Walking in the Shambles

After leaving Edinburgh, we drove to the Scottish Borders,

and crossed over into England.

(Globus tour bus in the background).

 

We made a quick stop in Heddon on the Wall to see a portion of Hadrian's Wall (ordered built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 122 after his visit to Britain to mark the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire).

 



From the Wall, we traveled to York, were we would be staying that night. 

York still has parts of its medieval wall

 

which we walked past on our way to the Shambles.

We also passed this building.

 

The Great Hall, where medieval merchants gathered to do business and have feasts.

 

Our tour group next stopped at the Shambles itself, a medieval town center that, in its current form, dates to about 1400.

 

 

Land cost a great deal in medieval times, which led to many of the buildings being smaller at the bottom (thus taking up less land) and expanding out into the street in upper levels, giving the shambles its closed in look.

 





Katherine and I walked up to York Minster, a medieval church in the Gothic style, the largest such church in Northern Europe.

 

 

York Minster had beautiful stained glass windows, in fact, York itself is known for stained glass:

 

The King Screen, a choir screen, was impressive.  It includes 15 nearly-life-size statues of English kings from William the Conqueror to the time of the screen creation in the reign of the child king Henry VI.  Most likely, Henry VI ruined the symmetry when his statue was added at the last minute when Henry V died unexpectedly in 1422.

 

 

The Chapter House, an octagonal room separated from the main church, was magnificent.

(Ceiling)

(a couple panels of the stained glass that surrounded the room)

 

 

Now on to tea!  York had a few tea rooms that I would have loved to try, including this branch of the famous Bettys Tea Room.

 

Katherine and I walked into Bettys and took a quick look at the first level, but, even though Katherine was willing to stay, I decided that we should keep walking so we could see more of York before we had to walk back to the hotel to meet up with the group.

 

I did, however, get a fat rascal before leaving Bettys, which is a local scone that the tea room was famous for.

 Katherine and I tried it but neither of us were fans, and I normally love scones! It would have been better with clotted cream and jam, but still, very disappointing.

As we continued to walk around, we spotted yet another tea room--the Earl Grey Tea Room.  I loved the name and in the window it looked like the store had a cute little gift shop, but it had, unfortunately, already closed for the day.