Adventures in Historical York: Vikings, a Castle, and Wizard Golf

With only a few days in England, I chose York for several reasons:

1. Rick Steeves said I should, and he would know.
2. They say it’s the most Medieval looking city in England, and that is perfection.
3. It is located between London and Scotland, and I was determined to experience Scotland, so it was on the way!

We were staying at Goodramgate Apartments, which we enjoyed. That meant we were on our own for breakfast though.

By the time we all took our turns in the bathroom, Wheldrakes was finished serving breakfast and we had to order from the lunch menu. It was was around 10:30am. We never could match our vacation eating clock to the normal schedule of an English person!

The boys wanted to protest and revolt at the idea of ordering sandwiches instead of scones or pancakes, so we had to maintain the peace with the boys. Apparently, I have not fed this family enough sandwiches. They act as though it’s a second rate meal. I personally think sandwiches are delicious!

In the end, everyone enjoyed their food. There were many gluten free options. The waitress said they are even careful not to cross-contaminate. AND! And, and, and…..THEY HAD GLUTEN FREE CAKE!!!

We learned what a “toastie” is, and after all the complaining, I think everyone had a delicious lunch after all.

I cannot believe I did not take a picture of the gluten free cake slice I ordered and took back to our room. It was my breakfast the next day. When you are gluten free, and you get to have cake at a restaurant, it’s a very big deal. I think it was lemon poppyseed, or something like that. So yummy!

We were so close to our apartment, we were able to run my cake back to our fridge before starting out on our big day in York.

We had exactly two goals as we started out: Shambles and Jorvik Viking Center.

The Shambles is one of the streets York is most famous for. There’s an open air market during the day. This place still has original medieval buildings standing and in use. According to the website, the cobblestone street with the overhanging buildings was originally created that way to block the sun from ruining the meat that was for sale.

People believe the Shambles inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films, though it was not filmed here.

When we set out on our day, we thought we were headed towards the Jorvik Viking Center first.

But, like all good tourists, we got a little turned around and ended up at Clifford’s Tower first instead.

And yes, I did a great deal of this trip in dresses. I packed these two and did a laundry day at the apartments, since we were not about to pay for checked luggage for five people. I may do a whole blog post about travel clothes because it’s kind of a big deal.

To make a long story short, people dress better in Europe. It wasn’t as drastic in the U.K. as it was in Italy, but they are less casual. I saw no one touring in full workout gear, like we do here in America. Plus, if you wear a little pair of thin shorts under your dress, it’s crazy comfy.

This was the moldiest building I’ve ever seen. The mold makes it look ancient. I forgave it because I figured it was five hundred years old, but no. It is only two hundred years old. Not that anyone asked me, but I think they need to tear it down and start over. Compared, to half of York, it’s not all that historical.

Clifford’s Tower is a historical gem!

We learned all we needed to know about York’s back story from this one stop.

Every crevice of this castle tower held a history lesson with multiple first-person accounts of past events. It took us from the Norman invasion of Jorvik and building the original wooden tower.

There were years of Jewish persecution. In 1190, when the Jews of the town were trapped in the tower, hiding from a local mob that surrounded the tower, wanting to kill them. These Jewish people baricaded into the tower and ultimately killed themselves and each other to escape being killed by the mob of angry citizens. That wooden tower burned down, and the current Clifford’s Tower was built in the same spot sixty years later. (For more on that story, go here.)

There were years of soldiers stationed in the tower. In Clifford’s Tower, there is an audio and written story of the great Clifford’s Tower explosion, resulting in the pink bricks and the soldiers no longer having to live in the tower.

The castle histories also take us all the way up through years of desertion when the castle was overgrown with nature and a tree in the center! It was fascinating!!!

The gray bench you see in the big doorway window there is one of the information benches. You can sit on these and listen to a York historical account, involving the Tower, told in the first person perspective of a past resident.

I loved this. We all headed up the stairs, but I got whoozy headed up on the upstairs landing and made my way right back down. I’m not good with open-air heights. I wish I were!

The boys headed on up and out to the roof deck where you can look over the city. I spent my time downstairs listening to all the histories.

You can see Alan and two of the boys looking down on me from the roof. That was cool.

Clifford’s Tower is the closest thing York has to an actual medieval castle now.

And it is well worth visiting! I’m so thankful we didn’t miss it. This is a hard city to make a call on because I couldn’t cut out any of the things we saw from any agenda. We saw the Shambles, Clifford’s Tower, York’s City Walls, ate at a couple of local restaurants, toured the Jorvik Viking Center, and played mini-golf at A Hole in Wand, and I wouldn’t skip any of it!

