Category Archives: England

Day Six ~York to Grassington

At the start of our sixth day in the United Kingdom we had our breakfast at the hotel and decided to take one last stroll around the city of York before we checked out of our hotel and made our way to the Enterprise Car Rental behind the train station in York. This was Wednesday the 20th of September.

It was drizzly to start but soon gave way to some blue skies.

After our selfie we packed up and checked out of our hotel and walked to Enterprise Car Rental over the River Ouse and beyond the train station. It was an easy enough trek with our luggage in hand.

We had some fun interactions with the staff at this car rental location and Norm got us settled into our brand new Mercedes. Laura punched in our first destination which was a car park in Ripon where we planned on lunch and a visit to Ripon Cathedral. Josh did a fine job of driving on the wrong side of the road and we had an uneventful time on the roads and on the roundabouts. When we got to Ripon the easy way to the car park was shut down for road works but we circled about the town and made it. We wanted to eat at the One Eyed Rat but it would not open until four so we regrouped and headed to the Silva Bells which was just across from the Ripon Cathedral. On our way we got stuck in a deluge of rain and were soaked in no time.

We enjoyed our lunch while we tried to dry up a bit.

The rest of day Six will continue in a couple of posts covering Ripon Cathedral and our first evening in Grassington. I’m behind on my research.

Back to the present. We had a wonderful full weekend with Josh and Laura arriving here on Thursday evening and leaving after lunch on Sunday. We enjoyed meals and our annual trek through our local corn maze. Lots to share in between keeping up with my travel journal.

Hope you all have a nice ending to October!

Day Five ~ York Minster

Tuesday the 19th of September was our 5th travel day and this was our only full day in York. Our plan was to buy tickets and tour York Minster and then to attend Evensong at the Minster at 5:30. We decided it would be good to make some reservations for dinner, too.

But first…a hardy breakfast to start our day. The hotel reservations we made at The Judges Lodging included breakfast which was served in the Cellar.

For our nonstop activity breakfast included with our lodging served us well.

This day was a blustery day. We stood in line outside the main entrance to the cathedral just before it opened to buy our tickets. We found out that once purchased that ticket would be good for a year if you wanted to re-visit.

York’s cathedral church is one of the finest medieval buildings in Europe.  The Minster is also known as St Peter’s, its full name being the ‘Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York’.  In the past the church sat within its own walled precinct, known as the Liberty of St Peter.

This statue of Queen Elizabeth is a new addition in a niche at the front of York Minster. The full story and progress of the creation of the statue was on display inside the Cathedral.

King Charles III unveiled a new statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II on November 9th, 2022. It is installed in a niche on York Minster cathedral in York, England. 

The work was planned five years ago and had originally been intended to celebrate the queen’s platinum jubilee. It was finished in August, a month before she died. 

The majestic statue by Richard Bossons, 52, shows the queen in her robes of the Order of the Garter and has been installed above the West Front entrance of the 850-year-old building. It stands seven feet tall and weighs 1.1 tons.

We couldn’t get over the size of her hands.

The Rose Window.

The nave of York Minster is the widest in Europe, and one of the highest, and this impression of height is enhanced by the large expanse of stained glass which allows light into the interior of the structure. The nave was built from 1220, replacing an older structure, and is primarily Early English.

The Quire (Choir) of York Minster is a delight to the eye. The Quire Screen is one of the most intricately carved in all the UK, with depictions of famous churchmen set within niches facing the nave. Before passing through the Screen, look up, where the huge organ is poised above the screen. Recently refurbished, it boasts an astonishing 5,300 individual pipes.

The Quire was where we would enjoy Evensong. We sat in these seats.

The Five Sisters or the ‘The Jewish Window’

I found the following information here and there is a more comprehensive post about this window and other history.

The ‘Five Sisters’ window in the north transept of York Minster was reputedly paid for by a loan from the Jews of York. This five-light window is executed in abstract grisaille work The 13th century window is filled with grisaille glass – from the French for ‘greyness’ – or finely painted clear glass that is set into geometric designs with jewel-like points of coloured glass making the pattern.

It is said the creation of the window was funded in part by York’s Jewish community, notably the wealthy Aaron of York, leading to the windows being called ‘the Jewish window.’

 

At the entrance to the Chapter House…

The ribbed wooden roof is truly a masterpiece of medieval architecture, with colourfully painted panels and a profusion of gilded bosses . Unlike other chapter houses, such as that of Wells Cathedral, there is no central column to support the roof vaulting; the ceiling is “free-standing” if you will, seeming almost to hang in space.

One of the ‘Minster Guides’ told us of a little chapel that we could go into through a door she pointed out to us.

Off the south aisle of the choir in York Minster is an old wooden door.  It leads down steps into the Zouche Chapel, a quiet place reserved for private prayer.  The chapel itself is small and very peaceful. The windows in the chapel contain a number of fragments of stained glass that have been recovered from other parts of the Minster.

I found these details in the chapel interesting. The cathedral was named St. Peters.

Josh and Laura climbed to the roof of the Cathedral and were belted by winds but enjoyed these amazing views of York and the Minster.

We also made it down the stairs to the Crypt.

