Thursday 2 June 2011

Walls of York

The big thing about York is its walls and bars;  bar walls - that is, to say that the entrances through the walls are called bars, ie Micklegate Bar, Monk Bar or Bootham Bar.   




Monk Bar, top and bottom

We went up the stairs beside Monk Bar,



and strolled along part of the wall peering down into the back gardens of some spectacular homes behind the York Minster.



Jan  told me she would rather garden than read; wish she could rub some of that off onto me…

I can't tell you how excited I was the first time I saw these arrow slits for myself. I was sure I was on a Robin Hood film set.

In spring the banks on the outside of the wall are covered with daffodils; it’s one of the prettiest sights I’ve seen.


There are all sorts of old structures from the medieval period around,

more than I could possibly tell you about.



I’m sure you could look it up and read all about it if you were so inclined. York seems to be very well documented and photographed on the Internet!

We took them along to the York train station to explain about tickets and seats and all; I was relieved to hear that they were going to turn in the rental car and get the train from York to London – far easier was to travel and trains are an essential part of the culture, not to mention that Kings Cross Trains station is to die for.  But then you've seen it before - remember Platform 9 3/4?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I love places like this with "layers of history." As for your friend's love of gardening...I like it, but prefer to read myself.