Thursday, May 06, 2010

Travelers Diary: York Part 3

I never thought York minster could be this big and so fascinating. While it was in the dark at night, it looked really gothic. But in the morning, it was very different and beautiful indeed.

York Minster 1

York MInster 2

Constantine the conquerer


As soon as we entered the church, we were blown. The interior, lighting was more than we expected before we went in. But when we found out its gonna cost us a lot of time and around £10 to visit the whole church, we were bit upset. Moreover we had to wait till 4PM for the next entrance as we missed one by that time! So we headed towards St Mary's Ruin.

The original building dated back to 1088 when it was a Norman church which was built by King William II. The remaining we can see now is mostly the reconstructions between 1271-1294 and the Chapter House reconstructed once again in 1987.

Inner Temple Entrance
St Mary's Church (From Inner Temple)

Entrance to Inner Temple (From outer Temple) 
St Mary's Ruin

As we got some place to sit, people were barely moving. I took some photos which is really not enough comparing to what we've seen there. But all these beauty were becoming seemingly pointless in comparison to the desperation for food.

Main Entrance to St Mary's Church

We spend quite a lot time there and now after more than one hour in that little ruin, we decided to move out for somewhere else, but where? I told you before about Amio bhai is more of a York city dweller(!). He told us about a pizza place, obviously a cheap one which was close to Shambles. Hmmm, quite a tempting opportunity to deny. Next moment we were off for that shop.


Menu was luscious but pocket was empty. So we had no chances to try out anything. So I went for burgers where as others went for their favourites pizzas and pastas. We spend around £25 which is really good to pay for that mouth-watering steak burger dressed with salads, creamy pasta and those big slices of Margherita Pizza. Am I missing something else? Oh yes that beautiful girl who served us. It was real fun when everyone was literally encouraging me to show her photos that I shot. But I was too shy (aint I?). I somehow sympathised telling myself that, she was under-aged ....


Girl at the Pizzeria ;)


Shambles, also known as "The Shambles" is one of the best kept medieval streets in Europe which still attracts millions of tourists. This street used to be a street for butcher shops and houses. Even in 1872 there were 26 butcher shops which later on reduced to the last one addressed as "27th Shambles" and the name was "Dewhurst"


The Shambles 1


The Shambles 2


The interesting part of Shambles is the pavements by the street. It is high raised as the butchers had to wash their place so the wastes and bloods could pass through the street.


Apart from history, Shambles has become home for many shops, restaurants, pubs making it the heart of York city. Lot many historic walks, tours are available from here. Lets not forget York is a haunted city, so you'll be able to find some ghost walks in Shambles as well. Most of the ghost walks starts at or after 7 PM and costs around £5 each.


The Shambles 3


It was getting late and also we could hardly stop ourselves from moving into out pre booked hotel (or hostel!) as we were supposed to be there by noon. I believe you understand how happy we were, when we finally planned to go to our hostel. Ahh, beds, thats the first thing rushed into my mind!


As York was one of the capitals while Roman era, the city was actually surrounded by a wall to protect the city. Since then that historic wall is still surrounding the city isolating York from the rest of its shire making it historic. While going back to the hotel, we found the walls are guiding us towards the hotel. Why not riding it? Tell you what, that was a great charm when we were watching things from above. 


York Walls (West)


York Walls (East)


Exhausted travellers (don't look like though)


While walking we found Micklegate Bar, which is another historic place.  This gate was used for Royal Entrance in Roman era. Specially when the Emperors used to enter the capital while visiting the dwellers. Mickle in Roman language means "great", gate stands for "importance" and Bar is "gate". As a whole Micklegate bar means "A great gate of importance". Although there are various interpretations of this name and history I found online, this information was found on the placards on the walls for tourists.


Guards at Micklegate Bar

After a short walk from Micklegate Bar, we finally reached our hotel. It was booked so we had no problem checking in. A Brazilian guy was also staying in that room who was a very kind guy tolerated all our snoring whole night. When we went into our room, all were waiting in a que to pay a visit to the restroom. But that Brazilian guy was taking ages in there! At that time, we did not even know him! All we were doing was just swearing at him! Finally I revealed, the toilet was empty, all we had to do was just to push the door!! We were dumb!

Our room

Another interesting part was, that hostel was a haunted place! In room number 10, people often hear a baby crying around midnights thats what we found on the notice boards. Later I asked hostel management team and they justified it as true. The whole hostel was actually a mansion with 7 huge bedrooms and a whole basement for servants, which later on was transformed as amusement and leisure centre for the lodgers. For more info about history and photos click here.

The day concluded with a short walk around York following a heavy diner and a promise to wake up early next day to shoot some landscape!




Back to part 1             part 2             part 3            Continue to part 4

5 comments:

  1. well job done ma frnd..

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  2. I can't believe I din't get a chance to visit this place. It's beautiful. Would love to see some more photographs.

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  3. Thanks Selena.
    Zahid, thanks, nice to see you here!
    Raiyan, what can I say apart from you were well missed!

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  4. Nice memories to share...

    Looking forward to see some more lovely memories.

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