York- Stonegate

There's something about York that makes it one of my most favourite cities in the UK- along with Carlisle.  Breakfast in York is something to look forward to as well.  If you're pushing the boat out then there's always Betty's Tearoom with its Art Deco refinement, tinkling ivories and old fashioned service.  And that's before I get as far as actually tucking in to my full Yorkshire breakfast.  Of course, there's history here.  Go down stairs to the basement and you'll find a mirror covered with signatures and emblems.  This is a memorial to the flying crews based around York who came here while they were off duty.  It's easy to loose track of time as you study the names and yourself- it is a mirror after all.

Then its on for a spot of shopping.  St Helen's Square is the lynch pin between old York and the modern shopping centre.  Before the Eighteenth Century it used to be a grave yard but when the new Lord Mayor's mansion was built it was decided that perhaps a mansion with a view of a graveyard wasn't really what the mayor needed.  Recent additions to the grave yard were relocated down Davygate and the graveyard was paved over.  This knowledge has rather ruined my reading of a murder mystery series set in York.  The opening paragraph of the first book has the hero walking across the square.  The only problem is that he's about five centuries too early - or the square is about five centuries too late.  Either way I have difficulty suspending reality after that.  Does anybody else have those kind of problems when they read historical fiction?

Head up Stonegate towards the Minster.  Today its full of designer boutiques, galleries and antique shops.  By mid morning you can hardly move for shoppers and tourists but if you arrive early enough you can enjoy a spot of window shopping and take in the history as well.  Stonegate was the Via Principalis- the main road to the Roman army headquarters- buried beneath the Minster these days.  Its shop fronts echo the Viking shop fronts from Jorvik and if you follow the little alleyways and snickleways you'll find yourself travelling back in time to Medieval York and Eighteenth Century coffee houses.  But if you haven't got time there's always York's little Red Devil chained to his post- a reminder of the printers devil's who used to run with hot print to the presses that filled theses shops.  Lawrence Sterne's Tristam Shandy was published here.  There's a ship's figurehead- slightly dented but a reminder of the tea trade, a medieval Bishop's palace masquerading as a china shop and a royal coat of arms as well as one of York's oldest inns named after Charles I.  He made York his capital for a while.  Though fortunately for York he went to Nottingham before raising his standard and kicking off the English Civil War.  Nottingham paid a heavy price.  York was fortunate in other ways as well.  Thomas, Lord Fairfax, a Parliamentarian who laid siege to this city was a Yorkshireman and ensured no harm came to the city or its wonderful collection of medieval stained glass.