York, UK

We ate Yorkshire pudding in York. And we weren't fans. Too doughy. Olie preferring the mashed potato to wipe up the gravy rather than the traditional batter cake. And it wasn't our first time either. But it seemed like the thing to do whilst in the city that lent its name to the food. Our first Yorkshire pudding experience was part of the dish eaten in Oxford "Toad in Hole" (sausage inside a Yorkshire pudding). The pub, "Eagle and Child" is definitely more famous as the drinking den of authors JR Tolkien and CS Lewis than pub chain food.



York City
The city is a historic time-capsule - full of buildings and artifacts dating from the Roman founding in 71 AD and the Viking city of Jorvik during the Middle Ages. Our weekend trip there was a nice country-side break from busy London town, that is most noticeable on the trip home.

Plenty of places to explore

Is it a bus or is it a train?
The trip there was more memorable for a few reasons that should now be considered as advice and future reference to anyone thinking of travelling to York using the budget Megabus option (£36 return for 2 people).

We discovered three important things that early Saturday morning.
1. St Pancras is not the same train station as King's Cross, unless you are taking the Underground.
2. Do not assume that just because the transport provider has the word 'bus' in it, that it is actually just a bus you need to take on your journey.
3. Both stations (confusingly) have train services that go to York.

When our Megabus electronic ticket stated 'St Pancras' as the departure destination, we assumed that it must refer to a 'bus' stop in the vicinity of the Underground stop 'St Pancras / King's Cross'. Fine. We allowed 45 minutes 'contingency time' just in case there were a delay on-route due to the seemingly endless 'engineering works' that close transport on the weekends in preparation for the Olympics.

To be on the 'safe side', Mei consulted Google maps on the precise location of this bus stop so we wouldn't be walking around the place aimlessly. Olie's quote at the time: "how hard could it be, it's not like it's an airport or anything"
....well just like the level of (non-existent) customer service we received from a certain budget airline that is now grounded but shall remain nameless....Megabus also falls in that category and 'you get what you pay for'.

Megabus's website was unsurprisingly silent on where exactly the departure point was. Another Google search then pulled up a forum where it was revealed that Megabus only departs London from one place - Victoria Coach station. Hmm....this was strange. Why did our ticket state 'St Pancras?'

Then, Mei stumbled on the piece of information where the 'penny dropped' in a backpacking forum. A traveller was expressing his experience trying to travel to York with Megabus and spent over 2 hours hunting throughout the station looking for the coach stop, only then to consider "what if Megabus is actually a train??"

The maze that is Kings Cross/St Pancras
When we arrived at the Kings Cross/St Pancras Underground station, we noted at the top of the escalator there are two options. 1) turn left - enter 'St Pancras International'. 2) turn right - enter 'Kings Cross'. The guard at the gate asked us where we were going.To our reply of 'York' told us it had to be 'Kings Cross'. That made sense to us. Why would we go to 'St Pancras International' if we were travelling internally in the UK?

So off we wandered with about 10 minutes spare before our boarding time. However looking at the Departures Board at Kings Cross, there was no 8:15am service to York. Hmm....very strange. Another officer dressed in a transport uniform then told us "Megabus not here. Go next door". Ok. But next door is  St Pancras International.

Thinking whether there was a possibility that our ticket stub was actually correct in saying our departure point was St Pancras station, we crossed the road and got increasingly nervous as we had 5 minutes spare and no idea where and which train to board. Then Mei thought back to her early morning research that brought up the name East Midland train service. Giving that a shot, we walked to the East Midland train service counter and to our surprise (and relief) they didn't redirect us elsewhere but gave us two orange tickets for the gate and we boarded with 0 minutes to spare.

A long commute
The journey took approximately 2 hours by train and then a further 2.5 hours by the Megabus coach from East Midland Parkway, an interesting station situated right on an 8 silo power plant.

Publicity photo of East Midland Parkway train station 

City of Flowers

When we finally arrived in York, we noticed that the city is incredibly pretty with flowers decorating the main streets and window ledges around town.

Flower pots hanging along the lane-ways

Flowers decorating window ledges

The gardens along the city wall

Flowers decorating a traffic intersection

Historic Sightseeing
York is also a favourite destination for tourists as it has a number of historic sites to visit. Our 2 days in the city were packed with sightseeing activities as we navigated through the cobblestone streets laid over ancient Roman roads.

