Stroll Back In Time Through The Streets Of York

The Romans called it Eboracum, and winters seemed frigid to soldiers from sunny Italy.

The Vikings named it Jorvik, and to those from frozen Scandinavia, it was like a southern holiday.

To William the Conqueror, it was a land of insurrection and rebellion, and he crushed it ruthlessly. Then his Normans remade it into a center of government, commerce and religion.

York has been a travel destination for nearly 2,000 years. For a Spokane woman tourist, going there alone was an affirmation that I could travel independently, and a ramble through a living history book.

I found a warm welcome, as I have always found in England. Package tours offer convenience, but I had my own itinerary, and didn’t want to follow someone else’s timetable.

York is a captivating city, partly enclosed by Roman and medieval walls. I visited in March, just as the daffodils peeked out from their snowy beds, but York holds delights for a visitor in any season: museums, medieval guild halls, horse racing, music festivals, an open-air market and river cruises on the Ouse. For chocolate fans, Kit Kats are made here.

York Minster contains England’s largest single collection of medieval stained glass. Begun in 1220 AD on a site where people have worshiped since the 7th century, the cathedral took 250 years to complete.

Strolling past the memorial to the Saxon King Edwin of Northumbria and the tombs of crusade knights, I remembered all those stirring historical novels by Norah Lofts. The Five Sisters stained-glass window called to mind Charles Dickens’ story about the five sisters of York, weaving their tapestries.

Near the Minster, the Yorkshire Museum stands amid the majestic ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey, once the most important Benedictine monastery in northern England. Looking at the broken walls, I pictured soldiers of Henry VIII tearing, burning and looting the monastery treasures. They carried off gold and jewels, increasing Henry’s wealth to dazzle all those wives.

The museum houses Roman mosaics and a display of everyday life in Roman Britain side by side with artifacts from the Viking settlements, the medieval guildhalls and the busy market center of Elizabethan York. Peacocks wander the grounds and visitors picnic in the Abbey gardens.

I walked back to my hotel through the gardens at twilight, and hurried to be indoors before full dark. While I was careful where I walked alone at night, as I would be in Spokane, England felt very safe for a solo woman traveler. People were eager to help, and I never felt lonely.

Start your tour of York with a walk along the city walls. Fragments of Roman brickwork remain, incorporated into medieval walls encircling the old city. Acres of flowers planted by local schoolchildren add a bright splash of color to the weathered gray stone. Much of the city within the walls has been converted to pedestrian malls, closed to traffic most of the day.

Approaching from the southwest, visitors enter the city through Micklegate Bar, traditionally the monarch’s entrance. Here, in less enlightened times, the heads of traitors were spiked to serve as a lesson to the citizenry. Richard, Duke of York and father of Edward IV, met this fate during the War of the Roses.

Other city entrances include Bootham Bar on the northwest, named for the market stalls, or booths which stood here below the walls of St. Mary’s Abbey. In 1830 a fine Regency neighborhood was built here. Now an area of bed-and-breakfast hotels, an office of the tourist board is housed in a lovely period house called the De Grey Rooms. I caught a double-deck sightseeing bus here for a funny and informative guided tour of the city, to help me decide what I wanted to visit on foot. Volunteers also guide walking tours in the summer.

Walmgate Bar on the southeast is the only town gate in England with a barbican, a narrow funnel through which anyone attacking the gate had to pass under a hail of missiles. Monk Bar faces the northeast road and here I visited the little museum dedicated to Richard III. Was he an evil monster who killed the little princes in the Tower of London? The museum leaves the question open.

From Monk Bar, a stroll down Goodramgate through King’s Square leads to the Shambles, site of the original butchers’ quarter. Half-timbered houses hang out over the cobblestones, and small shops offer china, clothing, jewelry, kitchenware and tourist items.

This lively shopping street brought me to Coppergate, where remains of a Viking settlement were uncovered in 1976 during excavation for construction of a shopping center. The Jorvik Viking Center, a reconstruction of Viking York, was built here on the site of the archaeological find. Descending through a simulated time tunnel, visitors are whisked into a Disneyland-style ride through a recreation of the site, peopled with life-size mannequins, and complete with sounds and, supposedly, smells. Reportedly the first simulation was too authentic, including fish piers, garbage dumps and open latrines. The smell was so awful it had to be modified for the sensitive noses of 20th century visitors. Now the restoration smells primarily of wood smoke and apples.

Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up parliament, is buried in the churchyard of St. Michael-le-Belfrey, and Dick Turpin, the infamous highwayman, is buried in St. George’s churchyard. In my short stay I missed a lot and I can’t wait to return. Situated half way between London and Edinburgh, York is a destination that should be included on anyone’s tour of the United Kingdom.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: IF YOU GO By train: Connections from York to London are frequent and reasonably priced. Trains leave London’s Kings Cross Station every 10 minutes for the two-hour trip. Birmingham is two hours to the southwest and Edinburgh is two hours to the north. By car: York is a few miles off the A1 London-Edinburgh highway, easily accessible from the M1 and M62 motor ways. Where to stay: Room rates at Elliott’s Hotel (Tel. 623333) and Abbot’s Mews Hotel (Tel. 634866) are about half what you’d pay in London. Both have a three-crown rating from the English tourist board which can also provide information on York’s many smaller bed-and-breakfast establishments, and on selfcatering apartments and camping areas along the river for summer visitors. Where to eat: Most hotel rates include a substantial breakfast. For lunch or supper, try Betty’s Tea Room in St. Helen’s Square. One of a chain, it offers coffee and pastries and delicious afternoon teas and suppers, reasonable prices and a good location for people-watching on the square. Also try The Four Seasons Restaurant on Goodramgate for British cuisine, or The Black Swan for pub meals. York Tourist Information, De Grey Rooms, Exhibition Square, York, England YO1 2HB, Tel. 621756. (to call from Spokane dial 011-44-1904 first, then the local number), is a good resource for brochures, maps and accommodation.