19 - 20 January 2008

This weekend, CEA took us to York! For those of you who are history buffs, I have included a little bit of history about this beautiful city below.

OVERVIEW
The city of York considered as the second city of England has probably the richest heritage of any, and is certainly among the best preserved.

York was once known as Eboracum and was founded by the Romans in AD 71 as a garrison for the 9th legion. With Chester (Deva) it was the only town of note in the north and as such was visited by Hadrian during the construction of the famous wall in 122. Septimius Severus.

The African Emperor (born at Leptis Magna in Libya) died at York in 211 and Constantine was proclaimed Emperor here in 306 later becoming famous for establishing Christianity as the state religion of Rome.

In the 5th century the legions were withdrawn from Britain and a series of invasions by Germanic peoples began leading to the creation of an Anglian kingdom in Northumbria (Daira) whose capital York (Eoforwic - a corruption of the Latin) became. During the Anglo-Saxon period the city was renowned for producing Alcuin, a learned monk brought to Aix-la-Chapelle by Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor.

It was in the ninth century that the Vikings or Norsemen arrived in York. They sailed up the River Ouse and established a base here, from which to launch their conquest of the north, renaming it Jorvik. Overcoming their tendency to plunder and pillage they established the foundations for a prosperous merchant economy which was to emerge in the Middle Ages.

Excavations of a Viking settlement at Coppergate in the centre of York have recently been converted into an innovative underground museum called "Jorvik” which vividly recreates the sights, sounds and even smells of Viking Britain.

The Vikings also left vestiges of their language, since in York a “Gate” is a street and a (city) gate is a "Bar" of which there are four dating from the C14, all excellently preserved. This has given rise to the popular description of York as the city….


MY OVERVIEW
We were lucky enough to have a beautiful tour guide, Fiona, along with us on this journey. She was so amazing with the amount of detail she knew about the history of the city. It was so exciting to listen to here, and really great as well to get to know her on a personal level.

We stayed in a youth hostel. I've never actually stayed in a hostel before. It wasn't too bad. Almost like living in the dorms.

Our first day there was on Saturday. It was a 2 hour train ride from London. It was so beautiful to see the countryside with the rolling hills and the herds of sheep. Once we arrived, we went on a walking tour of the city... through the tiny streets where meat was sold and pigs would roam about... down little passageways where small cafes could be found... over to the massive medieval church that houses the most stained glass in the World... and then over to a museum of the city displaying what it used to be like in the Victorian times to present. Around 5pm, it was dinner time at one of the many pubs and then off to a ghost tour of the city. By that time, we were all exhausted and couldn't wait to get back to the hostel to take a shower and catch some zzzzz's.

Sunday was a short day and we had little on our schedule since the train was leaving at 2pm. The group went to another museum called Jorvik (as you know from the overview above, that was the name the Vikings had given the city). I didn't go to the museum. Instead, I was on a mission to find a new pair of shoes and to do a little bit of shopping before we left. Shopping there, as you can imagine, is a bit less expensive than in London, so I definitely wanted to take advantage of that. Besides, there were a ton of sales going on that it was difficult to resist. The end result wasn't what I had hoped, but I did walk away with a beautiful purse (much needed) and a couple of pairs of stockings. Ah well.

We met back up and then walked over to a nice little sandwich shop by the river for our last lunch in the city and then it was off to the train station.

I absolutely LOVED York. It was so beautiful and such a great journey! Definitely wouldn't mind visiting there again some day... perhaps in the Spring or Autumn.