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

The post Adventures in Historical York: Vikings, a Castle, and Wizard Golf appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This family vacation to the United Kingdom was extra special to me because I feel like it was a once in a lifetime kind of trip.

Our time together with our children is short. The preciousness of this time became so apparent to me once our oldest went away to college. Plus, he insisted on skipping this trip. It was impossible for him to obtain summer employment if he was constantly leaving town on all my family adventures.

He was right about that. I fully understand. When you have several children, there are not infinite resources. The kids need to make their own money and build their own work experiences.

But we still have three boys at home. One is barely a kid. He graduates this year! I feel like we need to squeeze in and enjoy all of the family adventures we can get.

Our road trip to York was a huge blessing because it brought us to York, and we loved York!

We even got there in time to walk the ancient, well preserved walls of York that night! I want to tell you all about it!! We had the best time in this city.

We woke up early that morning in our hot Stonehenge hotel.

I think it was John David’s birthday. Or was that the day before? He was such a good sport about not having a birthday party because of this trip. There was no cake even. I think he received a birthday brownie at a to-go shop instead.

The hotel did provide a small grab-and-go breakfast that morning. I’ve never enjoyed a bowl of oatmeal so much. It was oddly delicious that day.

We packed up and headed out bright and early. For our road trip, we rented a Mercedes SUV. Our three youngest boys were all crammed in the backseat. They found the most comfortable seating arrangement and stuck to it the whole trip. There were many complaints on the lack of space from our six-foot-two seventeen-year-old.

About twenty minutes up the road, I realized I did not have my phone.

What’s a road trip without a problem to solve? I am notorious about leaving things behind as well as never knowing where my phone is, so this should come as a surprise to no one.

Alan was a good sport and whipped the car around and headed back to the Stonehenge Inn.

Phone obtained, we headed out for real this time.

Before our trip, we’d talked to our friends Roger and Christine about traveling through England. They’d told us England has many rest stop areas on their interstate-like highways. These rest areas are much like the ones in the Mid-Atlantic/New England areas of the USA. They have gas stations and fast food grouped together.

These rest areas are much better than most of the USA’s interstate exits, where you have to drive through many traffic lights and fight traffic to find gas and food.

Some of these rest areas were extra nifty and built the food court right over the highway. I enjoyed that.

Another English oddity we discovered was that all of the self-serve soft drinks at every single place we ate only served diet drinks. There is an up-charge for beverages with real sugar, as the country is trying to discourage everyone from drinking sugar. As an American, it was puzzling when my choices were Pepsi Zero, Pibb Extra Zero, or Fanta Zero (or something like that).

I kept thinking, “Where are the real cokes and Sprites?”

Also, they love Starbucks in England. It was everywhere.

I never saw a Dunkin’, but Starbucks was at every rest area. In fact, at the first stop, you could buy Starbucks in three different ways in one giant parking lot. There was a free standing Starbucks. Then the gas station had a mini Starbucks inside, as well as grab-and-go iced Starbucks coffees in a refrigerator.

This was a major win in my book. I do love an iced sugar-free vanilla latte.

It became apparent that if we wanted to make it to York in time to check in, we had no time for side quests.

We only stopped for lunch. Then we did a little exit off our path to drive through Warwick. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of Warwick Castle.

Though we never made it to the castle, we did drive through a small part of the town. It was still fun to look at. Towns in England look much different than towns in America. They are ever so much more ancient.

Goodramgate Apartments in York

I knew we needed to get to York and check in to the apartment I’d reserved for us before six o’clock. Goodramgate Apartments has an office, but they close early. In fact, it seemed like everything in England closed earlier than we wanted. If you don’t eat before six, good luck eating!

These apartments are super cool. It is run like a hotel, but they are all real apartments that have been renovated to serve guests hotel-style. It was much like renting a condo or beach house.

In York, you park in a car park and then walk where you want to go, for the most part.

There is also public transportation, but we stayed so close to everything we never needed it. We were able to literally walk every where. I loved this.

All day, the boys looked forward to having air-conditioning again.

Thankfully, our car was air-conditioned. I had to break it gently to the boys that I was pretty sure our apartment would not be. The English do not seem to think they need air-conditioning. Their country is much cooler than the American south. It is more like Massachusetts. However, even Massachusetts and London alike get hot enough in the summer.

Thankfully, the boys liked having our own three-story Victorian townhouse with privacy and a full kitchen so much, they actually forgave the lack of cool air.

Goodramgate Apartments has several different types of rooms to rent. We stayed at Ebor Mews, which is one hundred fifty years old. It felt like we were getting a truly local experience. Our apartment was across the street from the gate to York City Walls. I loved it because we were in the middle of everything we wanted to see.

When we first arrived, the place was every bit as hot as the Stonehenge Inn, especially on the top floor, where the bedrooms are.

Once we pulled down all the blinds, cracked all the windows, and strategically moved all the fans, it was a little better. Outside, it was nice and cool by seven o’clock each night. We stayed in York for two nights.

This was a nice place to stay. The only people who had a hot night were Alan and me. Our window, on the third floor, did not open. We had to rely on a small standing fan.

The youngest boys slept in the living room, with the biggest window, down on the second floor. They said they actually got cold at night! There was such a good breeze going in their room.

Finding food that night in York at seven o’clock was not easy.

After the long road trip, we wanted to stay close to our town house. Most places on our street were closed or converted to bars for the evening. Drinks you could find easily, but food was another story.

Thankfully, we found this American themed restaurant, Fancy Hank’s, where we were able to order delicious food for everyone.

They even had their gluten free items marked on the menu!! I was so happy. Their kitchen is not always open that late, so don’t go expecting it to be open at seven. They had a larger party with reservations that night, so we were lucky.

I ordered the BBQ pulled pork loaded tater tots. It was delicious!!!

That was such a happy night. After we ate our Fancy Hank’s take-away food, we walked across the street to explore the York City Wall.

Our townhouse was literally connected to the Monk Bar (a huge gate on the wall). The walls of York are one of the main attractions of the city, and it was right outside our door.

We loved this. If your group includes energetic boys and parents who love history, walking walls and castles is the perfect vacation.

I think it was after nine o’clock before it got dark, and the weather was perfection. We walked until we ran out of wall and then walked back.

The boys of course had to sit on top of the walls and windows in different places. There are parts where the wall is narrow and parts where it widens to look-out points and turrets. It was everything you’d want it to be.

And it was not crowded at all! Both nights there was hardly anyone out there!! How is this possible??

I think this was our whole family’s favorite two nights in the UK. We loved it. We goofed off, ran around, climbed where we could climb, read the information, and had ourselves a jolly good time.

I wish we could do this everyday!

Touring York was right up there with the Tower of London. We loved it so much. The walls were our favorite part, so we did that both nights. These photos are all from the first night.

We did so many things in York! I will tell you all about York day two in my next post.

Just know that I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to visit York if you ever get a chance. It was a blast.

The post Once in a Lifetime Family Road Trip to York, Our Favorite English City appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.