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ilanaramaAfter spending a second night in Whitby, we boarded the bus for York; the York train station was the official end of the Sierra Club trip, and most of us were leaving that afternoon for Edinburgh or London or other destinations. The 'left luggage' office had an unbelievably slow line, since due to anti-terrorism measures every bag to be left there had to be opened and inspected, but Kris got the bright idea of checking with the hotel next door to the station, and sure enough, one of the porters was happy to let us leave our things there for a couple of pounds each. Thus unburdened, we were free to sight-see for a few hours.
York is an old walled city dating to Roman times (when it was the military fort Eboracum), and they have reconstructed enough of the wall - mostly medieval-era but with a few Roman bits left - to make a walking path around its circumference. Naturally, having walked (mostly) across England, we (me and Britt and Kris) were ready to WALK MORE!
For the most part the modern city was outside, the older buildings inside the wall, but it varied. The cathedral was being renovated, which made for an odd juxtaposition of new and old. We could hear its bells ringing as we walked by.
There were plaques and informational displays in some spots, along with the tiny brass castle-tower shapes set into the sidewalks to direct us across places where the walls weren't continuous. One display called our attention to this gatehouse's garderobe, the medieval equivalent of indoor plumbing:
We descended into the city for lunch, which we had at a pub, since Kris let me and Britt choose. (She led us into the sweets shop next door for dessert, though, and we all got slices of cake which we ate out on the lawn of Clifford's Tower.)
When we'd completed the circuit we bid Kris farewell, then recovered our luggage and headed for the train platform. We'd bought our tickets online from the US, so we just checked the informational display, saw where the train to Edinburgh would be coming, and hauled our stuff to the platform. Only a few minutes later, the train arrived, and we hustled our way on and found our reserved seats.
Oddly, the seats were marked reserved from Newcastle, not from York. And then, though it was still ten minutes before departure time, the train pulled away from the station. Britt and I looked at each other in dismay. We were on the wrong train!
Apparently the train to Edinburgh ran on the kind of frequency we Americans associated more with city subway lines. We fiercely debated what we should do - get off the train at the next stop, and wait for our train? Get off the train at Newcastle, the next major stop, and wait for our train? Move to empty seats that weren't reserved, and hope it would be okay when they checked our tickets?
We ended up doing the last, finding seats that were only reserved to Durham and moving into them at that stop, and as it happened, nobody checked our tickets at all. (Later were told we'd been unaccountably lucky, as apparently riding the wrong train, even with valid tickets for another train, is not allowed, and we'd have to buy new ones on the spot!) In Edinburgh we got a taxi to The Barony, the pub we'd stumbled over one day and later found out was where![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tryfanstone goes to do crossword puzzles with her friends every Sunday night. We found her friends, drank some beer and ate some dinner, and had a lovely evening doing both UK and US style crosswords. After one more night in tryfanstone's flat, it was time to take a taxi to the airport, early early in the morning, and begin the long journey home.
It was an awesome vacation, A+ would walk across England again! In conclusion:
York is an old walled city dating to Roman times (when it was the military fort Eboracum), and they have reconstructed enough of the wall - mostly medieval-era but with a few Roman bits left - to make a walking path around its circumference. Naturally, having walked (mostly) across England, we (me and Britt and Kris) were ready to WALK MORE!
For the most part the modern city was outside, the older buildings inside the wall, but it varied. The cathedral was being renovated, which made for an odd juxtaposition of new and old. We could hear its bells ringing as we walked by.
There were plaques and informational displays in some spots, along with the tiny brass castle-tower shapes set into the sidewalks to direct us across places where the walls weren't continuous. One display called our attention to this gatehouse's garderobe, the medieval equivalent of indoor plumbing:
We descended into the city for lunch, which we had at a pub, since Kris let me and Britt choose. (She led us into the sweets shop next door for dessert, though, and we all got slices of cake which we ate out on the lawn of Clifford's Tower.)
When we'd completed the circuit we bid Kris farewell, then recovered our luggage and headed for the train platform. We'd bought our tickets online from the US, so we just checked the informational display, saw where the train to Edinburgh would be coming, and hauled our stuff to the platform. Only a few minutes later, the train arrived, and we hustled our way on and found our reserved seats.
Oddly, the seats were marked reserved from Newcastle, not from York. And then, though it was still ten minutes before departure time, the train pulled away from the station. Britt and I looked at each other in dismay. We were on the wrong train!
Apparently the train to Edinburgh ran on the kind of frequency we Americans associated more with city subway lines. We fiercely debated what we should do - get off the train at the next stop, and wait for our train? Get off the train at Newcastle, the next major stop, and wait for our train? Move to empty seats that weren't reserved, and hope it would be okay when they checked our tickets?
We ended up doing the last, finding seats that were only reserved to Durham and moving into them at that stop, and as it happened, nobody checked our tickets at all. (Later were told we'd been unaccountably lucky, as apparently riding the wrong train, even with valid tickets for another train, is not allowed, and we'd have to buy new ones on the spot!) In Edinburgh we got a taxi to The Barony, the pub we'd stumbled over one day and later found out was where
tryfanstone goes to do crossword puzzles with her friends every Sunday night. We found her friends, drank some beer and ate some dinner, and had a lovely evening doing both UK and US style crosswords. After one more night in tryfanstone's flat, it was time to take a taxi to the airport, early early in the morning, and begin the long journey home.It was an awesome vacation, A+ would walk across England again! In conclusion: