This morning we woke fairly early to catch our train to York. As we could not take the bacon again, we asked for alternatives. We ended up with egg, tomato, and cheese (along with the standard cereal and tea).
We walked, luggage in tow, to London Kings Cross. It was a 10-15 minute walk on a crisp morning. We ducked into St Pancras station on our way and returned our Oyster cards for our refunds. We hopped on our train at platform 6 (not 9 3/4 for the Harry Potter fans in the audience) and off we were.
Since my last visit, Brittain has added more high speed trains, and this was one of them. I am guessing we were doing around 100 mph en route to York on the east coast line. This is nothing compared to the French TGVs from our last trip, which were closer to 200 mph. The trip to York took around 2 hrs.
Melissa was particularly excited about the B and B she booked in York, the St Deny's Hotel. Two British sisters about our age purchased an old, dilapidated hotel in the southern end of the walled city and were transforming it into a boutique B and B. We were greeted by Sophie and Maria and could immediately tell they were sisters. After convincing me that they were not twins they helped us up to our room.
The room was sweet, and everything was new. It had a big king bed and stylish furnishings. After dropping off our luggage, we headed downstairs. Sophie chatted with us about the town, gave us a good layout of the place, and off we were.
Our first stop was Spring Espresso, as it was lunch time. I had a hot pastrami on rye and a mocha, while Melissa had a tomato mozzarella panini and a latte. Melissa's latte was made with love. The only notable thing about my food was the rye bread. It tasted very fresh and good.
After lunch, we continued our walk up Fossgate to Shambles, an ancient street. It reminded me of diagonally from Harry Potter (I am big on the Harry Potter references today) but only if you replaced the wand and potion shops with tourist traps and pubs.
After walking Shambles we were at the York Minster, which was originally built by the Romans as part of their plan to rule Northern Britain. We started with a self guided tour of the underpinning, the area underneath the floors. This area was excavated years ago because the minster needed serious repairs to the foundation. As a result, the underpinning is full of massive blocks of concrete and steel that now underpin the buiding. During the excavation for this work, they found parts of the original roman building that stood on the site. The underpinning is 50% museum and 50% massive engineering project.
Next, we took a guided tour of the minster. We learned a bunch about the stained glass windows, headless statues, etc. This is the tallest gothic cathedral in Europe, and is much taller than Westminster abbey. The trick to making it so tall is that the roof is wood, not stone. From the ground, it all looks like stone, though in my pictures you can see the ceiling is not grey stone.
The minster still serves as a church, and it is where the Archbishop of York, who is 3rd in line in the Anglican Church, resides. I thought it was notable that the current archbishop is a Ugandan priest.
As we exited the minster it started to rain and the wind picked up. The wind broke my umbrella within seconds of putting it up, setting a new personal record for shortest lived umbrella. But we are tough, and there is touristing to do! So we cinched up our jackets and walked a section of the city walls behind the minster. Though the rain let up somewhat, the winds were still strong. We had the wall to ourselves.
We returned to the hotel to clean up for dinner. Rustique, a French place Melissa wanted to try from stateside, was a few blocks away. I ordered a simple dish (steak frites in a pepper sauce) that didn't impress my tastebuds like the Beef Bourgogne did the night before. It was still tasty though. Melissa had the duck (confit) in a red wine sauce. It was good, but not excellent. We shared a bottle of Malbec. For appetizers I had a garlic mushroom thing on French bread, and Melissa had a breaded and fried wedge of Brie on leafy greens. For desert I had a lemon cheesecake with a raspberry sauce and Melissa had the pot au chocolat which was like a cold, dense mousse. The total experience was good, though two French multi-course meals in 2 days may have been too much.
Skyped and went to bed.
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