York
Day 10
10,024 steps (3.86 miles)
Tues June 17 - 73°
Group Activities
We bid adieu to the Lake District on this rainy morning. The coach departed at 8:30 am, and we made a quick stop at Cawfields Quarry and Hadrian's Wall. Chris was becoming quite the photographer by this point in the trip.
Continuing on in the realm of Roman occupation in Britain, we visited the auxiliary fort Vindolanda. There is an excellent museum in addition to the outdoor areas where excavations are still ongoing. It's amazing that they let you walk right amongst the ruins. We had about two and a half hours here and we also enjoyed some ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch at the cafe.
Have you ever seen a
prettier museum?
Once we finished lunch, it was time to head back to the coach and say goodbye to our driver, David. He was taking us on to York, but would be leaving right after. He was a great driver, and a master at handling all the small streets, especially in Conwy!
Getting some reading in.
After a couple hours on the coach, we arrived in York and checked into our hotel, the Radisson Hotel York. At 5 pm we met outside for a guided tour of the city.
View from our room.
Alfred was a great guide, and took us through the city showing us the major sites. The architecture really stood out to us. The walk culminated at The Viceroy restaurant for an included dinner.
The food at The Viceroy was absolutely delicious. It was the first time Avery tried Indian food, and she loved it! Especially the Naan. They gave us lots of different sampler platters, so we got to try all kinds of dishes. This was one of the highlight meals for all three of us. If we're ever in York again, we're definitely going back.
After dinner, we walked along the city walls with some other members of the tour on our way back to the hotel. There were some great views of the city and York Minster. Our stroll was about 30 mins, and then we headed in for our beauty rest.
Day 11
11,158 steps (4.11 miles)
Wed June 18 - 73°
We headed to the breakfast buffet at 7:45 am and then convened with the group just before 9 am. Deb took us on a scenic walk through Museum Gardens on the way to York Minster. When we arrived, we saw they were filming for something. Chris looked it up and thinks it was for a show called Patience. Apparently June is filming season in the UK!
Group Activities
This plant is called a
Monkey Puzzle Tree
We had a tour with a guide through the Minster. It was really interesting visiting the churches in the order we did (Bath Abbey, Wells Cathedral, then York Minster) as each one was bigger than the last. They are all beautiful in their own way, and we enjoyed visiting such ancient structures which can't be seen back home. There was also a museum below the Minster, The Undercroft, where you can see the building foundations.
St Mary's Abbey
The Hospitium
Ceiling at the Chapter House
Solo Activities
The afternoon's entertainment was up to us. When we finished in the museum, we decided to have lunch at Bennett's, which is just outside the Minster. A pot of tea and some yummy desserts (raspberry tart and ginger cookie) helped to fortify us for meandering through York.
Since we all love to read, we wanted to check out some of the bookshops. We made it to The Little Apple Bookshop and The Portal Bookshop, but the third one we tried was closed due to filming. By this point we were all waning, and decided to grab a snack at M&S and take it back to our room for a rest.​
After relaxing in our room for a couple hours, we thought we would try the other bookshop before dinner. The Minster Gate Bookshop was open now, and it was fun to explore all the rooms and climb the small staircase. I love how so many of the buildings in England have such character and charm (how did we forget to take a picture??). Then we had dinner at Wildwood, where you could see part of the Minster in the distance. We chose to have an early night back at the hotel to prepare for our journey to London.