Yorkie Porkie Pie

York Minster was the first stop for today. We booked in for 0930 and it was only a 10 min walk from the hotel.  Once we got there we had a little wander around by ourselves and then joined a tour at 1000. We had some information given to us about the stained glass windows (so many of them and so beautiful), there was information about the fires that have been there over the years and how the minster has changed over the years. There has been a church of some description on that same sight since the year 627AD (no that isn't a typo). The present building was begun in about 1230 and completed in 1472.  The building is incredible and words and photos can not do it justice.  It has to be seen to be believed.  While on tour of the Minster, we got to go down into the crypt. There is also an underground museum where you are able to see the work they had to undertake in the 1970's to sure up the foundation.  This had to be done as the tower had started to sink.  Once they dug down to find out why, it was discovered that some of the foundations were built on top of Roman footings from an earlier version of the cathedral. Engineers and archeologists worked together to reinforce the foundations.

Yesterday evening while walking around York the Minster Bells were ringing and it was incredible to hear.  They were ringing for about 45 mins.

After the tour of the minster we headed and had an early lunch. We headed to the shambles market area and found a pork pie and pasty to eat (both delicious) and then shared a scone to follow.  After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a quick pit stop and then head out for a small walking tour of York.

On the walking tour we learnt about the 4 invasions of York (the Romans, anglo saxons, vikings and the Normans).  There is a ruin of an old Roman fortress which would have straddled the current walls to the city.  Along this piece of ruin you can see where certain settlements have added their bit of "wall" onto of older parts.  Each invasion brought with it different architectural styles of engineering styles so to speak.

We saw a ruin of an Abbey that Henry VIII effectively sent to ruin by asset stripping throughout the 1500's due to changes in religion.

We went and saw the house that Henry VIII stayed in when he visited York and where it was discovered his 5th wife was having an affair. This lead to her being beheaded in 1542.

After that we headed down some of the little side streets (known as Snickelways in York) we were shown the Minster briefly (thankfully we had done the in depth tour earlier in the day), and headed back to the Shambles to hear a little bit of history about that.  The reason the buildings in the Shambles are small at the bottom and larger at the top , is due to the fact that when land was purchased, they were taxed on the footprint at ground level. So people got smart and built small at the bottom and extended out into the street at the top.  This also helped when the shambles was a butchers street and the overbuilding high up meant that the meat hanging from hooks outside wasn't in direct sunlight. This also helped as in the middle of the street was all the waste bits of the animals that nobody could sell, as well as human waste that had been tipped from the top floors of the buildings by the families of the butchers. It must have smelled a treat. Funnily enough the Shambles was full of disease for a long period of time.

After the walking tour it was time for another quick pint (to get out of the rain of course). This plan didn't work as it was still raining when we finished (maybe we should have had 2 pints). After our pints we headed back to the hotel again and had a half hour rest and then headed out for an early dinner before we headed for a funny ghost tour of York at night.  This was a bit of fun and kept us out of the pub.