Today was mainly a tour of the old city of York. We divided into two groups, each with a York guide, and visited the notable sites about the city. Various streets and ruins still remain from Roman days, and there are also remaining structures, ruins and streets from the Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans. Of course the dominant structure in the city is the beautiful cathedral York Minster.

The medieval wall built in many places along the original Roman wall is another of the key features of the city, and on our tour we walked along most of it. I was surprised at how favorably Richard III is looked upon here in York. Perhaps he is another victim, along with Macbeth, of Shakespeare’s plays. This reminds me of the saying, “You do not learn history from Shakespeare!” Another dominant structure is Clifford’s Tower, the site of a fort constructed by William the Conqueror. The stone tower dates from medieval times and was the scene of the tragic siege and mass suicide of 150 Jews.

For lunch we had the quintessentially British lunch of fish and chips, with mushy peas, at “Wackers”. Linda of course would not eat the fish so she had a steak-and-ale pie. It appears that most of us thought the ‘fish and chips’ were pretty good.

We had a free afternoon, but many of us joined Peter to attend the Choral Evensong in the minster. This was about an hour’s service with beautiful music. We then had dinner and prepared for our move to Edinburgh on the morrow.