The City of York

After leaving Cambridge we headed to the ancient city of York. The city’s past includes occupations by barbarians (from Barbaria), Romans, Vikings, and the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (from Protestantia). We entered the coordinates for St. Mary’s street in York and headed northeast. Again, the girls slept most of the way.

We arrived at the first of our bed-and-breakfast places. This one was called 23 St. Mary’s. We chose it because of a great rating by Rick Steves, god of American travel in Europe. And he was spot-on. The place was great. We were met by our hosts Chris & Julie Simpson. The place was spotless and very cozy. And you couldn’t find nicer people. We quickly settled in. I went downstairs to get my laptop running so the girls could check their myspace accounts. And I struck up a conversation with a wonderful couple from the Cotswolds. This is the best part of B&B’s. Getting to know real people and “sharing” a home with them is just the best. The B&B’s turned out to be our favorite accommodations just for that fact, plus the great breakfasts.

That evening we headed inside the city walls to find a place to eat and enjoy a pint. We found a very old tavern with sagging ceilings, plastered walls, and the faint smell of tinkle. Every eating establishment in the UK smells a bit like wee, especially the old places. But I digress. We enjoyed our meal and the girls, because of the lower drinking age, enjoyed a half pint of hard cider. We wandered around town a bit but because of the late hour most everything was closed. So back to the B&B we went.

We spent the rest of the evening talking with our new friends down in the living room. We talked about life and politics in America, the price of gas and what we eat in California. We talked about how they live and how we live. And they are always curious about the American West, as they put it. As we found out, the Britt’s love to travel to Las Vegas. I’m not sure why since America has so much more to offer than Las Vegas but they seem to be fascinated with the place. They often speak of the city, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. I think they get exposed to a lot of advertising from Las Vegas. But it seemed like any Britt we talked with that traveled to the UK had been to Las Vegas. Craziness.

It was off to bed and a good night’s sleep. Outside our window we could see York Minster lit up a few blocks away and we knew that the next day would be a good day. As it turned out, York became our favorite city.