a really old castle by English Castle standards. Built on a site where an original Motte and Bailey fortification stood, the castle was reinforced with stone in 1068 after York was conquered by the Normans.

The daffodils were in full bloom and almost completely covered the grass covered mound on which the castle sat.

We continued on towards the city center and stopped off at a little bakery to get a couple of cups of coffee and a treat. The baked goods looked amazing, unfortunately they looked MUCH better than they actually were. They say you "eat with your eyes", but we kind of like our food to taste good too. Oh well. it sure was pretty.

We finally arrived at the Shambles, probably the oldest surviving array of medieval Streets in the United Kingdom, lined with overhanging with original timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century.

This was a Friday and the amount of tourists poking around the store fronts and aimlessly checking their iPhones was somewhat of a culture shock after the peace and privacy of Northern Wales.

The Little Shambles was originally known as the "Flesh Shambles", owning to the fact that this was the the butcher district of York and as recently as 1872 still had over twenty-five butchers' shops still located along the street.Non of the original butcher shops remains and the Shambles is now a tourist heavy pedestrian only district lined with shops, cafes and galleries.

Anyway, after the initial culture shock wore off it was interesting to look at some of the businesses. They actually had some pretty interesting shops for such a touristy destination. I even found a butcher and fish monger which I'm always a sucker for.

Now the difference between York and the other places we had visited up to this point is how touristy it seemed. It's not that it didn't have beautiful original buildings and a rich history, it's flush with those, but the difference is how authentic London, Oxford and Wales felt as compared to York.

York seemed set up to cater to weekend vacationers looking for fudge, fish and chips, and "I Love York" postcards. It had a very coney island feel to it and it's a shame, because York has so much to offer without all of the touristy trappings. With that said we adjusted to the feel of the place and started to settle in and go with the flow.

We explored the convoluted streets of York which are set up in such a way in European Medieval cities in order to confuse an enemy attempting to invade, causing confusion and helping to funnel the opposing troops into easily defensible positions.

We had gotten parched and hungry with all of that walking so we ducked into a little cafe for lunch.

We asked the waiter for a couple of "cold" beers, having given up on trying to adapt to the English tradition of drinking Ale at room temperature. We tried to embrace it, but in the end just couldn't learn to love beer that tasted as if it had been poured into a glass and left to sit out all evening. He brought us a couple of cans of the local York Brewing Companies triple hop ale and when Jerani attempted to open the can to pour it into her frosted glass the beer spewed foam all over the table. Not to be deterred, David decided to move even slower after opening his can, having learned nothing from Jerani's first go-around and by now the surface of our table was covered in ale. Napkins were quickly brought into play and soon we had a sopping glob of soiled paper products mounded in the center of our table. I'm sure we were quite the little spectacle in the pub. "Look mom, some Americans are spilling beer all over their table!" We're pretty sure the moral of this story is, if you ask an English waiter for a "COLD" beer, force him to open the cans!

After what turned out to be a fairly pedestrian lunch we headed over to an open air market and walked among the stalls marveling at the low prices of some of the wares. We then headed over towards the York Minster, the largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe.

It is an absolutely AWE inspiring sight and it is just mind boggling to think that it's construction was started in 1338 and completed in 1408. Just unbelievable architecture during the height of the Dark Ages.

On top of being a castle geek I'm also a cathedral geek. I can't seem to stop myself from peeking into EVERY church and cathedral we pass on our journey, and believe me, there are a LOT of religious buildings in Europe! Don't ask me why I have a need to see these buildings, being that by my own admission I am not the most religious man who ever walked the earth. A fact that was quickly proven when my first response upon turning a corner and seeing the cathedral for the first time was to blurt out "JESUS CHRIST!!!" for everyone to hear within like forty foot radius. Ah, Americans!!! Jerani followed up shortly after with her own "Jesus Christ" from the other side of the building. Not sure why we found ourselves swearing so inappropriately whenever we found ourselves near that cathedral. It was so embarrassing but we had no control. So weird.

It was pretty grey out and not conducive to great photos, so we decided to come back on a Monday to visit the cathedral when the weather was suppose to clear and the crowds wouldn't be so large. We were winding down and so we headed back to our apartment to relax for a quality evening of British Television. Our favorites are the Reality 911 Shows and following the cops around on their patrols.