A Weekend Escape to Eboracum (York)

My eighth grade Latin teacher would be proud of me for using the Roman name for York in this title.  York is a city in northern England in the county of Yorkshire.   A few weekends ago, we decided to explore this historic city with some friends from Canada.  It is a beautiful town halfway between Edinburgh and London.  It's an easy two hour train ride and once again, I found myself enjoying a break from the big city.  York is a city with a history that goes back to the 70's a.d.  (not the 1970's either!)  It has been under the rule of Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans.  King George VI once said that the history of York is the history of England.  Battles were fought that helped to determine the fate of the entire nation. 

 We had perfect weather for the weekend and York is an easy town to explore on foot.  York's finest landmark is York Minster which you can see in the background.  It towers over the city and was built as a flagship of the Christian faith at the northern end of the Roman Empire.

a morning row by University students

York was built on the Rivers Ouse and Foss. It also has thousands of University students which come from all over.  We took an afternoon tour of the city and our guide was from Venezuela.  She had come to York eight years ago for an advanced degree in Ancient History and has been living in York since then.






On a tip from a London cab driver, we went to Betty's Cafe for brunch. The specialty was York Rarebit.  Here is our order that we all shared!

The Shambles is a street in old York with timber framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. Some say it is the best preserved medieval street in the world and was mentioned in the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror in 1086. 

near the Shambles, Saturday market

                                                             

a list of cheeses at the open air market

 I love this names of these cheeses.  As you would expect, the British cheeses are of all varieties and excellent.   It's hard to walk in to a grocery store and not come out with a new variety every time.  The name of the last cheese on the list is quite interesting although I haven't tried it yet.










The highlight of my trip to York was our visit to York Minster, the incredible Gothic Cathedral in the heart of the city.

York Minster

If you ever read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, you'll appreciate the artistry that went into the building of the English cathedrals.  It's absolutely astounding to me how these churches were built in Medieval times.  This is a view of York Minster from our hotel room. You can see how it towers over the entire city.  It's breathtaking.  York Minster was built as the seat of the Archbishop of York and worship has been offered here for about 1,400 years.   A "Mynster" was an Anglo-Saxon word for a missionary church.  York Minster is one the largest Gothic Cathedrals in northern Europe.

the gargoyles await you as you enter the cathedral

                        The Great West Window, also known as the "Heart of Yorkshire" because of the heart shape in the stonework of the top part of the window. It was finished in 1338.
       

the Great West Window

Gargoyles were used to take water from a roof and away from the side of buildings.  The gargoyle's grotesque forms were said to scare off evil spirits.


   

 The painted ceiling of the Chapter House dates from 1798.

We wanted to attend Evensong; however,there was a wedding that afternoon and so there was no Evensong.  We did however, hear the choir practicing for the wedding and see the ushers getting ready for the festivities.

the Grand Organ in the Quire

the front of York Minster

St. Mary's Abbey ruins

The Abbey of St. Mary was once the richest abbey in the north of England.  It was closed and then destroyed under Henry VIII and the only thing that remains today are these walls.

We walked the Roman wall of the old city

One of the Roman gates to enter the old city

                                                                

 Our weekend at York was a success.  We had time to relax, enjoy the beautiful Autumn weather, the company of good friends and take in the history that this city offers.   Of course, no visit to a cathedral city is complete without the ringing of the bells.  They rang continuously for an hour before and after the Saturday wedding and again on Sunday morning.  Enjoy!

A view of the English countryside from the train on the way back to London.

A Country Walk-Lewes to Saltdean

A Country Walk~Lewes to Saltdean

The South Downs Way and Virginia Woolf Country

There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country.  A fine landscape is like a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo.  Even a bicycle goes too fast.  ~Paul Scott Mowrer, The House of Europe

A few weeks ago, the American Women's Club scheduled one of their monthly country walks and I decided it would be a wonderful way to see some of England's countryside.  These walks are taken from  a book called Country Walks.  In Volume I of the book, they have 52 walks near London.  Most of the walks are an hour train ride from the city.  They are graded on a 1 to 10 scale for difficulty. The walk we took was a 4 out of 10 and it was about a ten mile hike.  I'm not sure I've ever walked ten miles in my life but I thought that's the equivalent of five times around Hudson Springs Park. I've never gone two times around Hudson Springs Park at one time, let alone five times, but I thought I would try it.  

   We took a train from London to the town of  Lewes (a  Roman settlement, Saxons built a castle here, Henry VIII built Anne of Cleves a house here that she never lived in.. part of the divorce settlement) and started our hike from the Lewes train station.  The South Downs is characterised by rolling chalk downland with close-cropped turf and dry valleys, and is recognised as one of the most important chalk landscapes in England.^[2] It is one of the four main areas of chalkdownland in southern England.^{[3] (from Wikipedia).}

The ten mile hike was spectacular.

The view was expansive and you could see for miles

Our two hiking companions

The walk followed ridges of chalk grassland that offered amazing views from all angles.

The hike quickly rose  (i.e. long hill) to follow a ridge along the top of the Downs, before descending down to the picturesque and historic village of Rodmell.  Rodmell is known as the village where the author Virgina Woolf lived for 21 years until her death in 1941.  She left the house for the last time on March 21, 1941 , took a walk through the local fields and drown herself in the nearby River Ouse.

Our lunch stop was in the village of Rodmell at Abergavenny Arms.  Here we are, outside the pub, after eating a delicious lunch, getting ready for the second half of the hike.

Our afternoon was filled with lots more hiking, including walking in between farmer's barns, up more hills , through more pastures, with cows staring at us and horses grazing in fields that seemed to be endless.  We walked through fields and we unlocked and locked gates so that cows, sheep and horses would not stray. 

We passed through a few more villages.  Telscombe, which has a parish church that dates back to the 10th century, reminded me of the fictitious TV village of Dibley. The village proper has 50 people.  Do you think they have a Vicar?

Stud Farm House

The Stud Farm House is a family farm house and a Bed and Breakfast and is located on the edge of the village of Telscombe.

leaving Telscombe village .  Stud Farm House is in the distance

After leaving Telscombe, we climbed (again!) and came over a ridge and this was our view.  You can see the English Channel in the distance, with sheep in the foreground.  As we came over the ridge, some of us had a "Sound of Music" moment (without the Alps).

We descended out of the Downs to the town of Saltdean.  By this time, the wind had really become strong and the walking became more difficult.  However, we knew we were close since the hike ended at the sea.    

The Chalk Cliffs at Saltdean

We made it!

After a short bus ride to Brighton, we took the 5:00 train back to London, arriving at Victoria Station in time for dinner.  What a beautiful hike in the South Downs of southeast England!

How can you explain that you need to know that the trees are still there, and the hills and the sky?  Anyone knows they are.  How can you say it is time your pulse responded to another rhythm, the rhythm of the day and the season instead of the hour and the minute?  No, you cannot explain.  So you walk. 

 ~Author unknown, from New York Times editorial, "The Walk," 25 October 1967