A Walk in York Town

( 2nd day )

I was the first who woke up on the next day. The time was 4.30 am. Man, we have slept for more than 11 hours! Can't remember when was the last time I did that? Maybe when I was an infant?

Since I couldn't go back to sleep, I woke up KS. And it's easy to wake up the boys too. Just turn on the TV will certainly do. I felt so refresh after a long-good-night-sleep. I could see that everyone felt the same too.

Breakfast was simple and healthy. Wholemeal bread spread with peanut butter + strawberries + fresh orange juice.

I felt that every cells in my body had been rejuvenated by this juice-rich breakfast. Emm..I was really in a very cheerful mood.

Our rented car. It's Honda, auto-gear. But I've never seen this model in HK before.

We checked out the hotel at around 6.30 am and headed straight to our next destination, York City. KS estimated the journey would take around 2 hours by highway. The sky looked so full of the dark rainy clouds that though I prayed hard rains won't drop, it just never happen. Guess there was nothing we could do but keep on praying with full heart.

Just when we about to reach York city, the rain stopped. Boy, called it miracle or what, our wish came true. In fact, it was a very fine day, no rain at all for the rest of the day.

We found our hotel very easily this time. Yes, Novotel hotel again. Actually, 6 out of the 7 nights, we stayed Novotel in different region. KS found this hotel from CP's intranet. From time to time, there will be some hotels around the globe, offering their best corporate price to CP's staffs. And this time, Novotel under the Accor group was doing their promotion.

KS said he couldn't find any hotel that is cheaper than Novotel. Even Bed-and-Breakfast can easily cost more than £100 per night. Compared to what we have paid to the 1st Novotel : £45 (Milton Keynes); 2nd Novotel : £55 (York); 3rd Novotel : £71 (New Castle); 4th Novotel : £49 (Manchester, for 2 nights); 5th Novotel : £34 (Coventry). Really not bad, right? See my man, he is such a genius.

Ok Ok, back to York. We arrived at York at around 9 am. Since the time was still too early to check in the hotel, we parked our car in the hotel's car park and decided to take a walk in the town centre first. None of us knew this walk would last for 5 hours!

This is the 1st junction from our hotel. See this double-deck bus is very similar to the one we see in HK, except the color on its body.

As quoted in a travel guide book : York is the kind of place that reminds us of a world before the Industrial Revolution happen, when machine is absent. It's a city of extraordinary cultural and historical wealth. Its medieval spider's web of narrow walkable streets is enclosed by a magnificent circuit of 13th-century walks.

York has 5 major landmarks to take note of : the wall enclosing the small city centre; the minster at the northern corner; Clifford's Tower at the southern end; the River Ouse that cuts the centre in two; and the train station to the west.

Ok, let's tour the town...

Soon later, we saw part of the walls that enclosed the York city. Since Roman times, York has been defended with walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. They are known variously as the York walls, the Bar walls and the Roman walls.

Everything we've seen in York town is so different and fresh compare to the Asian country's town setting. Personally, I always like theirs because of their cleanliness and quietness, that can make me feel a total relaxation.

I'm not sure about other people, but I like to take photos with our face inside it so that I can remember more vividly of the things or the feelings I had had at that place, that time. In simple word : to capture the very special moment for remembrance. I hope the boys would feel the same too when they get to see the pictures many many years later. Also, to show off to people : Look, we have been there before! (ahhhemm..)

Slowly walking towards the town centre...the older part.

When we met the first bridge, we walked down to take a look.

Even a normal bridge looks so classy and elegant. No wonder people said to come to European countries is to look at their historic buildings and architectures. It really doesn't need an expect to tell how good they are.

Many ducks sat on the grass and admired the river in front of them.

They enjoyed their peaceful moment until occasionally, some kids chased after them for fun...Sorry duckies.

Some of them choose to leave the place for temporary. I'm sure they will return after the buggers had gone.

Then, we crossed the bridge and took a short cut by passing this small garden.

Soon later, we saw one of the famous landmark in York.

