Wetherby

It was a bit of an effort leaving this morning. Our rooms were so comfortable and the breakfast room so bright and cheerful. When we managed to leave, we drove to the nearby park & ride to get the bus into York.There was a list of prices on the wall of the bus station, seniors concessions were not mentioned. It was going to cost £2.80 each, £11.20 for all 4 of us. We jokingly asked the bus driver if there was a discount for Australian seniors. He replied that there was a special group fare for 4 Australians travelling together of £7.40. We thought he was joking, but there must have been some sort of group fare that we didn’t know about, because that’s what he charged us.

Our first stop was Clifford’s Tower, the original keep of the motte and bailey castle. A motte is a hill, so the keep is built in the motte and the bailey is below. When we got to the ticket booth, we spoke to one of the English Heritage staff and we decided that it was worth taking out a year’s membership of the English Heritage. Clifford’s Tower cost about £5 each and we want to visit Dover castle (about £20 each), so with just these 2, we were almost up to the membership cost for the year. The tower is almost all that remains of York Castle built by William the Conqueror, and has served as a prison and a royal mint in its time.

 

The Shambles was next in the itinerary. Full of tourists (how dare they), but parts were great with buildings reaching out over the street, almost touching each other. Some of the buildings date back to around 1350.

 

Cafe Nero coffee was good and we went on to a beautiful old church, Holy Trinity, that, while is still consecrated, is only used 3 or 4 times per year. It dates from the late 12th century and is one of the most attractive, simple churches we’ve seen and is the favourite so far. Rick was allowed to ring the 14th century bell.

 

On then to the Treasurer’s house, another National Trust asset (or is it liability?). We spent about 1 1/2 hours there, expecting no more than an hour. The house was restored to its present state by Frank Green, a wealthy local industrialist, between 1897 and 1930. It has a history spanning 2,000 years, from the Roman road in the cellar to the Edwardian servants' quarters in the attics, and thirteen period rooms in between. The house and its contents were given to the National Trust in 1930, when its owner retired and moved away from York.

 

We then walked along a section of the city wall and headed to the National Railway Museum. Unfortunately the museum closed at 6 pm and it was about 4:30 when we got there. Still, probably better to see a little, too quickly, rather than see nothing.

 

Back to the park & ride bus and to the car. Looks like another late looking for accommodation evening. We didn’t realise how late. We started looking from about 5:30 and eventually found one family room in a big boxy 128 room hotel in a service area just outside Wetherby, the last room available. Cosy night ahead for all. No post tonight, Still need to add photos and it’s getting late.