We left the tower, bought a few drinks from a food truck, and set back out on our quest to find the Jorvik Viking Center.

It was close by. In the city center of York, it isn’t very far to walk anywhere, which is so convenient. Of course, my poor arthritic feet were killing me anyway.

Upon arrival, we learned that the Jorvik Viking Center requires timed tickets.

Half of me was ready to just chunk the activity. What if it’s just a cheesy, kiddie type deal? It could be a total waste. Alan went online and found times we could sign up for just a couple of hours away. Plus, if this place has such a long line that you need timed tickets, maybe it is valuable after all.

I do travel in a man-pack, so things with the work “Viking” are usually well received.

Once Alan secured our tickets, we decided to use our small window of free time to go back and see the Shambles.

We’d passed by a little of it earlier, but we didn’t realize it. It was a charming, and genuinely unique.

Then it was time for our Viking Tour!!

Before it was called York, it was Jorvik, pronounced Yorvik.

At the Jorvik Viking Center, you learn a great deal about the Viking history of the city. They have found so much archaeological evidence of the Viking settlement. It was fascinating to learn about.

The center has a ride where you learn about the Viking settlement and how they lived. This ride is worthy of Disney World! It is that impressive. It has the animatronic type people, and some of the people are designed to look exactly as Viking skeletons they have dug up at this very site.

This was splendid.

After the ride, there is a museum. This area of the museum had Viking-like weapons and such you can try on. The boys enjoyed that, of course.

From what I read while in York, when the Normans invaded, they cleared out Jorvik, threw the Viking inhabitants out of their homes, and moved in themselves. The Anglo Saxons were there in York as well. They were there before the Vikings. I think it would be so interesting to dive in and read all about the history of the people of York.

After the Jorvik Viking Center we decided to try out the cool looking “Hole in Wand” we’d found across the street.

The younger two boys agreed on one thing: they enjoyed the destinations. They hated the constant, walking and looking, walking and looking.

This has been a problem everywhere we have taken them. There seems to be a certain age you need to reach before you appreciate simply walking around a noteworthy city. Caleb was old enough to enjoy the walks. The others, not so much.

Again, when you travel in a pack of boys, you cater to the pack.

If the chosen activity is a mini-golf place, fully themed out Harry Potter style, I can easily get on board with that. We all had a great time, though some of us were a little extra competitive.

We now all know which family member to be afraid of when playing mini-golf, and no, it isn’t me. Don’t worry, no one whacked their club on the ground Happy Gilmore style. There was whining though.

The entire family was on board with trying this out, which is rare indeed.

At the end of your golf game, you show your scorecard to the front desk, as everyone will receive a potion prize.

The potion is a soda. They come in different colors and flavors, depending on your prize.

Alan won, the boys all got odd number prizes, and then mine was the funniest. I was last place. The man looked at my score card and said, “Oh! Not a wizard!” So I got a different ‘potion’.

I got a kick out of that.

After golf, we searched for a place to eat and ended up settling on Pizza Hut.

They had a family deal and gluten free pizza, so were please as punch.

Alan and Caleb wanted to keep exploring York after dinner, but my feet were beyond pain.

I could barely walk, so the younger two boys and I headed back to our apartment to rest a while.

Alan and Caleb found all sorts of things to include York Minster and this Constanstine statue.

York Minster is truly a must see, with its enormous stained glass windows. I mean technically, I only saw it from a distance, but somehow I still feel satisfied since Alan and Caleb saw it. Ha! They represented us and they took nice photos, so I’m happy.

York Minster has seen a royal wedding, several fires, wars, and many renovations. This is an active church and the seat of the Archbishop of York.

York Minster is open for tours as well as worship services. You can buy tour tickets on their website. None of us took a tour though. Maybe next time.

“It is a Yorkshire habit to say what you think with blunt frankness.” Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

I find it so incredible how much of a mark the Romans made on the world!

After strolling around York, Alan and Caleb rejoined us, and we walked the York walls again.

We wanted to walk a new area of the walls, but they were closed off for renovations, so we settled for walking the same walls as we walked the night before. Everyone still had fun.

York is the place to be!

We would have been happy to stay there another couple of days! The next morning we packed up and drove up to Stirling, Scotland, with one detour on the way to visit Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall. I’ll tell you all about that next time

If you missed our other adventures in England, see those posts below!

London Day 1: Buckingham Palace, Kensington Gardens, etc.

London Day 2: The Tower of London and Prime Meridian

Stonehenge

Road Trip Through England to York’s City Walls