York, the ancient city.

  

I bet if I'm going to tell any Tom, Dick and Harry that I have been to York, I will get the normal reply of " Ooo, where is that? ". Fret not, as I will take you through the journey of a fantastic day in the ancient city of York, filled with history and culture.

From Bamber Bridge, there are 2 ways to go to York, the main one by using the motorway, while the other, by using the countryside. Albeit 15 minutes longer(the total journey was around 1 hour 45 minutes), we decided to take the country side since there are going to be lots of sceneries to see, something which we haven't gotten any clue but its a great way to start the weekend.

We took the M65 ( a way of identifying their highway system) which passes through the town of Burnley, and blimey, Burnley is beautiful and looks historic to me. Too bad we could only see it from a far, with strategically placed settlement with beautiful buildings -ancient and nice. The countryside was so green, with sheep's grazing at the prairie, and I had the naughty thought of barging at them yanking away. They looked so calm just grazing all day, lots of them - unperturbed. We pass through the town of Skipton and Harrogate as well, its just like the small town of Leyland (somewhere near Bamber Bridge) but its a good way of discovering the countryside. There were a few windmills which I had to slow down for Mak to take some photos, although he grunted that I was jerking the brake carelessly due to the cars tail-gating behind - a result of silly tourists who can't resist to take photos almost everywhere we go. We also had the chance to see large golf balls, okay, its actually the radome belonging to the British RAF along the way to York. I don't think I will be able to post that up, but just imagine a few golf balls, multiply by the size of a few hundreds, you get the idea.

Arriving at York, as we enter through M59, we could see the walls of York and parked our Vauxhall at the Railway Station(which cost us £13 at the end of the day). York is designed in such a way that, it will try to divert every car out of the city of York, not because it doesn't welcome any visitors -far from it, but as one of the major tourist attraction in England, its necessity, to avoid jamming the whole place with cars, thus the expensive cost of parking your car.

     

The first destination that i was dying to go was the York Minster. The largest cathedral in UK, York Minster is one of the cathedrals that you shouldn't miss. Its very visible from afar, and with vast history, from the romans to the present, you wouldn't want to miss it for the world. From the York Station to the York Minster, it takes around 18 minutes by foot. There was a garden just on the way to the Minster where they had this cute silver squirrels with bushy tail and they were so tame!! It will just come up to you and wait for food. They were so adorable and just fun to watch. And while taking photos of the squirrels, I'm sure in the squirrel lil minds, they were asking for "Food!! Food!! Where's my peanut you silly tourist?!!" Haha, but too bad, there weren't anything to give the squirrels but just to cuddle them(I wish!).

     

We paid approximately £9 to enter the York Minster as it includes, the Tower, the Minster and also the Undercroft. The Tower was tall with 279 steps!! Although it wasn't that high, but I was panting half way through and it was too late to turn back! The reward? A super magnificent view on the top of the Tower overlooking the lil town of York, from coast to coast, from east to west, and from south to south, it was so mesmerizing. The clear blue sky was lovely and the sun was shining. It was a very good weather and i forgot about the chilling cold for a moment. Nevertheless, there was this poor attendant who were overlooking the counter at the tower which was shivering so bad, he wasn't in any mood to laugh at all. It was just to cold and freezing on the tower. And if i haven mentioned, forget about climbing the tower if you're a big size, cause the tower was so narrow, you actually have to "push" your way through. Man, no wonder they did put up a caution for everyone to see that, anyone with vertigo, health problems, height phobia, and pregnant ladies are not advisable to climb. Aye aye Sir!

In the Undercroft there were lots of crypt and also the basillica, the point where the romans used to meet up, to become the corner stone of the building. To be in the place where the romans had once stood was honorable. The structure was very well preserved and there was even a statue of Constantine, although I'm not to sure how Constantine ended up there.

Out of the York Minster, we walked to the shambles, where the romans used to walk in the city, and the pavements, the pebbles on the road from the times of the romans were still very intact. Not forgetting there was a place belonging to the late parents of Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot fame!! Remember remember the 7 of November, the gunpowder, treason and plot..in that movie, I love the line, "The people shouldn't be afraid of the government, the government should be afraid of the people". Funny but true. Although its never ever likely to happen in M'sia, but hopefully the leaders in M'sia know what is expected of them and to propel the country to greater heights, out of the credit crunch and stop politicking for a while.

     

Oops sorry, lets stick to York. From the shambles, we walked all the way to the dungeon(yeap they had a dungeon but too bad we couldn't get into it because there were very long lines,told you it was a tourist place! Then we just spend the time walking through the bridge and just sight seeing. On the way back, we took the M61, with Mak volunteering to drive and I almost doze off instead of making sure he's awake to drive, it was just so exhausting and the rest of us, dozing off in our slumber thinking of the bed in the inn.

That's all folk!!