 

This photo of the Peacemaker is for you, Laura. There is so much to the history in and outside of this amazing cathedral. It would take many visits to take it all in. A good history and description of many of the details can be found here.

We decided to try The Hole in the Wall for lunch and were happy to be able to get a nice table to dine at.

We had some time before Evensong at 5:30 so we bought tickets for the Hop on Hop off bus and enjoyed a tour of York from the top of the bus. We had to move inside when we got some rain.

For Evensong we entered the ‘minster’ at these doors. After Evensong we strolled over to the The Fat Badger for our dinner reservations,

Another full day of sightseeing. The bells of the cathedral were ringing after dinner so Josh and Laura enjoyed an evening walk taking in the beautiful sounds coming from the bell tower. They could even see the bell ringers in the tower. Greg and I opted to go back to our lodgings and put our feet up.

I just found this paragraph about the bell ringing on a post by Rick Steves. How serendipitous for Laura and Josh’s enjoyment on Tuesday evening. Another smile from our God.

If you’re a fan of church bells, you can experience ding-dong ecstasy Sunday morning at about 10:00 and during the Tuesday practice session between 19:00 and 22:00. (7pm-10pm) These performances are especially impressive, as the church holds a full carillon of 35 bells (it’s the only English cathedral to have such a range). How big of a deal are the bells? When the church let go of its bell-ringing staff after some internal disagreements in 2016, it was national news.

This was a long post and trust me it could have been even longer with more photos!

Day Four-Part 3~The Shambles

Continuing on our travel journal we are still on Day Four, our first day in York. Again we packed in a lot on this day. Walking from the section of the city walls that we completed we found ourselves at the Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate that led us through the alleyway to The Shambles.

1-1/2 is a fun address to have.

By the time we got to The Shambles all the shops were closed and that meant fewer people. I’ll share this excerpt from the British Express;

The Shambles is often called Europe’s best-preserved medieval street, although the name is also used to collectively refer to the surrounding maze of narrow, twisting lanes and alleys as well. The street itself is mentioned in the Domesday Book, so we know that it has been in continuous existence for over 900 years.

There is some debate on whether Rowling was inspired by The Shambles for Diagon Alley but stores are taking advantage of the popularity of the series with store fronts and merchandise for Harry Potter fans.

The name “Shambles” comes from the Saxon “Fleshammels”, which means, “the street of the butchers”, for it was here that York’s butchers had their shops. Notice the wide window sills of the houses; the meat for sale was displayed here. Several former butcher shops still have hooks where meat was hung.

We were happy to have seen the Shambles without it being overcrowded as in the photo below that I took from the hop on hop off bus on Tuesday afternoon.

From the Shambles we continued on along streets heading to the Cathedral and wondering where our next meal would be.

We spotted the cathedral off of High Petergate at the end of Minster Gate.

Adding to the history of York is the fact that Constantine the Great was proclaimed Roman Emperor here in 300

We tried a couple places along High Petergate to see if there was room for us for dinner to no avail so we went back to our hotel and regrouped at the House of Trembling Madness where we found a room to occupy and enjoy some food.

We were in the room you can peek into from the upper left window.

Our savory palette was satisfied and we finished off the evening at the Cellar in our hotel for a sweet and a toast to Laura’s grandmother, Wilma.

That was the end of our very full fourth day of travel and first day in York. Tuesday the plan was to tour the inside of York Minster and to attend Evensong there, also.

 

Day Four, Part 2 ~ York’s City Walls

After our lovely tea time at Betty’s on Monday September 18th we walked to Bootham Bar to head up the stairs to the City Walls. York still has most of the walls that surrounded the city 700 years ago. We walked from Bootham just past Monk Bar and descended down onto Peasholme Green to St. Saviours Place to St. Saviours Gate and finally to Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma to go into The Shambles.

Bootham Bar

We only ran into a few other people on the walls and that was nice. We again were thankful that the weather was wonderful for this evening walk.

 

 

 

Approaching Monk Bar…

 

We descended these stairs to get to the street level to get a better view of Monk Bar, below.

Monk Bar is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended.

We then ascended the walls again and continued on to their end on to the east corner and as far on the walls that we would go on this evening.

This eastern section of the walls had this plaque on the walkway. The place where medieval Jews buried their dead in York has long been called Jewbury. There was a thriving Jewish community here in the 13th century. The history of the treatment of Jews in York is a tragic one. I found this article about some of the tragic treatment of the Jews.

In the Middle Ages, a massacre of the Jewish population took place at Clifford’s Tower, pictured above. Clifford’s Tower is in the Southern section of the city center.

We had our first views of York Minster from the walls and later in this evening we saw it up close.

On Tuesday we did a hop on hop off tour and saw the wall from a different perspective.

 

Walmgate Bar.

 

Micklegate Bar was historically the main entrance to the city for anyone arriving from the south, and particularly, the gate through which visiting Royals would pass.

There is so much history in York and it’s hard to capture it all in one visit. We just touched the surface while we were there.

Dublin to York ~ Day Four Part One

Planes, Trains and automobiles were our transportation on Monday September 18th.

