York 2

York is a fascinating place. It is "the capital of the north, and the second city of the realm". It dates back to AD71 when it was built as a fortress by the Romans. In AD306 Constantine the Great was made Roman Emperor here.

The narrated tour on the hop-on, hop-off bus took about an hour, and with several hops, we completed the circuit three times during the day. We were still hearing new things on the third circuit!


The old city is full of narrow cobbled streets with lots of history. We saw where Dick Turpin was buried, but apparently he is not there any more! One of the more interesting stories was the reason for the number of bricked-up windows we saw. There was a tax based on the number of windows a dwelling had. This is where the saying " daylight robbery" came from.


This York minster is the fourth to be built on the site. It was built between the 12th and 14th centuries and is a very impressive piece of architecture.

York is also the home of Britain's national railway museum, the largest railway museum in the world. It has a huge collection of royal carriages. Over the years 28 trains have been built exclusively for the royal family. The museum also has a Shinkantsen carriage, recently donated by the Japanese. It looked just like the one Ann travelled on in the early 90s.


The museum is also one of the few places in the world where you can see the underside of a train and live to tell the tale!

;-) Ann-a-Gram