Happy Wanderer: London 2023 - Day 10 / York & London

23 October 2023

London 2023 - Day 10 / York & London

Steps today: 22 376 / 14.75km

This is the morning I apparently lost my mind.

We were off to York today, and the train leaves from King's Cross Station. I knew this. Don't ask me why but for some reason I had Paddington Station in my head. We arrived at our home Tube Station bright and early (we had set our alarms that morning to get an early start to the day) and I see that the Circle Line which would bring us directly to Paddington is not running due to maintenance, and the entrance to the District Line is closed too. Ok fine, let's get on the Piccadilly Line for one stop, and transfer onto the branch of District Line that also goes to Paddington from there (the 3 lines run together for 3 stops). So we do that, get on the suspiciously deserted platform for the District Line at the next stop and wait.... until finally a message: no District Line service all weekend due to maintenance. I am SURE there was a sign at our station too that I just didn't notice. Ok fine, on to Plan C. Back on the Piccadilly Line again for a few more stops where we can change to the Hammersmith Line that will also take us to Paddington Station. Off we go! about 45 minutes into this detour, when we were sitting in the Tube counting the amount of stops to go, THAT was when I realized we were supposed to be going to King's Cross!!! Thank GOD the Hammersmith Line that we were on now also went to King's Cross because if we had to change one more time, I think Frank would have strangled me - he was not impressed. I on the other hand was laughing about it because the most ironic part of all this was that we could have taken the Piccadilly Line from the start at our home station with no detours whatsoever. Ahhhhh travel.

We finally made it to King's Cross, alive and well by about 8ish and were soon on our way on the 8:30 train. Beautiful station!

We arrived around 11, and it was COLD. We knew it would be and dressed appropriately, but the transition from the train to the outside made me start to shiver which brought on more back spasms so it was a slow walk from the station to the Old Town.

We fell in love right away as soon as we saw the City Walls.

We lined up to visit the Minster, but when we learned the price we passed. I am SURE it was beautiful, no doubt, but I have seen so many beautiful interiors in my travels that I felt ok about not adding one more.

Our time was pretty much just spent wandering, and it was really nice! Lots to see even if you are not planning to see the inside of anything, and the little streets are very quaint.

Around 11:45 we stopped for a drink and lunch. I was afraid to sit down because my back seemed to be acting up the most when I went from sitting to standing (not to mention laying down at night! Torture!) so we picked a high table where Frank could sit and I could eat standing up.

After lunch, we explored "The Shambles" which is a street full of preserved medieval buildings, some as old as the 1300s!

I saw almost none of it, here is the one picture I got. It was so unbelievably crowded I felt like a salmon trying to swim upstream to get through all the people. It was NUTS!

At one point, we passed by a shop with an insanely long line of people waiting to get in. It just went on and on and on, and at one point I heard the lady controlling the line say that the wait was about THREE TO FOUR HOURS!! What the Hell goes on in there??? Turns out it was a shop called "The York Ghost Merchants" and it blew up on tictoc. Had I known I would have taken a picture, but I was not in the mood to get back into the mosh pit of people.

A little further out from the Old Town, we saw Clifford's Tower, a surviving bit of the Castle.

Then we walked along the city walls for a bit....

But by 2PM I was fed up of the crowds and we decided to head back to London. We caught the 3PM train and were back in London by 5. Perfect.

I was glad we arrived at King's Cross because it meant I could see San Pancras Station which is just next to it. It's so beautiful that I think it's worth the detour if you've never seen it. It's really hard to get a picture of it without obstacles in the way!

Another beautiful building to admire is the Kimpton Fitroy. The details are amazing. My pictures are a bit too crooked so one day I'll have to go back and get nice ones!

For supper we made our way to Irving Street which is a row of Italian restaurants just off Leicester Square. For a fast, touristy meal, I was impressed! it was quite tasty! (it was around 6:30)

Feeling good, from there we walked about an hour to another Caffé Concerto for what was now my favourite dessert. It after 8PM after we left, such a late night for us!