Nested Fall 2015.

We found York a very easy place to live. Language, culture and everything being close together all helped for a smooth transition. But here are a few things to make your time even easier.

Currency

The currency in England is, of course, the British pound. Here’s the current exchange rate.

When to Go

York is a tourist area, especially with the British. It’s one of their favorite cities to visit, so it tends to be crowded with families when school is out. For that reason, summer might be best avoided. Also be aware of “half term” – week long school vacations generally mid to late October and February. While there are a lot of family specials in the town during those weeks, it tends to be more crowded. We chose half term week to get a lot of our personal work done or sight-see in the country.

How to Get There

York is an easy trip from the States. The best airport to fly into is Manchester. The Manchester airport is really easy to navigate and the train station is right in the same building. From the Manchester airport, you can take a train directly to York and begin your adventure!

Grocery Shopping

It’s easy to food shop in York. The food is familiar and the labels are in English! There is a large Sainsbury grocery store just outside the city wall on the north side on Foss Court. There’s also an Aldi, which has very reasonable prices, on the southeast side of town just past the pedestrian bridge.  A small store that sells just frozen food is next door. There’s lots of small markets throughout the city, and M&S, in the middle of town, has a nice selection of pre-made dinners, though a little more expensive. There’s also a farmer’s market within the walls of the city. One shop I liked to frequent in York is Rafi’s Spicebox, which will mix up custom Indian spices for your home cooking. If you like Indian food, it’s a nice option to going out. Making your own meals here is recommended. Restaurants are expensive, and frankly, for the most part, not very good.  If you have access to a car and are traveling away from the city, there are Costcos at both Newcastle (one end of the Hadrian’s Wall trail) and at Leeds. Many of the Costco products are the same as you’ll see in the States, and the prices are very good in comparison to the local grocery stores. We went there twice, as we happened to have a car each time we were in those cities and found it worth the trip. Just be aware that your refrigerator will almost certainly be significantly smaller than in the States!

Difficult to find foods: Believe it or not, I found it hard to find a variety of spices and seasonings. If you have a favorite you like to cook with, you might want to bring some along. Also, they tend to drink instant coffee, which is probably why most Brits drink tea.

Other Shopping

We were in York before the fall of the pound due to the Brexit vote, so as I write this, costs are down in England because of a more favorable exchange rate. But when we were there, we didn’t buy many things because it was quite expensive.  Some of my favorite purchases:

Edible treats from M&S, especially their Christmas treats. They package them beautifully.

Paper stars and ornaments from the St. Nicolas Fayre.

A beautiful woolen blanket from the Farmer’s Market

My absolute favorite purchase – scarves from The Edinburgh Woolen Mill, next door to Betty’s Tea Shop. They seemed expensive at the time, but the one I kept for myself has only gotten softer and warmer as I’ve used it. I love it. It’s my go-to winter scarf.

Also, our standard ‘souvenir’ purchase from every nesting site – a lovely piece of street art, this one of the Bootham Bar. We have a wall at our house where we display the artwork we get in all our nesting places.

Connecting with the Local Community

This was one of our favorite things about York. We found it very easy to become a part of our neighborhood. Visit the library right next to the Yorkshire Museum to find out about events. Rountree Park, a lovely spot to visit anyway, has a very nice little tearoom in a small library, and there are a lot of community events there. Just find out what you might want to do and show up – I guarantee you’ll be welcomed. The best resource we found for community clubs and events was an on-line forum, Streetlife, which is  divided by postal codes. It lists all kinds of community events, as well as people wanting to buy and sell things and asking questions. It’s how Al got involved with his biking group – people we’ll be in touch with for the rest of our lives, I’m sure. We also noticed a few community centers around the city with classes and events posted, but we got so busy we weren’t able to do it all!

Sue’s Dad was also very welcomed at a Rotary meeting he attended while in York, and there is an expat club there, if you are interested in meeting people from around the world.

Favorite Restaurants

We’ve said it a few times, but one of the drawbacks of York is that we didn’t find the restaurants to be very good. It’s a tourist town and the vast majority of them serve mediocre tourist fare. But here are a few we did find that are good enough for a return visit.

Yes, it’s touristy, expensive, and there can be huge lines, but you need to go to Betty’s at least once during your time in York. Even our British friends regularly visit there.  It’s best for just tea and their famous scones, known as the Fat Rascal. What makes it really unique and special is the history. Betty’s was a dance hall during WWII, attracting a lot of airmen. If you go downstairs, you’ll see two large mirrors that the pilots scratched their names into before setting off on missions. Of course many of them never returned. It’s a somber reminder of the cost of the war. If you are in York near to Christmas, they decorate beautifully for the holidays.

If you’re looking for amazing scones without the history – and price – of Betty’s, the very best scones we found were at Tower Vue Café, across the street from Clifford’s Tower. Becky, the owner has made it warm and homey and she serves the tenderest, most delicious scones ever. The walls at Tower Vue are all in swimming pool tile, due to their proximity to the river and the frequent flooding in the area. While their scones are the best, the rest of their menu is more pedestrian. Best for a morning treat.

