York and North of England Weekend Trip

Of course we had issues getting to the Baker Street meeting point again, but partly because of the weekend upgrades for the tubes. There were only 2 fully functioning lines and luckily the Bakerloo was one of them. But we got down to the platform and their were major delays so it took about 6 minutes from when I got there, and the sign kept getting corrected so we really didn't know when the next tube was coming. But managed to make it on time.

Only 60 of the 100 estimated people showed up so I ended up getting my own seat, which was nice. And I actually had the same tour guide as the first time, I really enjoyed her. She would tell us meaningful information. The bus ride there was about 4 hours roughly.

We arrived in York around 1pm and went on a walking tour and she pointed out some interesting things. She took us down to Shambles Road which is one of the most photographed streets because the houses were not only built up, but out and it's where butchers would sell their meat.

After taking us around the different streets and pointing things out we had some free time before we met up at York Ministries. It was cool to see York because a lot of the buildings were no younger than 600 years old. There were building that were built in 1166 there. It is always cool to see the places like this because of how old they are since the United States really doesn't have history like that, that dates so far back.

The York Ministries was quite a sight to see. I really enjoyed it. I tried to image what it would be like to attend a church service there. Nothing would compare. The place was beautiful.

Afterwards, we had free time until we left around 5pm. We were taken to where we were staying. This was an interesting situation. Since there were only 60 of us we did get to pick where we wanted to stay. Our options were a hostel in York which was about 5 minutes from the center of the city or a Days Inn hotel about 30 minutes away. I decided to pick the hotel because I enjoy the showers after staying in the dorm and I didn't plan on going out that night. A majority of people signed up for the hostel and only 12 of us signed up for the hotel. But because of how the social program works the hotels were already paid for so there were 13 hotel rooms booked. Therefore, they decided we all would get our own rooms. So it was well worth it. And come to find out the hotel was only built about 2 years ago so it was really nice. And even though it was in the middle of no where, there was a little shopping center next to it with 2 grocery stores, costa coffee, burger king, and a hot meals place (which is where I ate dinner). I ended up getting dinner and just watching tv in my room and taking it easy.

In the morning we left at 7:45 so I was glad with my choice. The hostel rooms literally had two bunk beds and a dresser. It was about a 1.5 hour bus ride to the first stop where we got to see an abbey. It was in a very secluded area and of course at the bottom of hill, the climb up was intense. It was about a 16% incline. After wondering around the abbey ruins I meant to walk around the small path because of the time limit and ended up on the longer path and when I realized it I turned around and headed back and luckily found a couple people from my API group wondering the wrong way too so I was able to help them out. It was a beautiful path and would be a great place to go for a walk.

Path

After leaving we spent another 1.5 hours on the road and headed toward Haworth where we visited the Bronte sister's house and museum. Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre (just in case you weren't sure). It was a cool place to see and learn more about them. And I was unable to take pictures inside but below is a picture of the outside of the house. 

Then we found out the bus ride home was estimated to be about 5 hours, which is why we left around 3:30pm. We ended up getting to Baker Street tube station around 9:30 and I made it back to my room around 10pm. so it was definitely a long weekend. But we got to see some cool things and I'm looking forward to our last weekend trip to Oxford this upcoming weekend.

York and North of England Part 1
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150326764125960.387776.501770959&l=0f800069c0&type=1

York and North of England Part 2
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150326765115960.387777.501770959&l=ceabb1ba3e&type=1