We arrived in York by train (from Edinburgh) around 11 am. This afforded us lots of time to explore York before sunset! We started out in the city centre, where we wandered the Shambles Market and the Shambles.

The Shambles is an iconic street is York, know for it’s overhanging timber framed buildings. The street used to be home to many butchers and was known as “The Great Flesh Shambles”. CREEPY? The buildings all look as if they were built without a level, which could be because the majority of them where built in the 14th century.

From here we wandered over to York Minster, the iconic minster in the city centre. The first church structure on this spot was built in 627, but the Gothic one you see today was started in 1215 and added to and restored throughout the years.

From here, we went on to explore our first section of the city walls. The city walls ended up being our favourite place in York. We packed a picnic each night and brought a beverage with us. We would then find a place along the wall to sit down, with our legs dangling over the edge, and eat our dinner as the sun set over this beautiful city.

On our first night in York we discovered BREW DOG. This is a brew company that has locations all over the UK and in Europe. Each brewery is slightly different. They have a huge selection of their own beers on tap and they are constantly rotating the selection as they make new brews. When we were in York, the lady at Brew Dog was telling us that they had just had an inter-brew dog brew off, and that they had won for their incredible mint chocolate beer! It was so interesting to hear about the competition between the brew dog locations.

What Jives found that was even more exciting than the delicious beers at Brew dog….. this retro X-men arcade game. The back room of the York Brew Dog location is filled with retro arcade games!!!!!