Day Two: Bristol to York

We managed to get on the bus just on time this morning as I’d synced my watch with the bus, which is a few minutes fast. Then we were on our way to York. When we arrived Geordie couldn’t park the coach as the bus parking was actually flooded, so we did a suspicious drop off and crossed the road to Clifford’s tower

Anna took us through the streets of York, down The Shambles and towards York Abbey where we finished our walk. Ash, Cam, Justine and I then headed off to buy some Cornish Pastry’s for lunch, meeting up with Jeremy and Ben before heading to the wall of York. We walked around the wall, finishing up at the opposite side of York Abbey, before heading into a pub so the others could try some ale tasting. Our next stop was going to be York Cathedral, but as it was a Sunday we couldn’t climb the tower and decided against it. I think we’ve seen a lot of churches at this stage so we’re not too bummed if we miss one.

Instead we wandered around York where we found a Peter Rabbit store, and another Disney store. As we’d walked the whole day with Justine telling me I should have bought the giant Simba we’d seen in Bath the day before, I walked out carrying an enormous Disney box. Now I have a friend for the plane. We headed down to look at the Viking Jorvik centre and shop, where there were some spectacular horns. If they weren’t made out of real horn I may have had a hope of getting one back to Australia. I didn’t want to push my luck.

With about an hour before we had to meet with the group for dinner we sat in a pub where we found Graham and Rosa, and Ash, Jeremy, Ben and Cam had another ale tasting. We then met up with the group to visit another pub on the river where we were eating our dinner that evening. With all the rain from the past few days the river was flooded right up to the doorway and we had to enter the pub from the kitchen quarters. We were eating upstairs, so that wasn’t a worry, and were treated to a roast with some Yorkshire pudding. Delicious, but being a bias I still think Mum’s is better.  

We left the pub and headed to today’s optional activity, a ghost tour of the town of York. To be walking around any vintage British town at night is eerie, but to be told about the haunted buildings and windows, and standing in alleyways that give you tingles, is not really my cup of tea. Justine was willing the ghosts to appear, I was about to crap myself. It didn’t help that we hadn’t checked into the hotel yet and had to drive half an hour into the middle of nowhere before we could settle into our room. This did not help my nerves in the slightest.