At the end of July myself, my sister and parents went to the beautiful, historic city of York for a mini staycation. After googling what to do we decided on The Shambles, the Roman Walls, York Minster, Castle Museum and the Yorvik Centre. The weather was awful, it was raining constantly - apart from the day when we were driving home which was a lovely sunny day with blue sky *typical English summer*.
York Minster
The place I wanted to visit most was York Minster which is one of the largest gothic cathedrals in Northern Europe. It is now Church of England but it was once a catholic church which is why there is a lot of catholic symbolism in York Minster. Admission was £10 which includes access to all of the minster and a guided tour (the tour was great!) but you have to pay extra to go up the tower. York Minster is one of the most beautiful churches I've been in (and I've been in a lot throughout Europe). The undercroft is a great addition to York Minster which is kind of a mini museum about religion, York and the history of the Minster. I'd definitely recommend visiting York Minster, even if you are't religious like me.
Yorvik Centre
If you didn't know already, York has a strong history related to the Romans as well as the Vikings - I love both of those historic time periods! The Yorvik Centre is a mix between a museum and an interactive recreation of viking York. The queues were massive, there was at least a half and hour wait in the rain. We used out Tesco Clubcard points for our tickets so we only paid £10 instead of £40. The interactive part is a little pod suspended from the ceiling that up to six people sit in and it guides you around the recreation of a viking village in York with all the disgusting smells that go with it - don't go through if you are scared of mannequins or animatronic people. One of the mannequins face/skull apparently was reconstructed from the skeleton of a real viking over 1,000 years ago. The museum and artifact section was good although very crowded - they shouldn't have let so many people in at once! It was interesting to see real viking coins, weapons and skeletons of vikings.
York Castle Museum
When I was about 12 years old we did go to York and we visited this museum. Some of it was the same as it was over 10 years ago but some areas were different and more modern. The victorian street is my favourite part as it is a great reconstruction and quite atmospheric. The prison areas were interesting too although the new toys/childrens section was one of the most boring museum exhibits I've seen to be honest. Admission is £10 if you are over 25 and £5 if you are under £25 which I think is a great price especially as the museum is massive!
The Shambles
The shambles is a series of cute narrow streets with really niche shops and cafes. In some parts it is very Harry Pottereqsque and I think some scenes from the Diagon Alley parts of the films were actually filmed on these streets in York. The shops were great and if we had more time I think we would have gone in more but it is raining, quite humid and really busy and crowded.
Roman Walls
Last time we went to York we did go along the Roman city walls but this time round we just walked along the walls near York Minster, which gave great views of York and the Minster. There were quite a few people but it wasn't too busy. The Roman walls survived until the 9th century until York was taken over by the vikings; beneath the current medieval walls lie the remains of the original roman walls! There are little gate ways and stairs up to the walls. In my opinion a visit to York isn't complete without a walk along the city walls!
Check out my Instagram (heathernixon4) for more photos and timelapse video clips of York. Also my June/July month in photo post will have quite a few video clips of York.
Have you been to York?
