York; Sunday, 09 June, 2019

I had a nice lie in and a late breakfast before heading out in the sun to the bus stop near the hotel to pick up the sightseeing bus.

York is always a pretty city, but it is much nicer in the sun rather than the rain, so I did a full circuit of the city in the open-top bus taking in both the sights and the sunlight. By the time I got off the bus at Bootham Bar it was around lunchtime so I quickly popped into a café for a light bite before having a wander through the narrow lanes of the old city centre, including the very touristy Shambles area.

My wandering eventually ended me up back at Cliffords Tower and this time I did decide to climb the 50 or so steps to the entrance to the tower and then the 50 or so more steps inside the tower itself to take you up to the battlements at the top.

After taking in the views, and the information panels about the history of the castle located on the ground floor of the tower, I headed back down to ground level and had a wander around the Castle Museum before picking up the last open-top tour bus of the night back to the hotel.

I quickly freshened up and then headed back out to take a walk around the city walls. The almost complete set of walls run around the edge of the Medieval city, with many of the gates and towers still standing. I started at the Fishergate Postern Tower, near the hotel and slowly made my way anti-clockwise around the walls.

I did two of the three major sections of wall from Fishergate to Bootham Bar before heading into the city centre to get a quick evening meal, before heading down towards the station and completing the final section of the wall down the west and Southern sides of the city back towards the hotel.

By the time I got to the hotel it was starting to get dark and the process of locking up the walls for the night was already well underway (thankfully I’d checked and they start locking up at exactly the same place I started my walk and go anti-clockwise as well round the walls, so there wasn’t any chance of getting locked on the walls, or finding a section already closed and having to walk back.)

Back at the hotel I had a quick nightcap in the bar before taking my now very weary legs to bed.