York; Sunday, 21 December, 2003

Sunday dawned bright, clear and cold over the city so the obvious thing to do was to warm up with a quick walk. The biggest site (in terms of scale) in the city are the old medieval city walls. Despite the best efforts of the English Civil War, The Georgians, The Victorians and the 20th Century massive sections of the walls still remain intact. There are three major sections that you can walk round totaling almost 2 miles in circumference.

So with the sun barely up in the sky (It was the shortest day of the year) I started on Section 1 of the wall. The main reason to begin with was to visit the museum located in one of the former gate house (or Bars as they are called in York) - Micklegate Bar. Unfortunately, despite York tourism web site insisting that it was open, it was closed so I carried on walking round the walls until they met the river Ouse at the site of the old castle.

After a quick stop for coffee it was time to step back a couple of centuries more from the Medieval walls to the Viking history that has made York (or Jorvik as the Vikings knew it) world famous.

The Jorvik Viking centre is a combination of a museum and a dark ride that tries to explain something about how the Vikings lived when they settled in York and to show off some of the finds that they have made over the city.

After the Jorvik centre, as it was freezing cold, I decided to pop into the York Dungeon. The Dungeon is laid out in a similar way to the Edinburgh dungeon and still reflects the grizzly and murky world of the past, but from a Yorkshire view!

After a quick stop for lunch I rejoined the walls to walk round section 3 stopping part way along to visit the Richard III museum in Monks Bar. The museum is a strange mix of information. Part of it is about the Bar and the walls (including the fact that it still has a working portcullis.) The remainder of the museum is set out like a trial explaining the murky history over Richard III and the allegation that he had his two nephews (the actual king and prince of Wales) imprisoned and killed in the Tower of London so that he could assume the throne. After listening to the arguments for and against you can vote yourself as to whether you think the original "Tricky Dicky" is guilty or innocent.

I finished walking round the walls to Bootham Bar including spectacular views of the back of the Minster. After that I had a quick wander round the grounds of the Yorkshire museum and gardens to view the remains of St. Mary's Abbey which was destroyed after the Reformation.

Then it was back to the walls to complete section 2 of the walls from the site of the Old Castle round to the back of town.

Next stop was the Art Gallery, I'm not into art massively and this collection is not massively spectacular but it is housed in a warm building out of the, by now, bitingly cold wind!

After a quick stop at the hotel to rest my feet and to have a quick bite to eat it was time to set off for another ghost walk. This time starting from the Jorvik Viking Centre.