That Grand Old Duke of York...

Clifford's Tower build by William the Conquerer in 1069.  It is a Motte and Bailey style castle.

It's a long way up and down.

....he had ten thousand men!  He marched them up to the top of the hill, then he marched them down again.  Now that you have that little ditty stuck in your mind.....  York is a fun place, even though we didn't run into the Duke!

Stairs to the tower.

View from the top.  There used to be a roof, but it was accidentally burned while firing a cannon in a ceremonial salute.  Bet that soldier didn't get a promotion.

This fort was also used as a prison for a while.

York has been at the center of history since before there was an England.  The Romans came to rule the locals, then the Vikings, and finally the French who then turned into English.  Whenever Scotland caused a ruckus, York seemed to be in the middle of it all!  Which means, there is a lot to look at in this town.

Looking from the tower across to York Minster.

One of the original gates into the city. 

A Roman column found while excavating around the Minster.

We parked the car and walked in what turned out to be the right direction.  Bill wanted to find the old city walls and the Castle Museum; we found them  both!  The walls are two miles around.  One can walk most of the way on top of them.  We did about a half mile, on walls that had been rebuilt in the 1800's.

It was warm in the sun, so we bought an ice cream from a 1948 van.  Bill's flavour was Hokey Pokey.  I had chocolate.

In the museum, there was a pharmacist telling how he increased his business.  Most of the drugs in the 1800's had opium in them.

A horse drawn hearse.

The Castle Museum was full of displays related to York, of course.  One section was store fronts with cobble streets, washing hanging out, horses pulling carriages in the middle of the street .  Another had rooms furnished according to the time periods,  from early 1600's on.

St Michael le Belfrey, across the street from the Minster.  This is where Guy Fawkes was baptised in 1570.  He later went on to attempt to blow up Parliament.

Walking around York was interesting.  The main downtown area is all pedestrian traffic only.  There was a huge amount of people, both tourist and locals, out shopping.  We had planned to see the Minster, the Gothic cathedral, but there was a 10 pound per person fee, so we declined.  If we had been staying overnight, we would have gone to their Evensong service, with no admission fee.  Looking around the outside, we decided it was very similar to the cathedral in Strasbourg.

Bill having fun as a highwayman.

It was very hard running away from a highwayman; my wig kept tilting in the breeze!