By: Kindah Mardam Bey

Spending a weekend in York is like visiting the last two-thousand years of English history in a forty-eight hour time period. An entirely epic, captivating, culturally rich city with more history, exploration and majesty then can be found almost anywhere else in England. York’s only comparative rival would have to be London, but as London is to the south, York is to the North. Emerging as a fashion and style hub to its long-list of attributes, this city is quickly becoming the “it place” to be for savvy travelers and the chic elite alike.

After all, York is a walker’s delight. Not only can you walk through every historical time period of England, going as far back as the Viking invaders, but you can also walk your way though the cobbled streets and discover the most current cosmopolitan feel York has recently acquired in this last decade.

Original home to W.H. Auden, The Rowntree candies empire, the ominous Guy Fawkes and celebrated actress Dame Judi Dench, York’s citizens are as colourful and diverse as the city. Judi Dench described York as “never ceasing to inspire and move me” and Visit York Chief Executive Gillian Cruddas described York to me most aptly as having a “Dickensian” feel to it.

The easiest way to access York would be via train. An exceptionally easy and effortless route a little over two hours goes directly from London to York. Train travel across England is very easy and BritRail passes are a traveler’s best friend. Speaking of passes, you can gain the key to the city of York by purchasing a Yorkshire Pass with over 70 attractions included in the pass – this is the first regional sightseeing pass in the UK. Plus, you also receive a booklet of discount vouchers for shops, restaurants and attractions. You can purchase a Yorkshire Pass once you are in York or you can purchase one online at www.yorkshirepass.com.

Once you are in York I recommend you find the Visit York (www.visityork.org) tourist office centrally located about half a block away from York Minster. The booth is full of useful information and the staff are friendly and very helpful. I also recommend you take a Sightseeing Tour Bus, many companies are in the city and they all have a jump-on-jump-off pass (I found a company that cost 10 Pounds) which means that you can get a full tour of the city from the bus and then can go on and off the bus from one section of the city to another all day. Then I suggest you go exploring!

With so much to do, so much to see, so many places to dine and stay, this can be considered the “highlights” of what York has to offer world travelers.

York Minster – What can only be described as majestic, the York Minster has a friendly competition in winning the hearts of visitors compared to its counter-part, Westminster in London. Westminster may have the famous faces of English history, but York Minster truly reflects the epic beauty that these magical buildings have to offer visitors. Immediately on entrance the world seems a calmer more serene place. Epic in size, 500 feet in length, 100 feet wide, with a central tower that is 200 feet high, the cathedral took 200 years to complete. Simply put, this building has presence and you will feel completely serene in this space. Plan to just sit in the minster and observe the intricacies within the very walls of the building. Go to a service as I did, this marks the experience especially well. Check out their awesome website with an amazing indoor tour: http://www.yorkminster.org/visiting/virtual-tour/

-Little known fact about the Minster: Constantine was crowned in York (306AD) and the only Roman Emperor to be crowned outside of Rome. See the statue of Constantine that marks this occasion at the side of the Minster.

York Castle Museum – Do you fancy taking a walk down a Victorian street with the sounds and sights of history all about you? The York Castle Museum is a very cool museum as it really draws the visitors into the history that has existed in York (and England as a whole) for hundreds of years. York Castle originally existed on this site, built by William the Conqueror in 1068, then the site became the location for Yorkshire’s prisons, now a museum, the history of the site is also incorporated in the museum experience. This is a museum that reflects on the many changing faces of society, particularly from the Victorian era to the present day where the most changes and innovations have occurred. You see the progress of the “fire pit” to a hearth then onto a cast iron, and right up to an electric stove for example. Progress, evolution and humanity are linked very closely here. You can see fashion throughout the ages or toys throughout the ages (which feels weird when your “operation” game still in the decaying box at home is now on display in a museum!). York Castle Museum is truly a living history museum that celebrates how us mere mortals have evolved over the years, along with our technology. The 1960s exhibit was on while I visited and it was exceptional (see the video for more on this).

Jorvik Viking Centre – So perhaps you like your history a little more archaic. You think to yourself “what were the Vikings up to in the tenth century?” Well, they were in England – landing, invading and settling. York was home to England’s greatest discovery – underneath the current city of York was the original city of Jorvik where a thriving community of Vikings settled. Although this was not what could be described as “my cup of tea” in visiting York, I soon became impressively captivated by the Jorvik Viking Centre and would consider this an absolute ‘must see” when visiting York. Pick your time, go early, reserve tickets and so on as this is a very well visited centre. What are travelers likely to see? First of all you stand atop a glass floor by which you can look through and see the actual excavations made and what was found (this is a sampling of course as so much history of the Vikings was discovered). Then you take a “flying capsule” which is basically a slow moving carriage akin to a slow ride at a theme park that takes you around the recreated village of York when the Vikings lived. This is so awesome (yep – awes-some) as you see the Vikings in everyday life made real by moving mannequins, you even smell and hear them talking to each other. The Jorvik Viking Centre is full on interactive and engaging for visitors. Mark this spot on your visitors map as the place where history comes to life!

