A YANKEE IN YORK

Can you believe that the Brits and Scots call all Americans Yankees? I was a bit surprised and although some people here at home have said it's derogatory, I never got that feeling. Here's what I found on Urban Dictionary as a definition for Yankee:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

On to the story: Once Upon A Time a Yankee from Seattle arrived in York after a grueling train ride that included a really scary bathroom story, 2 train connections with a anxiety provoking 6 minute gap and some very loud, bohemian riders. I had to check my backpack at the "left luggage" (we call it luggage storage or check) for the day because my B&B didn't open for check-in until 5-6pm and the staff wasn't there during the day. Lucky for me that this particular train station was large enough to have a luggage storage. My room was super cute albeit a bit small but there was a writing space and a closet for my clothes and behind the door was a very nice bathroom. I liked it there.

Did you know that just about every city in Europe was a walled city during medieval times for protection? I didn't - never occurred to me frankly. Many of the walls surrounding York still remain and are cared for regularly. You can even walk on along the wall and look out from the Bow & Arrow turrets. In AD 71 the city was named Eboracum, a Roman provincial capital and the northern most city of the Roman empire. Emperor Hadrian's Wall is nearby and Constantine was proclaimed Emperor here in AD 306. After Rome fell the area came under the control of the Vikings. Some of their words have remained in use. In York the word "gate" = "street" and the word "bar" = "gate".  This picture is of Bootham Bar, the main gateway to the original city. This dates back to the 4th century.

These are the remains of St. Mary's Abbey that was destroyed by randy King Henry VIII.

Here's another Tourist Information office story: I asked about the Hadrian's Wall tour and two of the staff members there we so pleased to help me. We discussed the dates and times for the coach (bus) and the visiting center, etc. The coach required reservations and as I hadn't made any in advance, they had no openings. They tried to get me interested in some other things but I declined. On my way out I decided to ask another staff person and she gave me a brochure about Hadrian's Wall and it turns out that there is a public bus that does go to that location: I thought we WERE talking about the public/general bus. Oh well. At this point I realized that it would take an entire day and I probably wasn't interested enough.

One area of York that is really cool - and swarmed by tourists - but worth going to anyway, is the Shambles: an atmospheric old butcher's area. The word "Shambles" was originally "Shammell" - which meant - a butchers cutting block. These business owners built overhangs or eaves to hang over the front of the store so they could hang their meats by hooks for people to see. In addition, there was at one time a tax on the ground floor of any building based on square footage. Therefore, people built the first floor (what we would call the second floor) wider than than the ground floor of the building and so forth all the way up.

Iti was hard to get a good picture because the street is so narrow, the buildings so tall that without a ladder it wasn't possible to get the base of the buildings and the top. Plus, I was surrounded by a stream of people.

Many of buildings are protected due to historical value and are so old that they are leaning significantly and cannot be altered. However, they are allowed to change the inside so the British have learned to fix the inside structures of buildings without changing the outside, thereby making them safe to live in or continue business.

This is York Minster. The word minster comes from the Old English word "monastery" but is now simply used to imply that it's an important church. While Henry VIII destroyed England's great abbeys, this was not technically part of the monastery and was therefore left standing. During medieval times York Minster was a destination for pilgrims on spiritual journeys. The tower is 197 feet tall and can be seen for miles away.

I really enjoyed York because it's easy to imagine squabbles, wars and so forth taking place and soldiers shooting arrows from these walls.