Rocks, Romans and Rupert's Royalists

Day Twenty-seven – York

Quite a busy and successful day today all up. Leaving Liverpool, travelling North and arriving in York...

We were up early to get ready to lave York and by the time we had breakfasted, packed up and sorted out the house it was close to our 10:00am departure time. As is usually the case, the were not supposed to be at our lodgings until later afternoon so we went looking for things along the way to break up the trip and keep us occupied.

The majority of the trip was motorway driving, passing quickly and without much of note. We tried not to look to the right as we passed round that horrible place in the North lest it offend our eyes. ;-) One thing of note DID happen, at one point we were passedby a Delorean, very lovingly restored and in apparently mint condition. It *wasn't* being driven by a crazy guy with white hair though...

Our first stop just before lunch was the Devil's Arrows, North of Leeds at a place called Boroughbridge. The Devil's Arrows are 3 standing stones, the tallest larger than any at Stonehenge. The stones themselves are quite an anti-climax, sitting as they do on the far side of a ploughed field in the middle of nowhere without any signage whatsoever. In the end we could only see two and didn't bother to stop.

Next up was far more interesting, the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum, now called Aldborough. There is a tidy little museum containing a decent collection of excavated jewellery and pottery, plus several really nice mosaic floors. The town itself is quite large and only a small section of the walls have been excavated.

Walking along the wall was quite pleasant in the sun but whenever the wind blew you could really feel the chill. Before we left we visited the museum again and James had a go at making his own mosaic – in typical James style a skull and crossbones. ;-) Just down the road we stopped quickly to see the 13^th century church and the battle cross in the village centre.

From there we stopped briefly for lunch before heading back South towards York, via Long Martson. This stop was purely for my benefit so I could visit the site of one one the largest battles of the English Civil War, Marston Moor in 1644. The battlefield itself is not much too see apart form the ridge and clump of tree where the Roundheads deployed with the Royalists under Prince Rupert of the Rhine (right on!). There is though, a quite large monument and a decent map plus brief history. All the surroundoing area also contains references to the battle in street names, etc.

The drive into York from Marston Moor was a short one and soon we were driving up to the city walls at Mickegate Bar. A right turn and we driving round the walls before turning inside to our lodgings at Kyme Street. The apartment is very nice if smaller than what we had in Liverpool.

After unloading the car we walked down into York and across the river to the tourist info centre to buy our Yorkshire Passes. Along the way we stopped to take photos here and there. On the way back we did a little shopping for the next few days and then settled in for the evening. There is SO much to do in York I'm not sure how we will fit it all in. The weather will determine what we do each day to an extent but with everything being so close we hope to get a couple of things done each day.

Cheers,

Millsy