Clifford's Tower is the little left of York Castle. It was rebuilt after the original one was destroyed in 1190 during an anti-Jewish massacre. An angry mob forced 150 Jews to be locked inside the tower, but it wasn't enough and the helpless victims took their own lives rather than be killed.

As the book said : there is not much to see inside but the views over the city are excellent. Ok, it doesn't justify for £2.5 (per adult) entry fee then. We just walked up to the gate and took a brief peep inside then left.

Just when we crossed the road, a big guy was driving his formula one roamed away before everyone could catch a second look on it. As fast as lightning, I would say. I just felt weird my 1st time to see a real formula one wasn't in a car racing course but a narrow road. Well, anything can happen, right.

The further we walked, the older the buildings we saw.

York town seems famous for ghosts. In fact, there are many ghost tours and ghost hunts organized by local pubs and restaurants night time. We saw one in daytime too, great make up...

However, the boys were not afraid of this 'ghost' lady. I guess they don't have many creepy concepts about ghosts. They are more familiar with all sorts of monster.

It's really very nice and relax to walk slowly on the narrow streets like this. I don't feel like this a long time.

Err, something was wrong with this clock. The time certainly wasn't 4.50 as it shown, but 10.20 would be more accurate. I wonder if there is any special meaning behind it?

I had lost my sense of direction by then. But I think we were walking towards the northern part.

The River Ouse that cut the city in two.

The town area on the other side of the river.

Aha...this clock show the correct time, it was 10.45 am when we walked to this point.

There wasn't many people in the town at that time. I thought in this peak season, crowds would be seen everywhere in England? So I cherished how lucky we were to have avoided the congestion in this beautiful town. Only a few hours later, I knew I was so wrong.

We continued to walk into another narrow street. Most of the pedestrian streets are like this, made of bricks and stones. They are so match with the old buildings that built along. I just like it.

After walking for 2 hours, the boys started bugging. Sometimes they bugged for toys, sometimes they bugged for ice cream....It was until they said they were really really very hungry for so many times that we finally take a break in McDonold.

KS went to the counter to order 2 set of breakfast, and I took the boys to sit near to the window. This area is obviously desgined for parents and kids. See those tables designed with higher and lower part? Such a good design.

Just when we sat in, we saw this big dog waited outside the main door for its master to come out with foods. It is so obidient that I feel human kids are so rediculous at times. That must be one of the reason why there are increasingly more couples prefer to keep dogs than kids now a days, huh?

That's a cute photo, looks like William is sharing his harsh brown with a little dog. This dog has waited about 10 min outside in this position. Never a second it stood up or changing its position. Such a good dog!

BTW, the McDonald breakfast was sucks. I have no appetite to eat it even though I was a bit hungry too.

We sat in McDonald for around 30 min, then we continued our walk. Soon after a turn, we saw this church on the other side of the road.

But before we crossed the road, the boys wanted to play in front of this big mansion first. So, we just let them lo. Asked them to pose, and that's what they did.

I find that this is a difficult pose. Try and see if you can put your head perpendicular when you stand straight, like William did? I can't lo...

I don't know if anyone is living inside there, cause all of the windows were closed up. Anyway, since there is no fence or what, we just went near it to take a closer look. I think this mansion would look even great if they put some statues there, like this...Maybe it will help to scare off the intruders at night time.

but not this kind of little dot statue, ok. Maybe they would get stolen instead, haha...

Ok, another 15 min has gone. Finally we crossed the road and approached the church. There were many people inside there attending a rountine on Sundays.

Just when we about to leave the place, I heard the boys exclaimed in joy. When I saw they greeted the dog, I was amazed. Isn't we have just met him in McDonald 30 min ago? Then we saw its master, and confirmed it is the one. What a coincidence! We bumped into the same dog for twice.

