Day 5-6: York, England, UK
I don’t even know where to start with York. It’s so cute. It all feels a little fake, like a renaissance festival but it’s real, every day life. This post is gonna be almost 100% pictures with captions, because otherwise I’ll just be writing “this was so cute!” and “that was so cute too!” over and over. But get there someday if you can. And stay at the Moxy hotel when you get there. Hands-down the best hotel I’ve ever stayed in. Not in a fancy way, though it feels plenty fancy for me. But in a fun, welcoming, lighthearted way while still being comfortable and efficient. It gets all the stars. So does York. Gold stars all around!
Cuteness right off the train! Someone made a knit-graffiti Viking!
If you’ve heard anything about York, you’ve almost definitely heard of The Shambles. The area looks and feels a lot like Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books and movies.
It seemed safer to take a photo of this place from the outside. Not sure that building could take the weight of an American family.
A real live witch!
Note the Ukrainian flags hanging. There was a man walking around collecting donations for Ukraine, and he plans to keep going for 6 months. The community of York seems to have rallied around Ukraine beautifully.
York Minster is the opposite of The Shambles - grand and intricate.
You can walk the perimeter of the city (or at least the perimeter from Roman times) in long chunks of the city walls. The walls themselves are full of history and also give you amazing views in every direction.
One of the entry points onto (into?) the walls.
Story, practicing her imaginary archery skills by pointing into the city at the good guys instead of protecting us.
Mike and Story atop their noble steeds, Golden Boy and Ebor.
The check-in desk of the Moxy Hotel, where an arriving guest had requested a picture of Nicolas Cage in their room (and so Moxy obliged).
Moxy lobby had swinging chairs, games, books, and free cocktails.
Moxy: breakfast while coloring pictures of Snoop Dogg.
Back to exploring. This time, Clifford’s Tower. Sagan said, “I fart in your general direction” and made my heart swell with pride. It does look very Monty Pythonesque, no?
More evidence of support for Ukraine. Very sweet.
York fully embraces its links to Harry Potter.
Sometimes embracing the Harry Potterness does not include paying for trademarked property rights.
More gold stars for creativity and making me giggle, though!
Wand Dog might be a stretch.
Ummm, more British sensibility and brevity. Yikes.
Onto the next city, with our faithful pack mule Story leading the way.
