Walkabout York
York is just a short (30-minute) train ride from Harrogate and has so much to offer, but we don't go there that often. It is usually mobbed with tourists. We decided to get an early start and head out there yesterday to catch the daffodils in bloom. (If you go by train on Sunday you simply can't get an early start -- the first train doesn't leave until 11:30 a.m.) We wanted to walk around the old town on top the medieval city walls, hoping for some scenic vantage points. Most of the walls and many of the towers are still intact. A brochure we picked up at the tourist office states that the York city walls are two miles long and are the longest town walls in England. It also states that no-one has fallen off the walls since 1992! Not a very comforting statistic -- I'd have much rather heard that it had been 50 or more years since someone fell off! It's quite an easy walk with only a few flights of stairs and level walking all the way round. In some places the walkway is quite narrow, making it a little bit nervewracking when you meet someone coming from the opposite direction. There are guard rails only on the sections that pass over roadways. The section with the narrow walk ways is where one gets the prettiest views of the city and the Minster. (I wonder if that is where the 1992 fall occurred -- arresting view, narrow walk???) Other vantage points were not so scenic with views of industrial parks and shopping centers. We were happily rewarded with a profusion of daffodils just about everywhere we looked. When we started out at around 9:45 a.m. there were a handful of other walkers atop the walls. By the end of our walk it was getting positively crowded with whole busloads of tourists ambling by. After our wall walk we went into town and browsed an antique center. They had a lovely assortment of items including an entire floor devoted to art deco, but the prices were way out of our range. We had lunch in the National Trust tea room then moseyed on home. It's nice to know that York is so close by and we don't have to squeeze too many activities in when we go there. We'll just head back another day...
York is just a short (30-minute) train ride from Harrogate and has so much to offer, but we don't go there that often. It is usually mobbed with tourists. We decided to get an early start and head out there yesterday to catch the daffodils in bloom. (If you go by train on Sunday you simply can't get an early start -- the first train doesn't leave until 11:30 a.m.) We wanted to walk around the old town on top the medieval city walls, hoping for some scenic vantage points. Most of the walls and many of the towers are still intact. A brochure we picked up at the tourist office states that the York city walls are two miles long and are the longest town walls in England. It also states that no-one has fallen off the walls since 1992! Not a very comforting statistic -- I'd have much rather heard that it had been 50 or more years since someone fell off! It's quite an easy walk with only a few flights of stairs and level walking all the way round. In some places the walkway is quite narrow, making it a little bit nervewracking when you meet someone coming from the opposite direction. There are guard rails only on the sections that pass over roadways. The section with the narrow walk ways is where one gets the prettiest views of the city and the Minster. (I wonder if that is where the 1992 fall occurred -- arresting view, narrow walk???) Other vantage points were not so scenic with views of industrial parks and shopping centers. We were happily rewarded with a profusion of daffodils just about everywhere we looked. When we started out at around 9:45 a.m. there were a handful of other walkers atop the walls. By the end of our walk it was getting positively crowded with whole busloads of tourists ambling by. After our wall walk we went into town and browsed an antique center. They had a lovely assortment of items including an entire floor devoted to art deco, but the prices were way out of our range. We had lunch in the National Trust tea room then moseyed on home. It's nice to know that York is so close by and we don't have to squeeze too many activities in when we go there. We'll just head back another day...
posted by lenora at 9:59 AM
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