York - Shops, Alleyways and a bit more.

There is always too much to see in York that this set was difficult to edit down into a part 2 of 3. This set is a pot pourri of most of the daylight hours taken outside in and around the streets. I have acquired a lot of digital material from my last three trips that I need to save some for another time so as I do not bore you excessively in numerous subsequent posts. I have plans to return here in the first week of March for an event with friends. (Need to book my train ticket quite soon for that to get a good rate.)

sunrise in Petergate

As I said in my last post, after sunrise, I went for some breakfast and to think about my plan for the day. My plan consisted funnily enough of nothing recorded on this post except the Christmas market post (shown earlier) and something I am keeping up my sleeve for another time.  This set was essentially J_on_tour observations of the day.

After Breakfast, I wandered along Stonegate (picture in last post) and decided to take a shortcut to Petergate (also shown in last post) via some alleyways....

and eventually leading to the most famous street in York called The Shambles, which is sometimes referred to according to some Newspaper polls as the most picturesque street in Britain....

spot a straight line !

It is certainly a well preserved medieval street that takes it's name one way or another from an old saxon term.... The street of Butchers !! ...

....where there are always interesting things to discover for the tourist, shopper, photographer, but unfortunately for some..... not Butchers anymore !!!

window shopping

I'll show you more of the overview of The Shambles in the next post (the tease that I am !!), but for now I continue my tour in a clockwise direction around the city down to the bottom of the Shambles and across the road where I stumble on an alleyway leading to Lady Peckett's yard........

A mix of 16th -19th century

....... that I thought I recognised but I knew I hadn't seen before. I have been to York more times than anywhere else and had always missed this view, it turns out that I commented on it earlier in cranberry morning's York post.

Just around the corner is an award winning Yorkshire produce shop called The Hairy Fig that sells specialist cooking oils, vinegars and high quality Yorkshire food produce.

Immediately beside The Hairy Fig shop is a tunnelled walkway to the The Merchant Adventurers Hall built in 1357 for the early merchants to discuss business and have social occasions....

Strangely enough, things do not change much as it is now open for hire as a wedding venue, no doubt a wedding photographer would try his or her hand at some garden shots..

Across the street and through a short open shopping centre, I arrived at Clifford's Tower (1st image in this post). This was originally known as York Castle built to order by William the Conqueror in 1068 and was burned down twice in the early years by rebels that didn't like William the following year and later for harbouring Jews in the Crusade times. During the 13th century, the Castle was rebuilt in stone and it is unfortunate that the the Tower should be now known as Clifford's Tower due to Roger de Clifford being hanged there. Nice !!

All lines lead to the door... and then vanish !

Nowadays the hollow building is owned by English Heritage who try and keep the landmark in the public eye. The best selling point of a visit here is probably the views of the city... but for me, that is for another day. A coach party arrives and there seems to be enough business at the moment.....

"How many more steps do we have to climb?"

It is about this time that the traveller gets weary and hungry. Despite using the facilities of the Christmas market, many tourists feel the need to visit the famous tea shop....

Unfortunately what they do not realise is the expense of such a visit and more to the point, the length of waiting time outside to enter....

"To warm myself up, can I afford two teas when I reach the door?!"

This scene is repeated at all times in the year and I must confess, I still haven't had the patience or money to stand in the queue. There's only enough time to do a bit of window shopping...

"we feel cold just watching them queue outside"

Meanwhile, just around the corner from the door a group of buskers try to rustle up enough money to get a cup of Betty's tea !

Betty's fund !!

Lastly, I came across an unusual shop called "Give the dog a bone" which at first I thought was a pet shop but it turns out it is a gift shop not for pets as I thought next but for Adults who have an interest in pets... although it is not necessarily anything to do with pets either.. confused ??, I am !!

"Hey, are you not going to buy me a present ??!! "....