We used to visit the Yorkshire area fairly regularly when our boys were wee, then for years we didn’t go anywhere because they didn’t want to leave their friends, computer, computer games, and were generally miserable away from home, so there was no point in going anywhere. They they got to the teenage years when officially we could have left them on their own but although we could have trusted them to be sensible, it was a bit of a worry that others might realise there was a house with no parents around and it would have become a Facebook party disaster area!

So it was nice for us to revisit York on our own after so long away from it, mind you it doesn’t really change. As you can see from the photo below of the famous Shambles area. York is very busy at the best of times and we did get stuck between a large party of tourists, it makes it difficult to photograph things, they were probably complaining about us being in the way! We had to go back later to take this photo otherwise it would have been just full of people.

This part of York is just outside the Minster which is why it’s called Minster Yard I suppose. It’s very chocolate boxy and would make a good jigsaw puzzle. We visited the Treasurer’s House which is near this part, it’s another National Trust property.

I think the building below must be one of the best looking locations for a shoe shop. I still find it amazing that such old buildings are still in everyday use.

What no photos of York Minster?! I hear you say. No, not one, as you can see from this one it’s in the background swathed in scaffolding like almost every ecclesiastical building we’ve been to recently. It’s a never ending battle to keep them standing and I seem to remember that York Minster was built on sand so they have a tougher time than most trying to stop it from falling down. You can see images of it here.

Never let anyone say that we don’t have talented stonemasons around nowadays. This yard just by the Minster is just about the most interesting bit of York. You can watch really talented masons at work and given the amount of beautifully worked stone around, all carefully numbered of course, I think they must have just about renewed every stone in the Minster over the years. Women carve the stones too, they must have great muscles.

York was enjoyable but tiring. We didn’t go to the Yorvik Centre this time. If you have kids with you then that’s a must to visit, then at least you can have a sit down whilst you get whisked back to Viking York.