York - Travel England

Last week we took advantage of a glorious sunny weekend and made our first trip to York. York has England's largest and best preserved medieval walled city. The walled city is a pedestrian area with wonderful little streets full of unique shops, cafes and restaurants. It also has the usual quota of Starbucks, Neros and Costas, which means cheap sandwiches, coffee drinks and bottled juices.

Entry to the walled city (in York a gate is called a "bar", and a street is called a "gate". Hopefully that was clear.)

York is best known for a street named The Shambles. It often is awarded the title of the "prettiest street in England." We are not sure it is fully deserving of such a noble title, but it is very nice, albeit only a couple of blocks long. Even so, it is home to some fine examples of medieval architecture, and more importantly, it is the centre piece of the walled city which has many square blocks of splendid historic buildings, tastefully modernised for today's shoppers and tourists.

Did I say York was best known for The Shambles? Ouch! Excuse me. Let me quickly retract my latest heresy. York is of course best known for York Minster - the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. A structure so profound, with such a dominating command of the York skyline, that you almost come to think of it as part of the heavens and not the city itself. Nonetheless, it is very much an integreal part of the city and well worth a visit.

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