October 8 (City of York)

On Monday, we had to drop Rob’s parents in Northallerton for the day and then we stole the car for a trip to York, a historic walled city in North Yorkshire. I was particularly interested in seeing it because Toronto used to be called York. On the way there, we detoured to Linton-on-Ouse to visit the RAF base there. Unfortunately, since it is a training base, it was closed to the public but we managed to find the airstrip where the students were practicing their touch and go’s.

Rob went to boarding school in York and hadn’t been back since graduation. But he was sure he could find his way around. We parked at Bootham School and headed towards Bootham Bar, one of the four bars or gatehouses, leading into this walled City. Hungry again, we stopped for coffee, burgers and half a pint at the Hole in the Wall pub before walking along the City walls to Monk Bar. Descending from there, we ambled through the Shambles, winding our way down cobblestone pedestrian-only streets towards York Minster. I was stopping constantly, to take photos of funky shops, pub signs and flowers blooming in window boxes overhead.

The Minster itself was very impressive and while we went inside to have a quick look around, we did not pay the admission price. We also made a quick stop at Thornton’s in order to buy chocolates (Rob brought them back for me from his last trip and I love them!) and Marks & Spencer to take a look around. We used to have “Marks and Sparks” in Ontario but it was always quite conservative and, dare I say it, dowdy. WOW! Have they ever upgraded their image! We made the mistake of going into the women’s wear department and I wanted to buy everything I saw. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any room for extras in my luggage.

We finally left York (after stopping for a pee break at Rob’s old school – I thought they were going to kick us out for trespassing but no worries) and drove to the Yorkshire Air Museum at RAF Elvington. There were numerous WWII Artifacts including aircraft, bombs, gunner cages, uniforms, etc. There was also a large display devoted to Sir Barnes Wallis, creator of the R-100 airship and the bouncing dam buster bomb (May 1943). After a long day, we reached home in about an hour and had a casual dinner of bangers and mashed.