You wouldn’t expect a Polish restaurant to be one of the favorites of locals in York, but the Barbakan was one of the most recommended places for us, and with good reason. The food was delicious, the service patient and helpful, and the dishes were very authentic. For a town with few good restaurants, this one definitely stood out.

For a special night out, we loved Chaplin’s. It was just down the street from our second apartment on Skeltergate but we would have walked across town to visit here. Beautiful setting and wonderful food.

Festivals/Events

York is chock-full of festivals and events. Being there for only three months, we only saw a fraction of what is available! York’s “visit York” website has a complete listing of all the events.

If you’re there in the fall, we recommend:

The Aesthetica Film Festival – held every November. It’s a four day long extravaganza of short films in venues all over the city of York. You could easily spend 12 hours each day watching movies and you wouldn’t see them all. Not only did we really enjoy the films that were selected, we loved being able to get into venues we wouldn’t have seen without the festival. Really great fun! http://www.asff.co.uk/

Illuminating York – Held the week the clocks are turned back for Daylight Saving Time (yes, they do that, too!) Illuminating York is a city-wide light show that is pretty spectacular. Every year is different, but it’s guaranteed to be creative and fun. Not only are there large outdoor city light displays, but there are events in lots of different venues. One of our favorites was a play by candlelight in the Fairfax House that guided you room by room through the shenanigans of the former inhabitants – complete with a drunken cook and a swordfight down the staircase. We also loved the special lighting of the trains in the Railway Museum.

St. Nicholas Fayre – What could be better than a medieval Christmas market? It was a great way to get some Christmas shopping done before we packed up to go back to our base home. Good thing we left a little room in our suitcases! It was also just a charming walk through the stalls, smelling the roasted chestnuts.

York also boasts a chocolate fair at Eastertime , a medieval fair in the summer, flea markets at the racetrack south of town and a major music festival. Check out visityork to find out what’s happening while you nest there.

 Weather

The weather in York can best be described as completely unpredictable. While rainfall totals are not particularly high, there are a lot of grey, drizzly days with not much sun. Temperatures never really get very hot or very cold.  Check out holiday weather for more information.

Health Care

Health care in England is excellent. There are also categories of care, including care for accidents for which you are not hospitalized and care of some crime victims, which are free, even if you are not a citizen of the UK. Of course you will need travel health insurance, but you do not have to worry about access to good medical care while in York. There is a hospital on Bootham Street about four blocks down from the bar (gate) on the right. For more information about what is and isn’t covered and the costs for non-European visitors, check the National Health Services’s Website.

Tourist discount cards

One of the joys of nesting in York is the inexpensive access to their museums, estates and historical sites. There are discount cards which most tourists who are only there for a day or two won’t find to be cost-effective, but for a nester, they’re terrific. Here are our favorites.

We absolutely recommend buying The York Museum Trust Card, or YMT. It will give you free admission for a full year to the York Castle Museum, the York Art Gallery and the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens. If you were to just go once to all three sites, the card would save you £5, but we went multiple times to each museum during the three months we were there. The Yorkshire Museum was especially great to get an overview of the history of York, and then return when we understood more to get an in-depth understanding. There are also lectures and events that are only open to those with a YMT card. The cards cost £22 and can be bought at any of the three museums it serves.

Another highly recommended card is the English Heritage Card, especially if you’re planning to travel a bit around England. English Heritage is a non-profit that manages and curates approximately 400 top sites in England, including Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall. They even have cottages for short term rental if you want to get out into the British countryside. Members may take advantage of special presentations and events, enabling you to visit behind the scenes in castles and estates, with lectures by archeologists and historians. There are two English Heritage sites within the city of York – Clifford’s Tower, a landmark in the city, and the York Cold War Bunker – a fascinating way to spend an afternoon. If you are thinking of hiking Hadrian’s Wall, this card is a ‘must buy.’ The card gives you unlimited access to all the sites in England. It is £52 per adult per year or £92 per couple. Seniors (over 60 yrs old) may buy a card for £43.50 and two seniors may purchase one for £67.

Another card you might want to consider, especially if you love old British manor houses, is the British National Trust Card. The British National Trust is a non-profit organization that helps manage many hundreds of estates, cottages and sites of natural beauty around the country. Oftentimes they are large estates where owners no longer have the means to support the property. The National Trust opens them to the public and helps to support them, allowing the owners to continue living in an apartment or cottage on site. There are two properties of the British National Trust in York proper (The Treasurer’s House and Goddard’s House and Garden). However if you are planning to rent a car for a bit and get out into the countryside for some exploration, this card is highly recommended. It has the added benefit of simply making you aware of the many places you can visit in the British countryside.  You may join for £64.80 per year or £108 per year for a couple.

When Packing for York, make sure you bring…

Plug adaptors

Cloth shopping bags

Rain gear