Streets of Old York

Old timber building in York

What a wonderful city! Andy and I had a day in York to just see the sights and enjoy ourselves. We started out by walking along the old city wall that meanders its way around the ancient city center in nearly a complete circle.

Lots of other people walked along the top of the wall with us, enjoying the views. It's funny to meet people in places like this--on top of a thousand-year-old stone wall, or wandering in the mist on the top of Ingleborough. British people love their walks, and then tourists don't do much else.

City wall looking toward the York Minster

The sun broke through the clouds at one point, and I even had my camera out. The Minster became visible in the distance behind some modern office buildings. This is the largest Gothic cathedral in Britain, and is mighty impressive. Its white towers float lightly above the dark and narrow old streets of York, glowing like twin candles in the distance.


York has a completely different feel from, say, Leeds, or any city in Scotland. The buildings are different, the layout is different. Most noticeably there are ancient stone ruins practically everywhere you go--a hill fort here, a ruined church there, remains of a wall or castle, and so on. You can just feel the layers of history piled on top of one another.

We didn't get an exceptionally early start so we didn't have a lot in the way of daylight. We tried to make the most of it by wandering around the wall and then up and down some of the oldest city streets. One of these is the Shambles, a medieval market street whose buildings lean toward each other to create a sort of tunnel effect. The old timber buildings often had an overhanging second story, which gives more room to the street level, I suppose, and also creates something of a covered walkway.

Shambles and shoppers


Lovely timber detail

Then we headed to see the Minster, getting there just in time to see the last of the day's dim winter light coming in the stained glass windows.




A wonderful old man gave us an extensive tour of the cathedral, pausing in his narrative for the prayer at the half-hour and answering all our questions about the stone, the glass, the carvings, the fascinating details. What gets me is that most of these incredible images in the stained glass windows and stone carvings on the pillars and ceilings are inaccessible and nearly invisible from the floor. Were they intended just for God to look at?

Apparently the church's most recent technological acquisition is a little remote-controlled hot air balloon with a camera mounted on it. What fun! They're putting together a book of images from the stained glass windows--some of which are 700 years old.

Walking around the old city we came upon an old market square which held a functioning street market. I love the rooftops and the market stalls.



Caps, caps, caps for sale


Some unintended humor?


An intriguing billboard

We didn't have time for much else, and besides it was raining when we left the Minster, so we caught the bus and went home.