York and Yorkshire

We spent a couple days up north, first in the city of York, and then yesterday spent the afternoon driving to the coast of the North Sea, stopping at Whitby Abbey and cutting down through the North York Moors. It was raining, windy, and about 50 degrees, but otherwise a pretty enjoyable weekend. Here are some pictures:

These are the streets of York:

This is Clifford's Tower, up on a hill overlooking the whole city:

This is part of the city wall, which surrounds almost the whole city, we walked the entire thing:

These were ruins in a garden:

This is the Whitby Abbey from a distance (the big building towards the right), behind it is the North Sea. The Abbey was built in the 12th century, over the remains of a Saxon Monastary, and it was at that Monastary in AD 664 where the date for Easter was decided. Some further pictures of the ruins follow:

The North York Moors - it's easy to see how this landscape inspired authors like Edgar Allen Poe and the Brontes, as well as some Sherlock Holmes stories: