Our next stop on our England with kids vacation was the charming old city of York. We chose this city upon the recommendation of a British friend who had lived there many years ago. We saw lots of old stuff in England. But the oldest stuff was here! You get a strong sense of history, of what life used to be like, walking around York.
We took the LNER train from London. It is a bullet train, getting up there in less than two hours. We had fun at the seats with tables, painting the countryside with watercolors, reading, and snacking.
York has a history museum, but the whole town is a sort of museum. We didn’t feel it necessary to pay admission to the museum on this 3 day trip, but the York Museum Gardens offer plenty to explore. This ruins of the original Roman tower are really fascinating. There are other ruins to explore, too. We roamed around the medieval hospital grounds, the ancient abbey, and the ancient sarcophagi used as planters!
We happened upon an Roman camp re-enactment in the Gardens on the day of our visit. That was a very cool thing to see. There were demonstrating blacksmithing, coin pressing, leather working, and other ancient crafts. The actors were very happy to explain Roman life and their authentic crafts.
We also took advantage of the free, sponsored tour from the city of York. It was helpful to hear a tour guide explain the layers of the tower; who built what over the many years. The tour starts at Exhibition Square in front of Fountain at York Art Gallery.
One of the cool features of York architecture are the ancient city walls that you can still walk along the top of. You can take quite a long walk along the walls. It gives you a pretty view of the city and the beautiful Yorkminster Abbey. There are turrets, narrow passageways and a portcullis to explore. It feels more like a castle than any other place we saw (other than the Tower of London). The best portion to explore is from Monk to Bootham.
Even more decorative and stunning than the famous Westminster Abbey is Yorkminster Abbey, in the heart of York City Center. It was Sunday when we arrived, so instead of a tour, we opted to attend a Choral Evensong service. It was a wonderful experience, to sit in this beautiful place or worship and join in through song, listening to the perfect acoustics reverberate praise from the arches and buttresses.
Attending a church service, we were not able to wander around the abbey. It surpasses any other church we saw in beauty, so it would have been lovely to look around. The outside is also magnificent in decorative detail.
The Shambles refers to a very old, winding street in York. Its the type that you picture in your mind, with the upper floor overhanging the bottom floor and cobblestone streets. It is obviously a big tourist attraction, but that doesn’t detract too much from the charm. York is famous for a chocolate making history. While the chocolate tours seemed over priced, one of the most interesting shops was the chocolate shop serving warm, rich drinking chocolate in tantalizing chocolate cups, Monk Bar Chocolatiers. You can have a choice of chocolate “pots”. I had dark and my little one had white chocolate. Mmmmm. Just the thing for a cool evening.
We also found Hebden Tea Shop. We sampled, drank tea brewed there, and took some loose leaf tea home to enjoy. There is a Little Viking York Scavenger Hunt that can be picked up in any Visitor Center. After we had our fill of gift shops, we worked on the scavenger hunt. We never quite finished, but it brought some beautiful and unique things to our attention, things like tiny little Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate.
We found delicious Nepalese food in York at a restaurant called Taas. The Everest Taas (lamb tikki masala platter) was tasty. I loved the Anapurna Thali. Reservations are helpful on the weekend, but it was easy to get seated on a weekday. We also enjoyed cream tea (a pot of tea with scones, jam, and clotted cream) at Castle Tea Room. The fruit scones were so fluffy! The atmosphere was perfect, shelves full of unique teapots and colorful teacups.
The last activity in York was the Jorvik Viking Center. It is built on the archaeological dig site where they discovered a Viking settlement. They have rebuilt what they imagine the Viking town to have looked like, complete with animatronics and scents. Buy tickets before you go, because they often sell out.
After an introduction by a guide, you enter a Disney-type ride that drives you through the settlement and narrates what you are viewing. After the ride, you enter the museum portion, where you can watch demonstrations and peruse artifacts recovered from the dig site: coins, tools, eating utensils, and (my personal favorite) a fossilized Viking poop. My little one really enjoyed the whole experience, especially the demonstration of a Viking board game. She also loved the gift shop. I was impressed with the exhibit, but less so, the gift shop.
Something to be aware of, York has no Uber XLs. There were five of us and we had no way to ride share together, without two cabs, so we walked, even with luggage. YorBag was a good place for left luggage. We got 10% off with our Jorvik Viking Center tickets. Our AirBnB was a bit out of the city, and it was a long walk back and forth each day. It was good for calorie burning, but pushed short legs a little further than I intended!
