York,England/Edinburgh,Scotland
Ever see three-story buildings on both sides of a street the size of an alley?
I bet the answer is “yes”.
Now imagine these buildings to be hundreds of years old and sagging/leaning over the small street as if they will fall within the month. I’m not done yet. Now imagine those same buildings with three stories, each story about 2-ish feet larger than the story below it, closing off the view of the sky; their sagging and larger top floors so close, a person could shake hands with his neighbor across the street from both their 3rd-floor windows. This is a street in York called “the shambles”. Way back when, it used to be the street of butchers. Some of the buildings still have hooks above the windows where meat and game were once displayed. The surrounding streets, while not as saggy, seem or are just as old. Walking through the town is almost like walking backward in time if it wasn’t for tourists and tourist shops abounding everywhere. On a tour we took of the town, our tourguide said during Roman times, York was the central hub of the U.K.. Now it survives on tourist dollars. There is a mostly intact wall around the town which Tim and I walked on. Great views surround you since the wall is very tall in places. This wall is complete with medieval gates with portcullises and barbicans. Very, very cool. One of the other great sites was York Minster. It is the largest Cathedral north of Milan, Spain. It is HUGE! Being from Minnesota, of the churches I’ve seen and I’ve been all over the USA, parts of Canada and some of the U.K., I could stuff at least 8 USA churches or 5 Canadian churches (or maybe 4 Oratories of St. Joseph) or 3 to 4 London churches into 1 York Minster. Unbelievable! (Yes, people could and will dispute this, I’m not infallable and could be entirely wrong on my church stuffing estimations and I haven’t seen every church; it’s true) The “feel” of York is very medieval romantic. Cobbled winding streets, called “gates”, ancient walls (the gates through them are called “bars”), old bars (taverns, pubs) create an ambience a writer would kill for in a setting for a story. I recommend visiting this city highly. ON TO THE NEXT CITY, Edinburgh, Scotland! What a fun place to explore, especially at night! Everything is lit up in the most picturesque way. First of all, Edinburgh Castle. This castle is a fortress. It stands on one end of the royal mile (a nickname for several streets right in front of the castle). It is on a hill/mountain of volcanic rock. One grassy side to the south of which is covered by an army of rabbits nibbling greedily at night-time. The castle is intimidating to look at and if I was a beseiger in medieval times, I’d run away. Inside the castle is an ancient church (a 1-room building) from the 1100’s, a medieval hall, an old prizon area, ruins from a tower toppled by cannon fire, the Scotland crown jewels, and lots of other neat old, old, buildings. Next, on the royal mile itself is every kind of touristy shop with Scottish flavor. Kilts! Kilts! Kilts! Whether you wear them with underwear or not, there’s one here for you. St. Giles Cathedral is also on the mile. It is very old and ornate and undergoing a refurbishment at this time to update and repair. On the way down to Holyrood ( a castle we didn’t go into) at the other end of the royal mile (YES, you heard me..DAN..didn’t make it into every castle :*() there is/are several pubs as well as other impressive churches. Near Holyrood is a mountain called Arthurs Seat. We went up the steep side, discovering the other easy way when we had reached the top. We saw some ruins to the north but still on the mountain and went to them. It was the ruins of an old monestery. Not alot there but very cool anyway. The pubs/taverns/bars in the city are very nice here. Many of them have live music of different types playing almost nightly. The one we went to had Scottish folkmusic that night and we could barely find a seat. One night we just walked the city snapping pictures.
During the day, as a side note, when we walked through the “not so touristy” areas, the buildings and streets struck us as very “cold and unfeeling”. The buildings were tall and cement colored blocks of rocks laid very bricklike and everything else uniform. It reminded me of an old movie called Metropolis. There are no trees or grass or even plants (very occasionally plants) on these streets. Also, very few people walked or drove in these places…deserted…creepy.
In any case, both York and Edinburgh are very nice places to be in September.
Write more later,
Dan
Tags: Europe
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