This lady is the master of the big dog. She has a 3 year old son, Julian. Just then, a man came out from the church, carried a baby in his hand. I thought they are her hubby and younger son. She smiled in embarrassment and told me her husband is working in London, so he can only come back York on weekends. She stays in York town with the boy cause she feels that London is not a good place for a child to grow up. Then, she told me her hubby didn't come back this week cause he needed to attend a meeting. Anyway, she said her in-law's family lives here too, so she is not that lonely. Well, I didn't probe for her story, ok. She just told me.

Her little boy is a very active one and he was so happy to play with Vincent and William. Basically they played chase-and-run in front of the church. All the noises they've made, sigh. We got to 'shh..' them for many times.

Anyway, my heart melted when I saw their happy faces that seem to disappear for quite a while. That's kid's nature, they just like to play, they won't admire the beauty of the historic archituctures, nor will they enjoy a long walk like this...

While the boys were still running around, we continued our chat a little bit. I complimented her dog for its obidience, said the training school had done such a marvalous job. She told me in pride that she is the one who trained the dog, all by herself. She showed me how by blowing a whistle. My My, I was totally impressed. She smiled in embarrassment again and said how she wish this method can work well on her son too. I nodded head vigorously in a total agreement. Oh yes, this dog is 3 years old, just 1 week older than Julian.

While the boys were playing, me and the lady was chatting, KS grabbed the camera and shot around. Not wanting to bore him, we said good-bye to the lady and her boy and her dog.

We continued to walk to the heart of the town, there lies the immense, awe-inspiring York Minster, one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world.

I didn't know where KS took this picture from. But it's a piece of fantastic arts.

Even though York Minster is just a few hundreds feet away, it's not that 'smooth' to walk straight to there. There are distractions on the way. This time, a little garden located just opposite the minster.

Even from far, I could see the top of the tower is a master piece of beautiful craving.

This boy was in action again. I forgot what he was pretending this time.

Finally, we set foot in the York Minster.

The boys got distracted again by this train who can take people to the National Railway Museum. It's not easy to drag them away. The easiest way out would be offer them something in return. This time, I promised I would buy them ice cream when we saw the shop later.

York Minster is England's largest medieval cathedral and Yorkshire's most important historic building. If this is the only cathedral you visit in England, you got to visit this one.


Such a majestic building deserves a brief introduction about its history. Skip this if you are not interested.

York's first Minster was built on Easter Day 627, for the baptism of the Anglo Saxon King, Edwin of Northumbria. When Edwin ordered that this small wooden church should be rebuilt in stone, he was killed in a battle in 633.

This small stone church built on the same site as the original wooden one was enlarged over time. It survived through the Viking age in York but was badly damaged by fire in the year 1069 when the Normans finally took control of the city of York.

Once the invading Normans had taken control of the city a decision was taken to build a new Minster on a fresh site to replace the old fire damaged Saxon Minster. Around the year 1080 Thomas of Bayeux became Archbishop and started building a cathedral that in time grew into the Minster we have today. This vast Norman church was completed around the 1100.

In 1215 Walter Gray became archbishop and he was to serve the cathedral for 40 years. It was Walter who started to transform the Norman Church in to the Minster we have today.

In summary, the present building, built mainly from 1220 to 1480, manages to represent all the major stages of Gothic architectural development. The Minster that we know today had taken about 250 years to build.

Wonder what were those people looking at?

Oh ok, that's the minster hall they were looking at.

The boys got fussy again. It's time to take a break then.

Luckily there is a leisure park just next to the minster.

And most luckily, there is a small shop selling ice cream in the park. As promised, we bought them their all time favorite ice cream.

Sitting on the bench and looking up the building in front, I imagined how the ancestors got to build the minster with their ancient tools in their ancient method. I truly respect them for spending such a numerous amount of time and effort in creating it. They have left such a priceless precious heritage to the whole human race.

I feel cherish that it still exist until today so that I have the chance to look at it. I hope the very next generation will have the same chance too. Thus, I pray no war nor disaster would ever destroy it. Mayt it be preserved eternally.

Ok, ice cream time was over. They happy, we happy. I think it should be ok to lure them to walk a bit longer after that.

