YORK

While posting up in Manchester for a month, we took a fun day trip to York just a short train ride away. We immediately fell in love with York for its quaint medieval streets, its fascinating history, and its rich heritage. We were famished once we arrived, so we grabbed some delicious Cornish Pasties near the train station before setting out to explore. Content with our hearty breakfast, we began by walking along the city walls that surround York. The walls date back to Roman Empire, and are now preserved as a cultural relic. What’s fun about these particular walls is that you can walk along their entirety as they surround the city.

After strolling along the wall, we set off for a street called the Shambles, which was once an open-air meat market. The word “shambles” comes from a word that the Anglo-Saxons used for shelves that display meat. Today, however, it is a street lined with fun little shops. Interestingly enough, most of these shops are Harry Potter themed! Being the Potter-heads that we are, of course we went in every single one.

After browsing around the Shambles, we headed off to Jorvik, a Viking museum. “Jorvik” is the Viking equivalent of “York”. The museum is built on the remnants of actual Viking homes that were preserved under unique conditions. We were able to see parts of actual constructions and artifacts, including tweezers, combs, and musical instruments. The best part of the museum was a very Disneyland-like ride through a recreated viking village. We saw different types of houses, tools, and boats that would have been here a few thousand years ago. Pictured below is a Jorvik man using the town toilet, complete with sound. The recreation is even equipped with realistic scents, not all of them pleasant. Even more like Disneyland, after the ride we found ourselves in the gift shop. We messed around with the weapons, considered buying some funny t-shirts, and spun a few tops.

We continued our tour through the city, and it was just beautiful. There are a few small rivers running through the town, so there are lots of cute little bridges and waterways. We walked under Van Gogh umbrellas, watched some street performers, and soaked in the view of the medieval villages. We made our way over to Clifford’s Tower, one of the more preserved pieces of the York Castle. It has an interesting history, and eventually the interior was destroyed in an explosion. Today it stands on a very green hill providing wonderful panoramic views of the city.

Just before going home we had a nice dinner at Little Italy, a very authentic Italian restaurant. And then it was back to the train station for a sleepy ride back to Manchester!