Yorkshire

After my trip to the Lake District, I also made a short excursion to York...beautiful country, but I wasn't as impressed with York as I have been with the other places I've been, especially right after such wonderful 2 days in Windermere. But it was fun none-the-less.
I didn't get in until fairly late that night, but the hostel i was staying in was an old mansion, so it was a really cool place in itself and had this really impressive grand staircase as soon as you walked in the door. The hostels get pretty full over the weekends, so thankfully I had prebooked by phone, but even as I was checking in, several people were turned away...and as they did, one of them muttered how this was the fifth place they had tried with no vacancies!
But anyway, enough of the hostel! the next morning I got up and wandered all over the city...from Clifford's Tower (the only remains of the great castle that used to be here in York), to the local market, to old mansions and such all over town. I also walked on the ramparts (the old city walls/fortifications)...there's a picture below.

The high light of it though was York Minster, credited as being one of the most impressive cathedrals in the UK and a great pilgrimage sight second only to Cantebury itself. It really was gorgeous, especially as you walked up to the narrow streets when all of a sudden is this gigantic, majestic building right before you.

I climbed up the central tower (at the top of a WHOLE, WHOLE lot of narrow, winding stairs) and got an amazing panoramic view of the city as a whole...really beautiful.
But my stay here had to be really brief, so later that afternoon I hopped on the train, and started back home, where at the end of 3 very active days, i sat down on my couch and promptly fell asleep at 9:30!