After the break, we continued the walk to the other side of the minster.

On the 9th of July 1984, fire broke out in the South Transept after the Minster had been hit by lightning. The damage resulting from 3 hours of fire took some 4 years to fully repair and restore.

The minster is open to public now a days. In fact, I think it's very tourism orientated. Seeing the list of the admission charges, we were hesitated whether to go in or not to go in?

Just when we were discussing, William pulled our sleeves and said he really need to go to toilet. KS asked the guide for the nearest toilet, and guess what? The kind man released the red rope and show him the way to toilet in the pay zone.

Before they came back, Vincent and I lingered around the ticketing zone. There are things for FOC viewing.

I have very little knowledge in Catholic's history and its development. I think for those who have vast knowledge in the religion and its background, they would appreciate the minster more than a layman did.

There are many this kind of windows around the chamber, everyone of them are different.

Only the ticket holders can go inside there.

However, I was 'thick face' enough to zoom up a picture over the carved figures there.

About 15 min later, KS and William came back. He said he almost tour every places inside there. No doubt it's gorgeous and equivalent good to the Holy See Catholic Church in Vatican City. I think I can visualize how it looks like then.

So, we decided to give up the Minster tour but to its tower instead. Just when I line up to buy the ticket, KS saw from the banner there : To climb the tower, the accompanied children must be 8 or over. Oh, we think Vincent can marginal pass that though he is not yet 8, but William is too far below this requirement. Sigh, got to quit then.

We left the Minster, feeling a bit lost that we couldn't go up to the tower.

Anyway, we had found a short cut to capture the whole picture of the York Minster....

and some of its interior design and decoration....

no need to pay to see it wo...guess how?

if you look at the picture carefully, maybe you will see a clue at the bottom left corner there....

by this way, ok. Got it? (haha....) I didn't even buy the post card after I shot its photo. Really feel ashame of myself lah.

As a token of appreciation, I will try to remember this small shop for as long as my memory span can last, ok.

By then, we have been walking for more than 3 hours already. William was very tired and he bugged for a lift. To a little boy, I think 3 hours walk can be equivalant to 5-6 hours walk, right? Sorry baby...

Only when he saw something interesting, then he was more willing to walk on his own.

Street art. The boys stood there and stared at the man for a long time, until he winked to them. That made them giggled so hard.

That's the boy's favorite 'toy' shop, but must remember all of the items can be seen only, do not touch and do not take photos. Must remember this, cause the shop owner is very fierce.

Have seen many 'Ghost' signboard hanging here and there. Make me curious too...if there were just KS and me in this trip, I would drag him to join the ghost hunt at night time.

I started to feel exhausted at this point of time too. Didn't know since when, the constant flow of school groups and organised tours has swamped the place from every direction, that they had invariably clog up my viewfinder.

Even KS was getting very tired too. So, we slowly found the way to go back to the hotel.

On the way back, we took a short break at a street bar. We sipped coffee, let the boys drank hot chocolate and ate some cakes.

The shambles, poor people used to live here.

I don't think this is the poor people's place any more. Like all the other narrow streets, here got many shops that sell all kind of souveniur.

Those tarts are actually very big, diameter around 8 inch.

Salted-dried fruits. If I weren't too tired, maybe I would buy some to eat.

Very tired, just wanted to walk back fast and get some rest...no mood to look around anymore.

Didn't remember how many times I've said that to the boy : "We are almost back, come on, keep walking"...

"Just cross the bridge and we'll be there, ok, keep walking..."

"Almost there, almost...."

But this street performer played his music so well that made us stopped for a while. Some people even bought his CD after listening to him for a while. Maybe one day he will be a superstar? I asked the boy to put some money in his box, then we left.

Guess they must be the most exhausted children in York town that day.

*

Finally we walked back to the hotel somewhere around 3pm. Strange enough, soon after the boys went in the room, they turned on the TV immediately, and started to bounch from one bed to another bed like a whole new person. Amazing!