I
knew of an all day parking area on Nunnery Lane near Micklegate, so we parked
the car (I backed in this time after being chastised by my English friends) and
decided to walk the York wall towards the train station. The walk was fantastic, with the sun shining
(the weather was spectacular on the entire trip) and flowers in bloom on the
hillside. The train station is so close;
we thought it might be fun to take the train up to the town on a future
trip. The river near Tanner’s Moat was a
stopping point for boat tours and for canal boats. We were getting thirsty (or at least Matt and
I were), so we popped into the Maltings (http://www.maltings.co.uk) for a drink. I saw that they had one of those beers with
an impossible name, Comrade Bill Barton Egalitarian Anti-Imperialist Soviet
Stout, a wonderfully complex Russian Imperial Stout on cask that was more of a
lunch (malty, roasty) than a thirst quencher.
Next
it was time for lunch, so we headed off to a place that a friend of mine used
to frequent when he lived in York. The
York Hogroast isn’t a pub (although it is next to the Old White Swan), but it
is a carvery where you can get fresh cut meats on a sandwich. Jenn got the turkey with cranberry sauce
(hold the stuffing please), and I got the roast beef with horseradish. We split a bag of crisps, and sat out in the
park right next to the York Minster. The
Minster has become one of my favorite sites in England, and to enjoy the day
sitting out under the sun was remarkable.
We had ducks for visitors (they were polite and only took what was
offered) and got to people watch (another of my favorite pastimes).
One
of the things I like about traveling with Matt is that he likes to try out
different pubs. So after we finished
lunch I had assumed that we would immediately move on to climbing the Minster,
except Matt indicated that he was thirsty and asked if I knew any other good
pubs in the area. Of course I did, so we
headed out Monkgate and headed over to the Tap and Spile. When I had originally researched the pub, I
had assumed that it was “Spire” being so close to the Minster. However, it is spile, a small wooden peg used
to control the flow of air for cask ale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spile). Well the place had an outdoor biergarten that
we hung out at, and I had the Rooster Yankee, an English Pale Ale that was
quite drinkable. The pub has a TV that
continuously plays Simpson episodes, and Homer quotes on the wall. Needless to say, if I lived in York, I would
be hanging out here all the time.
So
I pumped Jenn up to do the York Minster climb, overselling the beauty and the once
in a life time experience and underselling the tight quarters you have to go
thru to get to the top. There are parts
on the climb where both of your shoulders are rubbing the walls, and being a
tad claustrophobic, she was a real trooper to make it to the top. The view was spectacular, and I was able to
play “tour guide” and point out the sites around town. She was glad she did it, but probably won’t
do it again.
More
to Jenn’s liking was the Shambles, a set of shops where they had been operating
for hundreds of years. I enjoyed the ice
cream (Jamaican Rum Raisin) and Jenn perused the chocolate shoppes, the fun
part about this are of town is how the buildings lean over the street (quite
quaint). Next, the ladies checked out an
open air flea market (cowboy hats, anyone?) while Matt and I went to the
Yorkshire Terrier for an ale. The
Yorkshire Terrier is one of the local pubs for York Brewing (http://www.york-brewery.co.uk/), and
since I had visited the others (Last Drop Inn, Three Legged Mare) I thought
that this might be a good place to rest.
I was right, enjoying a Conqueror’s Ghost (different from their Centurion’s
Ghost?), a dark ruby ale at 5.4% ABV while resting my legs (that Minster had a
lot of steps). It was a good day, but we
had a drive back to Derby and it was time to get on the road. It was Sunday after all, and the entire town
shuts down at 5PM.
We
decided to go for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the Midlands, the
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (http://www.triptojerusalem.com/)
built in the side of the Nottingham Castle.
The Trip has been serving ale to beer crusaders since 1189, and since I
had checked that they had food service into the evening on Sunday nights (not
always a guarantee in England) I thought it was a good call. We all got fish and chips, but only I was
brave enough to take on the mushy peas (really tasty when you mix in a bunch of
pepper). I had Greene King’s The Sorcerer,
a beautiful English Bitter that went well with everything. It was the perfect ending to a long day. - 6000/12153“Beer, the cause and solution to all of life's problems.” – Homer Simpson
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