Our travel editor for the West Australian newspaper, Stephen Scourfield, wrote about touring around England in last Saturday’s travel lift-out. I feel that I could qualify for having similar tales published, particularly with all that we saw and did in York last year.
Stephen even mentioned the squirrels – see the little fellow that we met, along with pigeons (or are they doves? I never know the difference.
One of the things I love about England is the abundance of parks and the fact that they are well cared for, with well-placed trees and clusters of shrubs and flowers, especially when you arrive in spring, as we did.
The Museum Gardens are situated about two minutes walk from our accommodation and are the most direct route to the centre of town, so, whenever possible (the gates are closed every night) we walked through it, coming out at Museum St on the other side.
As you have probably gathered from earlier travel tales, we often stop to sample the local ice creams. As breakfast was large and we wanted to try one of the cute little cafes in town for lunch, we resisted this very tempting trolley, but it is so ‘English’ I had to at least get a photo. The crumbling stone walls are part of ( I think) an old cathedral.
A little way down the road, is one of the old entries into York. Such fun to walk through history at almost every turn.
At the far end of the park, where one enters the old city, we noticed this emblem on a building that is inside the park, and looks official but it’s not noted on my map of York. I tried to find out what the lions represent, but had no luck. Perhaps one of you can enlighten me?
On my itinerary when we left Australia, I had planned to visit the Jorvic Centre that day. However, as we discovered once we arrived in York, the whole of that area had been flooded when the river rose the previous winter. Although the centre is underground, it should have been possible to shut off the flood waters and prevent the total wreckage that happened because no-one thought to operate the mechanism until it was too late. Now, it’s closed for at least two years while the whole thing is rebuilt. Very disappointing, as this, to me, is almost as important as the famous cathedral.
Once through the park gates, we milled in with the thousands of other people, busily heading for somewhere to eat. The buildings are mostly beautiful and interesting both historically and architecturally. I never managed to find out what this one was for, but had to have a photo.
We wandered past the Cathedral, down Lower Petergate and into the middle of the historic centre, until this quaint 
establishment beckoned. The day was cold and the soup was delicious – huge bowls with lots of crusty bread. What more could a couple of Australian ladies ask for. And of course, the ambience was perfect.
