https://www.visityork.org Archives - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Bonfire Night where the Guy is safe

4th November 20264th November 2026 funtime65

I know you come here for fireworks, only this is the one place in Britain around Bonfire Night where the Guy is safe.

We’ve come to old York for Halloween and mingled with the Living Dead on the Shambles.

But they’re not the only restless souls in ye olde towne though where it’s hard to distinguish this world from the next,

And the goodies from the baddies.

For Fawkes’ sake

Yorkshire people we’ve discovered, and probably should have known anyway from the Father-in-Law, like to go their own way.

So that when the rest of Britain opts to remember, remember the Fifth of November.

Guy Fawkes Inn prefers to forget it.

The first thing that strikes you about the Guy Fawkes Inn, the old fire starter’s birthplace, is that there is nothing to strike.

Close to the bone: Guy Fawkes in the Gents

With the fireplace adorned instead with lights.

Visitors are invited to rest their weary bones for the night in any of the 27 bedrooms, called after the conspirators.

Though maybe tread carefully on any creaky floorboards and be prepared for things going bump in the night.

We eat, drink and get merry on Guy Fawkes Steak and Ale Pie and Guy Fawkes Bitter.

Because tomorrow he’ll die… or at least be caught.

The Evil Eye

There is a reminder everywhere in this old town of our mortality.

With us choosing to end our evening staring into Old Nick’s eyes opposite the upstairs of the Evil Eye cocktail lounge.

Where your head would certainly come off if you drank the Seven Sheds rum cocktail.

We plump instead for Cherry Sours, Chocolate Salty Balls and Nóiníns (or daisy cocktails), an Irish take on Margaritas.

And leave the Yorkie kids lying on the four-poster bed next to us.

To play Snakes and Ladders shots from the drinks on the bar menu.

Last requests

I’ve a hunch: Richard of York at The Old White Swan

Now had we been heading for the scaffold the next day like Guy Fawkes or Dick Turpin.

Or to our death on the battlefield like Richard of York.

Stand and deliver: Dick Turpin’s last resting place

Then we’d want to spend our last day on Earth here with the encyclopaedic Grace serving us cocktails.

Before we’d come back to haunt the tourists for the rest of time.

For getting in our way along Stonegate and The Shambles.

Countries, UK

Let them eat chocolate, the Irish, Rowntree and York

3rd November 20263rd November 2026 funtime65

Let them eat chocolate, the Irish, Rowntree and York… on our Jorvik journey.

The clue is in the name (Yorkies anyone?) that York is one of the world’s great chocolate centres.

Fits the Bill: With Bill by the Old Walls

Where the Irish enter our story (and don’t they always?) is because of the philanthropy of Joseph Rowntree.

The grocer having holidayed in Ireland and seen first hand the suffering of the Potato Famine population.

Movers and Quakers

Now being the charitable Quaker that he was Joseph arranged for passage for the Irish to York.

Where we hear their story from Friend of York Bill in a tower at the start of our walk around the York Walls.

And even find my Dear Old Mum’s people, the McNultys on the Census.

A trip down Quality Street

Well, this ‘Son of a Daughter of Donegal’ has found himself in York’s Chocolate Story.

Learning about Joseph Rowntree, Mary Tuke, Joseph Terry and Mary Ann Craven.

On an Aztec to Kit-Kat journey through time.

Taking in that Old Black Magic and a trip down Quality Street, Mum’s favourite.

With samples of chocolate water, the original bitter Aztec magical concoction, the grinds and nuts that go to make chocolate.

The actual bars themselves and demonstrations of the chocolate moulding before making your own lollies with sprinkles.

Keeping abreast of chocolate

Of course there’s always One and that One is for once not your Bandanaman but the Scary One.

Who puts her jelly tots, Rowntree’s of course, side by side to invent a new confectionary, the Tit-Kat!

York’s Chocolate Story on King’s Square in the centre of Jorvik, cost us £50 for two.

With two luxury hot chocolates and two boxes of six individually selected chocolates.

And all of the above… but do clean your teeth afterwards back at your Holiday Inn.

