York

Saturday, December 5, 2014

York
North Yorkshire, England

We only had one day to spend in York so woke up early to catch a train out of Grantham. While we were waiting at the train station we saw a very friendly face who was awaiting her train to get to work. We were very lucky that we got to see Val even though it wasn't for very long.

The journey to York was rather quick and easy. When we arrived we decided to walk to York Minster first. York Minister was gorgeous on the outside, but we decided it was too expensive to tour the inside.

After seeing the Minster, we walked through the city checking out the shops, amazingly none of us really bought anything. haha. I think our wallets were feeling the hit from the entire semester at this point. After visiting all the shops we found interesting we made our way to the medieval city wall. York's city wall is the most complete in all of England. The wall is made up of some of the original Roman fortress and also some latter additions. Amazingly, the wall covers aproximately 2.5 miles. Needless to say, we did not walk the whole way. haha

view of York Minster from the city wall

City of York crest on a gate on the city wall

After our walk along the wall it was beginning to get dark so we went to the National Railway Museum. The museum tells the story of rail transportation in Britain and it's impact on the society there. The museum was actually surprising interesting! We didn't go through the whole thing because we were getting slightly tired, but what we did see was really cool. There was a variety of trains including some that had belonged to Queens! The differences between the average everyday trains and the Queens trains were incredible. Of course the Queens' had much much fancier trains. The cabins were stocked full of ornate furniture and were very beautifully decorated. We even got to see an old mail (post) car. There was a video that showed how the mail was simply thrown out of the car and caught by a net! It's amazing to think how far we've progressed!

Sadly our day in York had to end, but we ended in style by getting hot chocolate at the Costa in the train station- brownie hot chocolate to be precise.

York was an incredible day trip. I only wish we'd gotten to go all the way around the city wall. What we did see was beautiful, and I can only imagine the rest of the surroundings were equally as stunning. I'd say York is a must see for anyone visiting England!