A Day in York

Yesterday Miss Franny allowed me to take the two of us to York. It was sunny and nice in Blackpool. It wasn't in York. But hey, never mind!

This is the Golden Fleece, opposite one end of the Shambles, York's most famous medeival street.

The pub sign is a life-sized golden sheep, legs drooping as though just hoisted from the dip! It is York's most haunted pub apparently. Whether with York residents from the past or a flock of sheep, I'm not too sure...

This is The Shambles. A glimpse of how easy it would have been for the Great Fire of London to spread from one side of a street to the other. You could just about shake hands with someone in the bedroom opposite!

Fran decided I was cramping her shopping style by tagging along so I was sent off to go "looking at stuff". Luckily there is a fair amount of stuff to look at in York and this is the York Minster, the magnificent cathedral of York.

One of the treasures of York Minster is the line of statues of England's early kings, starting with William the Conqueror. They form the screen between the huge nave and the choir.

It will cost you eight pounds to get into the Minster nave and choir and a huge barrier has been created quite out of keeping with the building. Although the only prices quoted are for descending to the undercroft and crypt or going up the tower, if you challenge this by saying you just want to go into the church without changing levels, they say these things are in fact "included free in the eight pounds admission". The fee allows you to return as many times as you like over 12 months - if you can find the little till receipt slip to take with you next time, that is...

This is the view from the choir, looking back towards the rear of the wall with the line of kings.

We stayed in York until around 4:00pm then left, hoping to get out onto the A64 back towards Leeds before the York Races finished. As we crossed over the Pennines on the M62, the sunshine came out once back into Lancashire. Ahhhhhhh!