To the North - A weekend in York

Last weekend S and I ventured north to York.  We happened to choose the exact weekend that the real Winter finally decided to show its face and let me tell you the closer you get to Scotland, the more unforgiving the weather.  It was positively freezing but the mulled wine kept me warm (drunk even, a rather strange feeling when you are sightseeing in the middle of the day.  S found it amusing.  I was just warm and tingling!).

York is a gorgeous town with a fascinating history.  At various points in history it was dominated by the Romans, the Normans and the Vikings!  Constantine was even declared Roman Emperor in York.  Historically, York has always played an important role in England.  It was once the second largest city in England and has always been the heart of religion in this country (until of course Henry VIII arrived on the scene).  Even now, the second born son of the sovereign is titled the Duke of York.

The town had a lovely old world feel about it.  It was full of narrow winding streets (called Snickleways), tea houses and antique shops.  We loved walking down The Shambles (one of the oldest market streets in England dating back to medieval days and even noted in the Domesday Book).  We also loved having lunch and afternoon tea at Betty's, a Victorian tea house which was very cultured indeed.  Real tea leaves, silverware and freshly baked scones = heaven.

The star of the town is clearly its Minster - a massive Gothic cathedral with the largest stain glass window in the world.  It is the headquarters for the second highest archbishop in England.  We were lucky enough to attend a carol service inside the Minster along with the town's entire grey haired population. It was lovely and the organ was impressive.

On Sunday, we ventured even further north to the magnificent Castle Howard.  The castle is set on 100,000 acres of land and was used in one of our favourite films/book - Brideshead Revisited.  It is still lived in to this day by Lady Howard, her husband and children (Octavia and Merlin - what cool names).  Each of the rooms were decorated for Christmas, were lit by candlelight and had real wood fires!

Some family on my dad's side originally come from Whitby in Yorkshire so it was really lovely to see that part of the country.  We had yet another lovely, relaxing weekend away.

E&S
xoxox

 Clifton Tower - Part of the old York Castle

 Hot mulled wine - yum!

 York Minster

 Ice sculputres doted through the tiny streets which were part of the Angels Festival at Christmas which also had snow machine spit snow off the roofs.  

 The dining room set for Christmas lunch at Castle Howard.

 The foyer at Castle Howard

Soooo cold!

Aquae Sulis (a.k.a Bath)

S and I just enjoyed a lovely long weekend in Bath, South West England. We had been meaning to visit Bath for some time. Mainly because of E's obsession with Jane Austen. Persuasion is E's favorite Austen novel and it was written by her whilst she was living in Bath.

What we didn't realize was that Bath is full of history that we never knew nor expected. We both learnt an awful lot that weekend.

Possibly the most impressive sight we saw was Bath's namesake - the Roman Baths.  The Romans found the hot springs in 43AD and then used it as a spa resort and temple to the goddess, Sulis Minerva (who they thought warmed the hot springs) for 400 years.  When the Romans left, the hot springs were "lost".  How one loses a hot spring is beyond us.  They were refound by the Georgians who thought that the hot baths also had healing qualities.

We learnt an incredible amount about Roman history by visiting the structure that they built around the hot springs.  A large majority of the site and associated temples are below ground and historians believe it could sprawl for many more miles. The Romans were so advanced - beside each of the swimming bath were steam rooms, massage parlours and drains.

We took a great walking tour that showed us all of the other sites we wanted to see in Bath.  Extremely informative, the walk took us to the Royal Crescent, the Circus, the Pump Room and Bath Cathedral.  It also taught us about the iconic Bath sandstone (used to rebuild the city).

It was intriguing to learn that after years of neglect, Bath was effectively remodelled and rebuilt in the Georgian times so that the Royals (and high society that followed) could use Bath as a resort town.  It was a bustling city full of prosperity, society and wealth.  People would bring their daughters in order to find them a suitable and wealthy husband.  Characters like Beau Nash dictated social etiquette (some of which we still use today).  Three men were charged with rebuilding Bath (Beau Nash included) and E was particularly interested in the one responsible for architecture - his style was based around the notion that everyone should live in a palace.  The Royal Crescent and the Circus were E's favourites (and indeed very palatial in style).  

We treated ourselves to a posh lunch in the Pump Room and also drank some of the "healing" hot spring water.  In the Georgian times, the Pump Room was used by society who travelled to Bath especially to drink the healing water.

Since we were so close to Stonehenge we decided to also visit the 5000 year old rock formation. Who knows who built it and for what purpose.  All we know is that you can definitely feel the importance of the rock structure as you walk around it.  Usually when you travel and site see you get the answers but this site left us with a lot of questions about what this site was used for and by whom.  We're sure that whoever they were, they were more advanced than we think...it is no coincidence that the rocks aligned with the sun's positioning at different times of the year, month or day.

We spent Sunday afternoon relaxing in the Thermae Spa (the modern day version of the baths) which has a rooftop heated pool with an impressive view. Our favorite part was the scented steam rooms. Especially the one that was mint and eucalyptus scented.

We stayed in a lovely little Manor Cottage just outside of the centre of town and enjoyed some very lovely meals (including a Jamie Oliver restaurant).  It was a deeply relaxing holiday - walking, seeing, eating and spa-ing.  We left Bath feeling revitalised and recharged...just how the Romans and Georgians planned it!!

E&S
xoxox

 The Royal Crescent

 The Circus

 The River Avon

 One of only three bridges in the world that doubles as a shopping street (the others are in Italy)

 Inside Bath Cathedral

 Cute little Tea Shops everywhere

 S the French man

 Stonehenge