York wears its history openly. The Romans founded Eboracum here in 71 AD, and in 306 the army proclaimed Constantine emperor within its walls. The Vikings turned it into Jorvik, a trading city on the Ouse, and the medieval merchants who followed left a tangle of narrow streets, among them the Shambles, where overhanging timber houses lean so close that the neighbours could shake hands across the lane. The Minster, England's largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps, rises over it all with a vast stained-glass window that took a craftsman years to make.
York is a walled city of some 150,000 people, and the walls, which you can walk for about three kilometres, are the best way to see it. Chocolate was once its great industry, with Rowntree's and Terry's both based here, and on certain days the old factory smell hung over the streets. Today the Jorvik Viking Centre and the railway museum are the biggest draws, and the city is crowded with visitors in summer and at Christmas.
For a rider, the centre is a trap. Traffic is restricted in many streets, there are one-way systems and pedestrian zones, and parking is expensive. Park at the edge and walk. The river Ouse floods regularly, covering the lower quays, and the water can reach the doors of the riverside pubs, so check the weather in winter. Fuel is easy on the ring road.
The surrounding country is a delight. To the north lie the Howardian Hills and the Yorkshire Wolds to the east, and the wide Vale of York is a patchwork of fields and villages. The ride to Saltaire passes through the old mill towns of West Yorkshire, where Sir Titus Salt built a model village for his workers in the 1850s, and the contrast between the elegant medieval city and the stern industrial grid is striking. Come back to York at dusk, when the Minster is floodlit and the cobbles glisten, and a pint in a low-beamed pub is the best way to end the day.