A day in York

Yesterday I went to York. It's an easy 1.5 hour journey from Peterborough on the train.  I went because David was off to a meeting there and I thought we might be able to catch up for lunch, didn't happen.  However, I had a great day mooching around on my own.  Thankfully I had worn my leather jacket as it was cold even at 10am when I arrived. My first mission was to find a cafe with GOOD coffee.  I was distracted as I passed the museum gates (one of my possibilities for the day) by a sign advertising a guided walk at 10.30am.  That was it! I now knew what I'd be doing for the next couple of hours. I whipped across the road and found a fab deli/cafe  Cabra Verde. I just had a coffee but it was great and the cakes and treats on display looked very tempting but for once I was good. This will be a place to return to on future visits.

Back to the park gates where I met up with John, a lovely retired man who is passionate about York, literature, history and coins (I'm sure he had many other hobbies too but we didn't have time to get onto those!!).  John charged the man standing next to me for my ticket as well before I explained that we were not together - the man looked very relieved! I love these sorts of tours because you find out so many fun facts that you would never know about just walking around with a guide book.  And so we set off on the Snickets, Ginnels and Walls tour with John who had an old leather satchel out of which he pulled coins found in actual sites around York, old books, photos and maps. He had stories of famous people from York, including Judi Dench (one of my favourite actresses) whose career started in York. Having worked at the library and then as a tour guide in the Minster, John had a wealth of information about the place. We visited the Kings Manor (below) where Henry VIII stayed when in York. We even got to see York's tiniest window which is said to be where the king's bathroom was. One of the fun things was that he pointed out many places where the city has been altered to meet tourists expectations. Tourism is York's major industry and the town was full of thousands of them yesterday.  But John  had photographic evidence of streets that were asphalted in the 50's and now are cobble stoned, once derelict buildings now prettied up to look like marvelous old shops and even one of the town entrance arches bearing arrow slits facing into the town (really, they were going to shoot their own?), where previously there had been arched windows - again verified by old artwork. It was a fun 2 and a bit hours and John was a great guide.
The rest of my afternoon I wandered the streets, checked out a few lovely stores and walked a part of the city wall. The walkway around the city wall did not exist when the wall was first built (thank you John for the info).  Apparently, wooden scaffold would be used on the inside of the city wall so that if the wall was breached the scaffold could be pulled away so that the enemy faced a large drop. It wasn't until ladies in crinolines started visiting York that the walkway was built for them to take in the views of the city and its surrounds.
It was back to the train station and the 16.02 to Peterborough. David jumped aboard at the last minute so we got to enjoy the ride home together, mostly through fields, some still being harvested, nice views, sunshine, sleepiness. We are loving the train travel, so comfortable, easy and FAST.
And my favourite sign of the day.......