York: City Walls and Guild Hall

York is an old walled city. Most of the walls are still intact, and you can walk around them (with only a few gaps) in an hour or two. They range from taller than Jon (around 7 feet) to shorter than Elisabeth (around 4 feet) (parentheses referring to relative heights of walls, not people; I'm not that short I'm not I'm not I'm not...)

At several places along the walls, the old gatehouses that served as guard points and entrance ways have been turned into museums. Jon, at Mickelgate Bar, decides he preferred York when it was Eboracum.

Old defensive mound gone to ruin, or new mound from construction landscaped recently (c. 1800's)? Whichever, it made a nice stop off the walls.

One of the old defensive portcullises, intact though not operational. Meant to keep out the Scots. Note: it is still legal in York to shoot Scotsmen from the city walls with a bow and arrow, provided it is before noon on Sunday.

The Merchant Adventurer's Guild Hall, a very old wood building housing one of the oldest guilds of traders (still in existence).

After 800 or so years, wooden floors sag. The center of the great hall was easily a foot lower than the sides.

Ben, in a guild hall chair, looking bored.

Rounding up our tour of historic old places in York: Ye Olde Internette Exchange. It had been literally days...

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