Countries, UK

Horny subject with Jorvik Norse warriors

2nd November 20262nd November 2026 funtime65

It’s a horny subject with Jorvic Norse warriors and Ulf wouldn’t be seen dead in a horned helmet which he would be on a battlefield.

All of which and more we learned at the excellent JORVIK Vikings Centre.

On the site of the great excavation site on York’s Coppergate along from our billet at the Holiday Inn, booked out when the Vikings came.

That it was the Victorians mythologising about Norse settlers which was behind all this.

Because precious horns were found in Viking burial sites.

You see going into battle with horned helmets gives your Anglo-Saxon foe the advantage.

Of pulling you down by your horns.

Those berserk Vikings

What Ulf, or Joe to give him his modern name, doesn’t know about York Vikings.

You could put on the back of a rune.

He’ll teach you how to mould a Viking sword and how they were such successful pillagers.

Probably because they were berserk much of the time.

On account of wearing bear shirts into battle, the scratching from which makes you berserker.

And author Sir Walter Scott, who gave us Illustrations.

Of Northern Antiquities and The Pirate of berserk Vikings, says we’re welcome.

Off his trolley

Norseophiles, and OK we made that up, will immerse themselves here in Jorvik.

A beloved tourist spot for Norsemen and their clans.

Through the interactive trolly carts that bring you up close and personal.

With ordinary people around their trades and pastimes.

Some, of course, get into character more than others.

And Beardie Boy ahead of me in the queue for a magnet, ordered an axe.

Although you’ll be reassured to learn that they did ask him his age first.

Canada, Countries, Culture, Europe, UK

Hey Willie, I’m On the Road Again

21st July 202021st July 2020 funtime65

On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again, the life I love is makin’ music with the my friends, and I can’t get wait to get on the road again.
Willie Nelson

And when I was asked by woman-of-many-trades (she asked me to write this) Aileen Eglington to pick my song for her Destinations Anywhere show on Dublin South FM I plumped for Willie Nelson’s classic to the Open Road.

And so continuing my top roads I’ve been on (or hope to trudge) which included the Appian Way, Rome. Beale Street, Memphis, The King’s Highway in Jordan, the Royal Mile, Edinburgh and Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem On the Road again… I give you five more.

The arc of angels

arche de triumph — There’s a golden sun. Photo by TravelingTart on Pexels.com

Avenue des Champs-Elysees, Paris: And, yes, you are taking your life into your own hands when you cross the road here.

The Arc de Triumph with its record of French victories is, of course, the centrepiece although there hasn’t been an inscription on it for many a year. Either in war or the Tour de France which passes through it. See https://en.parisinfo.com.

Aspiring Dublin

O’Connell Street, Dublin: And if you like your streets lined with historical statues then this is for you.

At one end is the Liberartor Daniel O’Connell, with bullet holes from the Easter Rising, and at the other ‘The King of Ireland’ Charles Stewart Parnell. There’s the modern-day Centennial Spire but my favourite is the statue of workers’ hero Jim Larkin. See http://www.visitdublin.com.

The long, long road

Yonge Street, Toronto: And why let the facts get in the way of a good story. The Guinness Book of Records tagged it as the longest in the world until it became clear that they were conflating the Downtown Street with Ontario Highway 11 to make it 1,896kms.

When it’s actually 56kms long. And this being Toronto it’s cleaner, safer and with a laid-back vibe than New York which it is often unfavourably compared to. See http://www.seetoronto.com and Canadian high.

It’s a Shambles

The Shambles, York, England: The Old York, as it’s never called, has something the New York has.

This has overhanging timber-framed buildings that date from the 14th century. And if you like your trains there’s also the National Railway Museum. See https://www.visityork.org.

A night on Der Town

And if it’s good enough for the Beatles then…

This is where the Beatles grew up and George Harrison got his first taste for mud-wrestling Germans. It’s the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. And let Stefanie Hempell who runs the best music tour you’ll find.

See http://www.hamburg.com http://www.hempels-musictour.de/en/ and Hamburgers and ships and The Beatles in Hamburg – With Stefanie Hempel and Why German trains always run on time.