Signs marking out the old Roman roads and fortress

Remains of the Roman Wall

Ruins of St Mary's Abbey

York Minster
York is famous for its Minster - one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in Europe and an imposing part of the skyline.

Nice Gothic architecture

The Minster on the skyline

City Walls
The medieval part of York is surrounded by a wall that contains a number of 'bars' which mean gates, as 'gate' in York means street. The most famous being Micklegate, where the decapitated heads of traitors were put on spikes as a warning to the public.

Olie climbing the city wall

Olie at Micklegate Bar

Olie standing on the city wall walkway

Cliffords Tower

Putting our English Heritage Pass to use, we climbed Clifford's Tower - the ruins of York Castle that lost its roof when a St George's day gun salute accidentally ignited gun powder stored in the castle, the explosion colouring the limestone walls with shades of pink.

Clifford's Tower, on a mound built by William the Conqueror

Inside Clifford's Tower

Climbing up the narrow, spiral staircase

View from Clifford's Tower

City Sightseeing Open Top Bus
Disappointingly for Olie, it was revealed on the open-bus tour that Braveheart was historically inaccurate and William Wallace was never entertained at York Castle - one of the prime drivers for us choosing to visit York.

On the open-top bus rides that revealed the history of York

Working on our tan in the UK summer

Jorvik Museum
Our trip would not be complete without a 'museum' activity. Jorvik (the old name for York) is a Viking museum that has an appearance of a plain brick office block from the outside but is actually built over the remains of a Viking village discovered when the new shopping centre was being built.

Entrance to Jorvik Viking Centre

Olie getting friendly with a Viking

Over 40,000 items have been excavated from the site, including Viking skeletons and weaponry used by Vikings that lived in England prior to the Battle of Hastings. The museum came with a 'ride' that simulated everyday life in Viking times, as well as the infamous 'Lloyds Bank Turd' - per Wikipedia reference below:

It was found in 1972 beneath the site of what was to become the York branch of Lloyds Bank and may be the largest example of fossilised human faeces ever found. Analysis of the nine-inch-long (23 cm) stool has indicated that its producer subsisted largely on meat and bread whilst the presence of several hundred parasitic eggs suggests he or she was riddled with intestinal worms. 

Party York
Surprisingly, we did not expect that York would be a target destination for Hen and Stag parties - but we saw no less than a dozen different groups brightly dressed in all sorts of outfits (and all sorts of creative headwear) hitting the streets and bars on Saturday night.

One of many Hen's night groups happening in York

A town of geese
York may have a relatively small city centre, but it does have a very strong party atmosphere when the sun is out, beer is flowing and the river geese are honking. And the geese are numerous and very tolerant of humans.

Mei and geese along the river bank

And with all the tourists around, they inevitably obtain a free meal on human food. Which makes them look rather plump and perhaps were the town's main food source prior to the modern age.

River geese with Olie

Love Cats
Contrasting York's bird population is its interesting obsession with cats. Cat themed gift shops and presents lined all the main shopping areas, including Fossgate and The Shambles. The cat, a trademark of a famous York architect, is displayed no less than 23 times on buildings around the city.

Spot the cat

Besides cats, one can imagine that York's two rivers - Ouse and Foss are also full of fish, with us seeing a large number of people spending all day fishing under the hot sun.

Bridge near Fossgate

Relaxing by the riverside

Home to London
The return trip was drawn out by a good few games of iPad scrabble and the dread of Monday morning work. That feeling was emulated throughout the tube station at London Bridge where we joined the multitude of people returning from their European weekend trips, slowly trudging back to their London homes and balancing oversized wheeled luggage on escalators clearly not designed for this purpose and unsurprisingly we got our first experience of Tube escalator dominoes.

How to play? Have a person with large luggage fall on their back awkwardly as they reach the bottom of the escalator. The angle that they land must block off the entire width of the escalator, so that no one coming down the 'fast'  left hand side can escape. The luggage must also be large enough that it prevents any person behind jumping over it in the 1 sec of warning between seeing the guy fall and having the 'oh shit' moment. This then triggers an inevitable chain reaction pile up. Unfortunately for Mei, she was second in line after the guy who fell, landing on top of the girl in front who also had luggage.

Other commuters rushed to help, pulling the original guy away from the escalator. However he was quite large and this took a number of attempts. Olie triggered the emergency 'stop' button, receiving a nasty burn from the escalator railing - what a finish to an eventful weekend away.

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