By Popular Demand - YORK!

I spent January 6th to 9th in York, England. I went for a conference, stayed for the history, and left because of the food!* I stayed at the York Youth Hotel, which was a clean and inexpensive alternative to the conference hotel. It's the building with the light on, below:



As you can see by the narrow streets and old buildings, York is a quaint old place. Unfortunately, the chamber of commerce is completely aware of this fact, and the central shopping districts take quaintness to an almost embarrassing level.



I took this picture because one of the signs on this street actually reads "Ye Olde Starre Inne," which is the worst abuse of the extra "e" spelling I've ever seen. The sign didn't show up well in the photo, but you can still get an impression of York's Commercial Cuteness. Note the internet cafe in the foreground, in blue.

On the third day of my visit, all of the town's efforts to seem warm and welcoming were blown through by a chilly wind gusting to (I heard) 90 km/hr, which rattled all the windows and set off fire and security alarms all over town. Thank goodness for hot cups of good tea!

*Okay, to be perfectly honest I didn't leave *because* of the food, but it certainly wasn't worth staying in town for. The variety of good Belgian fruit beers, though, was excellent.