Walking the York City Walls – York has more miles of intact city wall than anywhere else in England. 3.4 kilometers long to be exact. It takes approximately 2 hours to walk the wall and 2.5 million people walk it every year. This is a delightful way to spend a couple of hours and you truly get a bird’s eye view of the city. Walking the stones has an immense impact on your psyche as you know you walk along the same path that soldiers and citizens have through literally centuries.

The Shambles – Believed to be the oldest shopping street in Europe, even getting mentioned in the doomsday book of 1086, the Shambles is a dynamic unassuming little street. With cobbled stones and overhanging tall buildings that looks like something  straight out of Dickens novel. You can imagine the Artful Dodgers of the world up and down the Shambles waiting for someone purchasing a leg of lamb from the butcher not to notice a wallet had been slipped from their personage during a damp and cold Victorian day. Today the Shambles still holds the memory of its former self, and little has been done to change its former appearance – but it is lined with gorgeous little shops that house everything from tourist trinkets to upscale fashion. Also, just down a little side street of The Shambles a market can be found – and who doesn’t love an English market to peruse?

-Little known fact about The Shambles: Margaret Clitheroe, Catholic Saint and martyr known as “The Pearl of York”, lived down the Shambles. During Henry VIII’s reign of terror over Catholicism, Margaret would host services in her home down the Shambles. In 1586, she was arrested and called before the York assizes, she refused to plead to the case as to avoid a trial and torture of her children – who would be made to testify against her. Margaret was crushed to death as her punishment on Good Friday in 1586. Elizabeth I heard about this after Margaret’s execution and wrote to the citizens of York to say how horrified she was at the treatment of a fellow woman. Look for the plaque down the Shambles that marks where Margaret Clitheroe lived.

Ghost Walk - Known as the most haunted city in Europe, York is infamous for its ghost walks. Various Tours start between 7:30/8pm most nights and are easy enough to find out about on arrival. Simply turn up when the tour time is to start as no reservation is needed. Additionally, you may want to pair this with a tour of the York Dungeon, which is not for the faint-of-heart! The highwayman Dick Turpin was supposedly to have spent a time in York, and this is the birthplace of Guy Fawkes (remember, remember the fifth of November – gun powder, treason and plot!).

 - Little known fact about York: Guy attended St. Peter’s School and to this day the school refuses to burn his effigy of their ‘old boy” on November 5^th. That is what I call school spirit!

 Shop ‘til you drop! – York has become incredibly cosmopolitan in the last decade with unique shops at its core. Yes, York has always had great shopping for tourists, but now this is become a fashion mavens home base. Check out the fantastic boutique shops along with the treasured trinkets shops that line the streets of York.

- Little known fact about York: Perhaps not so much a little known fact as destination spot, anyone who loves musty old bookshops with secondhand and rare books should take a walk down the street at the side of the York Minster and within the first block on the left hand side you will find York’s oldest secondhand bookshop. With a towering, multi-storied mausoleum lined with books on every subject matter, this is a bibliophiles dream.

Bettys Tea Room – Everyone needs nourishment and Bettys is the place to go for such confections and delicacies the palette will faint from over-exhaustion! Since the 1920s, Bettys Tea Room has been delighting customers with the lightest cream cakes, the most full-bodied teas and supremely elegant surroundings. At one time Betty’s was a place women in elegant hats and white gloves would come for afternoon tea (I have visions of something similar to the all white scene at Ascot in My Fair Lady), but now Bettys has evolved to something even better – a new Bettys where all ages can gather for “a spot of tea.’ An elegant elderly couple, a lady dining alone, two young girls popping in for tea and dessert, while another young couple sit directly beside them on a first date – I see families, friends and welcome acquaintances all communing over the elegance and inspiration of Bettys Tea Room in York.

What one more day in York would have been worth!

Sadly, I could not fit everything into a day and so I will leave you with a couple of additional suggestions that I didn’t get to give some personal insight on but would have been at the top of my list for a second day in York -

Railway Museum – one of the largest railway museums in the world and houses the only Japanese bullet train not in Japan. Entrance into the museum is free. Well worth scouting out. http://www.nrm.org.uk/

Yorkshire Museum – Recently revamped. Checkout these great videos on the subject:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMXX8TUgpF8&feature=related ; Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g0pjBxmzVM&feature=related ; Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_HRitCBbKg&feature=related

York is such a visitors delight do plan more time in this city then less when visiting as it has a wealth of attractions to see, things to do, cobbled roads to walk along, and history to absorb.

Check out our FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUM of York.

With the grateful assistance of: 

Travelling is a compilation of experiences. When travelling to a new country for the first time we often quiz any of our family and friends who have previously been to that country to get the insider’s edge on what to expect. The Experienced Traveler Blog is intended to give travelers a first hand experienced account paired with the resourceful information of a travel writer. If you have “been there, done that, and bought the T-Shirt” and want to share your own thoughts, and inside tips, leave a comment for future travelers!

Written by :

Kindah