On to York

Dishes washed? Check. Train tickets? Check. Luggage packed? Check.

At 9:30, right on time, we walked out of our Paris apartment at 150 rue St. Honore, and headed down to the train station. It has really been a wonderful week in Paris, but we're looking forward to visiting England.

We took the Metro to Gare du Nord, but were almost an hour early for our train. So, we did the French thing; we sat and ate crepes. (Well, I did; Kathy had an Orangina.)

Going back from Paris, the Eurostar doesn't make any stops at all. We were back in London's St. Pancras station in a little less than 2 hours.

Our first order of business was to see about getting our BritRail pass validated and find out about the train to York. Both were easy. Since the train to York didn't leave for an hour, we went across the street to Barclay's Bank and changed our Euros into Pounds. Then we went next door and Kathy got a SIM card for England, so she could use the phone. (She also had to buy a new charger, because the one we had stopped working.)

Back in the station, Kathy noticed that there was a train leaving for Edinburgh whose first stop was York. (The York train I had planned to take stopped at every little village and took much longer to get there.)

Getting on the train was pretty stressful. Traveling on a pass, we didn't have any reservations, but it looked like all the seats were already reserved. We found one unreserved seat and Kathy took it, while I sat across the isle in someone's seat. A few minutes later, a lady came and claimed the seat next to mine. She told us, though, that not all he reserved seats were actually claimed, and that if the train left without the seat holder showing up, we were free to take it.

When the train pulled out, the reserved seat next to Kathy was still empty and so we got to sit together all the way to York. (I told her that there was nothing to worry about :).

Caelen Weber from Calvary Chapel York picked us up at the train station and took us to the flat that they let us use, part of the CC York, Bible College complex.

The semester ended two weeks ago for the Bible School, so they had room to let us stay. We had hoped to see Dave and Nancy Sylvester, but they had just left for speaking and the CC Pastor's Conference in the states.

By now, it was 6:00 pm and we hadn't really eaten lunch (other than an apple and some cheese on the train). Both of us were famished, and, to get into the swing of things, wanted to start our visit with some traditional fish and chips.

We had a recommendation from our guide book, but Caelen suggested another place, Harpers, which was a few blocks outside the city walls.

We ordered two fish-and-chips and picked up a couple of cokes. The portions were absolutely huge; nothing like H. Salt back in the states.

After eating as much as we could, we set out to explore the city before it got dark. (Actually York is so far north, that the sun doesn't set until about 10:00, and rises by about 6:00). We walked through the Walmgate, where CC York has a coffee shop.

It was closed; we'll stop by tomorrow. Continuing down towards the center of town I saw this plaque for commemorating the original name of the gate.

When we got to the town center, we walked by the statue of Constantine, commemorating the place where he was crowned Emperor in 306 AD.

We walked around the giant cathedral (the Minster) in the center of town; there were a few tourists, but it was mostly empty.

I was surprised, though, to find that even here in York, news of Kathy's birthday had preceded us.

Pretty tired, we headed back through the Shambles, one of the original midaeval streets that originally housed the city's butchers.