We were up and packed and all checked out and ready for our Uber to the Dublin airport before 8am. Our flight from Dublin to Manchester, England was a quick flight on Aer Lingus. We got our bags and headed down to the train station that is conveniently located at the airport. We wanted to catch the 12:44 train to York. We bought our tickets and had time to spare to make it on this train. It should have been just under 2 hour ride to York.

As we approached Leeds the train stopped on the tracks before the station and the conductor said there was a blockage ahead and once that was cleared we would be able to come into the station. After we were in the station and the Leeds passengers disembarked the conductor came back on the line and said that our train ride into York was cancelled and we should get off the train and head to Platform 8 if we wanted to continue into York! WHAT?? We grabbed our bags and headed out wondering where platform 8 was. There were several of us scurrying about and asking questions. Josh saw a nun who was trying to hoist and haul a very large suitcase who needed to get to platform 8 with us. He grabbed her bag and hauled it up the stairs across the platform to the other side of the station and down the stairs to get to Platform 8 where the train steward was yelling that the doors were closing! When I got to the doors and he was still fussing I let him know that we were kicked off our other train and were rushing as fast as we could to make it to this train! He lightened up and held the train till we all got on. OYE! The Nun was very thankful and asked Josh for his name and I would venture that she is still praying a blessing over him! We were thankful, too, that we made it to York and to our hotel room ready to discover a new city.

Our stay in York was at The Judge’s Lodging.

 

After we dropped our bags and freshened up we made our way to Betty’s Tearoom where the line was very short. We waited our turn and enjoyed our one and only afternoon tea during our trip.

Laura and I chose the tea. Greg ordered the Chicken Schnitzel and Josh ended up with a burger.

From Bettys Tea Room we made our way to Bootham Bar while it was light and the weather was right for a walk on the walls. We walked the length of walls from Bootham to Monk Bar and a little beyond. Circled around to get back into the center of York through the Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma gate into the Shambles.

The Walls and Gates deserve a post of their own. We were taken in by York. This was Josh and Laura’s first time in York and our time from 2004 and 2006 needed to be refreshed.

We were very thankful we made it to York despite the stress of our cancelled train 3/4’s of the way into our journey. Thankful for nice lodgings and a lovely tea time. Thankful, too, for pleasant walking weather.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

Our outbound flight from Seattle to Dublin on Aer Lingus on September 14th at 6:50 PM arriving in Dublin on Friday September 15th at 11:45 AM. We are sandwiched in our seats by our youngest and our oldest with their wonderful spouses!

Our homebound flight from Dublin to Seattle on Tuesday September 26th at 3:10 PM arriving in Seattle on the same day at 5:05 PM.

We went through customs in Dublin which made things so easy when we arrived in Seattle. We picked up our luggage and shuttled to our cars and got on our familiar roads driving on the comfortable side of road for us. Our vehicle made it’s way to a familiar Mexican restaurant for a comfort meal before arriving at our son’s home for the night. Our daughter and hubby headed straight home to be reunited with their cats!

We basked in the memories of a most wonderfully blessed trip with so many ‘wow’ moments to remember and share. We thank our God for His special care over all of us every day and for now especially the days we enjoyed in Ireland and England.

On Wednesday morning still working on Dublin time Dear and I packed up our vehicle and started on our 5+ hour journey over the mountains and home again home again jiggety jig. When we arrived in Spokane (an hour and a half south from our home) we did our usual ‘petrol’ stop at Costco ($4.55 per gallon not liters). A quick stop in the warehouse store for a few items and on the road again reaching home at 1 pm. Our Colville kids prepared a welcome home meal for us that waited for us upon our arrival. They made Greg’s famous Tomato Rice Soup and Jamie baked an amazing fresh loaf of bread to accompany the soup. Perfect for us to enjoy after our long journey. Thank you to all our kids who made this trip special from beginning to end.

Funny note: I sent the photo of me sitting and enjoying my soup and bread to our kids and our granddaughter asked why we were eating on the couch! Oops, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. Our Grands are being raised proper.

Now that we are home I’m looking forward to those special hugs from our Grands…soon!!

I’ll need a few days to catch up with Pacific Coast time before I can make my rounds to visit. Happy Autumn to all of you!

Postcards Day Eight

On our 8th day, Friday September 22nd we left Grassington after breakfast and made a stop in Skipton to see a castle and enjoy some lunch before heading to our stop for the night in Knaresborough at the Knaresborough Inn.

Skipton Castle in the Market Town of Skipton in North Yorkshire.

We are back in the U.S.A. and driving across our state to get home today. It will be nice to be reunited with our own pillows tonight. Thank you for following along with my postcards. Hope to visit fellow bloggers soon and see what you’ve been up to. I have enough photos from our trip to bore you all to tears in the near future! It definitely was a ‘WOW’ trip.

Postcards Day Six

Our sixth day was Wednesday September 20th and on this day we checked out of our hotel in York, rented a vehicle and drove to Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales via Ripon where we stopped and enjoyed a rain shower that soaked us through before we visited The Ripon Cathedral.

We dried up quickly and enjoyed wonderful skies the rest of the day. All in all we have been blessed with beautiful dry spells whenever we needed them!