Visit To York: Nov 2004
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I took a train over to York for some
sightseeing.
York is a very cool medieval city with a long history. It's got a
nearly complete set
of city walls that have been in place in one form or another for
1900 years. It also has Yorkminster, one of the coolest cathedrals I've
seen, and The
Shambles, a crowded shopping district whose streets are like
something out of Dickens.
From the train station, I headed over to Micklegate,
to climb up onto the city walls. The top of the walls are about 5 feet
wide, with about a 10 foot drop on the inside, and up to 30 feet or so
on the outside.
There is a small museum
tucked into the gatehouse building here, which has some interesting
displays on the history of the city.
You can get a pretty good view of the city from up on the walls. These
are pretty much representative of what I have seen of English cities.
Tons of houses packed into a small space, with more cars than should
probably be driving on that size of streets.
Still continuing along the city walls, towards the big river that cuts
through the city, The River Ouse:
(The walls are in green on this map photo...)
Nearby the river was Clifford's
Tower, a smallish castle on a hill, right in the middle of town.
You can climb up onto the top of the tower and get some great views of
the city.
After the tower, I cut in through town towards Yorkminster. I passed
through the Shambles, but don't have any pictures, since it was a
little too crowded (one of the biggest shopping weekends before xmas).
Yorkminster is just a beautiful cathedral. If I remember correctly, the
current building it the second incarnation, replacing a Norman version
that was built in the 1100s. And to top it all off, that first
cathedral was built on top of the remains of a Roman building! Yes, the
city has been around that long. The Roman emporer Constantine was
actually crowned (is that the right term?) here. There is a great
exhibition in the basement of the cathedral, where they have excavated
some of the Roman ruins underneath the current building (no pictures
allowed there).
Here are some exterior shots:
There is a Roman column that was dug up nearby, and a statue of
Constantine located at their guess of where he was crowned...
Here are a bunch of interior shots that just don't do it justice. I
have a new camera, and forgot that I could change the ASA setting.
These are some pretty crappy exposures, so I'll just have to go back
and take better pictures ;)
It's really kind of unbelievable that this place is still actively
being used as a church after all this time. I would have stayed a bit
longer, but they were kicking the tourists out so they could hold
services.
It was a good afternoon trip, but I'll definitely be going back to see
more.
Well, that's it for this trip.
H (sciprog@hotmail.com)
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(The walls are in green on this map photo...)
