BritRail - York

The place I wanted to go was York for the guide books promised that York drips with history and heritage. Free tours from Exhibition Square, just in front of the Art Gallery run, two a day, 10:15 am and 2:15 pm, a volunteer service done for over 60 years.

The tour was to be two hours.

Three hours later, the tour was still going on. The group picked up interested passers-by and those who were on tight schedules left as they needed to. The guide was a retired archaeology professor and the more interested people became, the longer he walked.

I loved the sweep of his arm as he would point to other tour groups and say – those are the groups who have to pay. We are free.

The four-hectare city-centre of the Museum Garden was an oasis. Assorted ruins and buildings dot the area: a 19th century working observatory, and the multangular tower of a Roman garrison’s defensive wall where there are smaller Roman stones at the bottom, and then built up with 13th century additions.

The most fascinating part of the mulangular tower is the red line that runs close to the foundation. (That line just barely shows in the bottom 1/4 of this picture.)

“Romans put that line there as a warning to other invaders. Don’t mess with us. We are the Romans,” is how the guide described that feature.

I especially loved the ruins of the cathedral the monks had built outside of the city wall.

In August mystery plays are done here, with the face of God sometimes being seen from one of these old windows.

I walked the 13th century walls via the steps at Bootham Bar and followed them clockwise to Monk Bar, a walk that shows a beautiful view of the Minister.

The largest Gothic stained glass window in the world is having the stones that surround it worked on.

And so if you go inside to see the window, all you get is a computer-generated image of the window, in its place. I passed on that, but took picture outside, since if you can only see one cathedral in England, this is the one to see

The Walmate Bar is England’s only city gate with an intact barbican, the extended gateway to ward off univited guests.

York has five major land marks: the wall enclosing the small city centre, the Minster, the Clifford Gate, and the River Oose.

How lucky was I, to have seen it all on one tour.

Arta