There is nothing quite like waking up to the sounds of the local church bells toll and the chirping sounds of birds in the morning to help you remember that you are in fact on holidays, the only thing missing is rays of sunshine spilling through your curtains (and that’s not because the material is thick and hardy) …. Yep since we arrived we have only had a few hours of sunshine. Yes this does mean that the ray bans are well rested!!!

The word on the street is that the weather had been fab until the MacBaz’s hit the country. Not that this has dampened our enthusiasm for getting out and about but it might explain the lack of selfies and photos posted, nothing like flat hair to help decide whether a photo makes the cut or not. We are hoping that the weather is about to improve – although the rain makes everything look green, bright and I guess English!

After having breakfast with Jane here at the Fairfax Arms (ham, poached egg and tomatoes for me… Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for Steve, and bacon, hash browns and toast for Isaac) we headed to Ampleforth to see the worker and then headed for York.

After dropping the Kennedy’s off at the train station – they were travelling to Leeds, we made our way to the York Minster. It is quite similar in style to Notre Dame and West Minster Abbey. It was initially built by the Romans as their headquarters in AD71- and whilst it certainly looked very different from how it does today, it’s amazing that when you go down under the building and into the Undercroft and Treasury you can actually see the original stone work …. They only discovered this relatively recently , there is a pretty amazing history to this place and certainly worth the £10 you pay for admission. They even put a wedding on for us today.. Sweet.

You can pay a little extra and go up the 275 steps of the Central Tower ..I wasn’t feeling the love for the winding narrow stairs they just ain’t my thing, however Steve and Isaac were all for it and so have some wonderful photos of the views of York which will be posted by Steve on Facebook.

Time to eat again, with lunch at “The York Roast Co.” They specialise in roast pork,with apple sauce and crackling sandwiches – yummy! The food has been great in York – noting that all of the places we have eaten have come recommended by Nick.

With the boys back to the York Minster to go up the Central Tower I meandered through the back streets of York taking in the shops and pubs. There is a real mixture of high end shops and one off places, as well as pubs, and more pubs we were told that there are about 40 pubs here in York which along with the rain explains why everyone looks so well hydrated.

The rain has started to build up a bit of momentum and so we head pack to the car for my heavier duty rain coat and then make our way to the Wall.

“They” say that No visit to York would be complete without a walk around the City Walls and I would have to agree – you can see it from nearly every part of the city . It is 3.4 kilometres long, and the tourist centre advises that 2.5 million people walk along all or part of the City walls each year – add two more from Canberra ! The entire walk takes about 2 hours but we only walked a short section as the rain was coming down and we were due back to have tea with the gappies.

There are couple of really quirky and cool things I have noticed about York (well there are lots I am sure) the first I mentioned on Facebook, it appears that ducks have right of way here. I guess that would be the case in all major cities if they had the same population of ducks as they have here. I haven’t googled the number of ducks in York ( which of course I should have done) but I would imagine this place would be in the top 10. And for me the other unexpected “thing” is that it appears to be a bit of a Mecca for the hens party, with lots of girls with spray on tans and high heels hobbling along the paved streets – all clearly identified by sashes that let everyone know who the bride, bridesmaid or tag along is. Thankfully I have watched a few episodes of Jordie Shore so I am now witnessing this all in real life – awesome.

The drive home from York to Gilling East is always a little slow as we drive along much of next weeks Tour d’France route, with homes decorated and yellow bikes along the way, but today’s a little slower than normal as there is a tractor on the road. Who knew they had indicators .

Back to Ampleforth to drop off Isaac who is staying there the night and then to the Fairfax for a quick shower before our night out. We are heading for the Swan which has fast become the gappies favourite watering spot, as well as being relatively close (about a 15 minute walk) the drink flows smoothly and the food is good. We have a lovely night with the gappies, sadly Meggie is working but looks after us all beautifully. As I said to Jane a couple of nights ago it is fantastic that Nick and Rowan are enjoying the year with such nice kids!