Day 17, June 30, 2024 Edinburgh, Scotland to York, England

 

Up and ate  breakfast and one more walk to the train station. We walked a lot of miles in Edinburgh. We chose a less expensive place to stay out of the hustle and bustle, but this meant more walking. 

Everything went well on the train although it was so crowded we couldn’t sit together for half the time. But a couple hours later my, we were arriving in the ancient city of York.

We were pleased that our Airbnb this time was only about 10 minutes from the train station and we had made arrangements to walk over and drop off our luggage early. 

Right away we noticed the city. One of only three intact walled cities left in all of England. The walk was easy and it was only a little confusing trying to find the exact address. Most of the streets didn’t seem to have street signs, and when we got to actually the right street, the guy at the restaurant that we stopped to ask didn’t even know what the name of the street was that the restaurant he worked at was located on.

Once we found our address, and the bar next-door where we could drop off our luggage, we were set. We found our Airbnb hosts have been so gracious of allowing early drop off of luggage and sometimes check in early. Especially when you’re working with public transportation, that is such a blessing. 

So we found a restaurant that looks good, had some lunch and begin a little exploring of this new town. In Edinburgh we had been out of the hustle. For York, we were smack in the middle of the tourist zone. This was a little overwhelming. But, we hoped it would work out for us. 

Soon we got the text that our airbnb apartment was ready for us. This was in an old building and the bedroom and bathroom were on one floor with the kitchen and living room on another floor. We were concerned that there would be a lot of street or other noise, but it was quite a quiet place.

After a little rest, we went over to the Minster, which is the large Gothic cathedral in the town. Before we were quite ready to go over, the bells and carillon at the cathedral started ringing. It was just delightful, and Dick went out with his camera to see if he could capture some of the sounds of the bells ringing. They actually went on for nearly an hour, and he was able to walk all the way around this large cathedral basking in the beautiful music.

Then we went for the evening service. The minster was only a two minute walk from where we were staying. Many of these churches have often daily late afternoon or early evening services that feature choir. The choir for this was especially beautiful. The church was built in something like 1300 or earlier. Other churches had been on this site before this particular one. It is massive and gorgeous. We both agreed that it’s one thing to visit these fabulous buildings as a tourist and take photos, but to be there and listen to the music and the message as had been done for hundreds of years, this was how these churches were meant to be experienced.

We again took advantage of having a kitchen in our little apartment and got some grocery store tomato soup and fresh bread. After some of these busy days, it’s nice to have a simple meal that we can cook ourselves.

The town of York is known as one of the most haunted towns in all of the UK. It was here that some of the very first ghost story tours started over 50 years ago. There were a dozen or more groups that now did these tours. We felt like we should at least take part in one of them, which we did. This was led by an actor who really enjoyed playing some of the really creepy spooky aspects of the town. And for an hour, he let us around to different places and gave us just taste of some of the stories of tragedies, murders and deaths in this town. It wasn’t the most spectacular show we had ever seen, but it gave us another taste of this interesting community that we were joining for a couple days. Then, back to our apartment and off to sleep.