Holiday Photos #29

I accidentally pushed "Publish Post" before I had anything but photos up, so I'm going to add a quick commentary to this and fix it before too many people show up and wonder what's up with the silent photos.

My favorite part of York was an area called the Shambles. Technically I believe only one street in this little maze of streets is called the Shambles, but I think a lot of people think of the whole area this way. It's an extremely well perserved collection of medieval buildings and it's like stepping through the brick wall and finding oneself in Diagon Alley. It's one of the few times in the entire trip that the focus was on shopping, mostly window shopping, and William didn't roll his eyes too badly as there was so much fun to see.

I couldn't decide which photos to share, so I'm just sharing most of them. A lot of these photos were taken after shop hours, which is why there are so few people. During the day the streets were pretty packed.

See how the buildings go up and over the tops of the street?

If you're from the UK, you're probably going "ho hum", but to us Yanks, these old buildings are like stepping into a movie setting. We don't have so much "old" over here. Unless you want to visit the Grand Canyon or walk in a Redwood forest, then we've probably got you beat.

Love this old black and white building that's sagging in the middle with age. And right to the left you see a gold ram hanging up there - that's The Golden Fleece, a pub and inn that's reputedly the most haunted in all England. William and I had lunch there, a very fine lunch indeed but alas, we didn't see any spirits except for the ones they served at the bar.

William was, for the most part, a delightful travel companion. He did have his moments however and I got a kick out of catching him having a bit of sulk with accompanying mood label on the bus behind him.


Is this a cool name or what? It was a pub below and an internet lounge above. It was really neat because along with tables and chairs, they also had cubbies full of cushions, beds really, where you could all pile in and have a drink and chat in a crowd.

Here's a fuzzy larger photo of the shop front.

On the recommendation of a friend, we went to an apparently well known tea house called Betty's Tea Room. We found out later that we didn't go to the main tea room but rather a smaller one they had near the Shambles. Look at those lovely sugar cubes - they look like tiny snowballs.

I ordered one of these rather frightening looking fellows. In the end though, my teeth were bigger than his. He was tasty.

Just another view of the wonderful streets. Is that a Starbucks sign there on the right? They're everywhere!

There's a name for this inset beam and brick building style. If I wasn't in a hurry, I'd look it up for you. Maybe later. But isn't it pretty? About the only time you see something like this in the U.S., it's fake, wood added after the fact for decorative purposes.

We found a wonderful little plaza full of outdoor vendors. I wanted to buy hubby a hat but didn't want to carry it around so we left and came back, alas, they'd closed up for the day. so hubby didn't get his hat. I did buy myself a couple packs of socks though, at another stall, which was a good memento because I wear them all the time and I remember this lovely trip every time I pick a pair out my dresser drawer. I can't look at this photo without wanting to go read one of my favorite children's book - Caps for Sale.

One more, with a peek of the Minster in the background. Next round of photos, we'll meet back up in front of it for a Ghost Tour.