Bells, bells, bells, what a world of happiness their harmony foretells!

Did you hear about the man with no arms who applied for a job as a bell-ringer? The cathedral had just lost its hunchback when an armless man showed up asking for the bell-ringing job. 'This I gotta see,' the bishop said and the pair of them climbed up the bell tower. 'Go on then,' the bishop said, 'show me how you plan on ringing the bell.' With that, the man ran with no arms took a flying leap towards the bell, smacked his head against it and promptly bounced out of a window and down to the ground over a hundred feet below. Once the loud peal had died down, the bishop heard a shout from the crowd who had gathered around the body: 'Do you know who this is??' And the bishop shouted back, 'No, but his face rings a bell.'

These days, bell ringing is a hunchback-free affair. We have been to York many times and over the years have become acquainted with one of the chaps who plays the York Minster carillon. He promised us a behind-the-scenes tour of York's cathedral and what better time to call in the favour then when a couple of friends from the USA happened to be in the country?

So for our final day of our Yorkshire trip we left sunny Middlesbrough in time to meet our friends from America who had come up for the day from London.

First stop of course had to be brunch at Betty's, the famous cake shop and tea room. Next, we had a look around the city's art gallery before taking the steps up onto the old walls which encircle much of the historic centre. It was another warm and sunny spring day, the perfect weather for gazing down into gardens and peeping through leafy trees on either side of the fortifications. York is a lovely city crammed with many medieval churches, fine old houses and ancient monuments like Clifford's Tower.

Back down on the ground and it was time for our friend John to sneak us in the back door of York Minster, the enormous Gothic cathedral which is the town's greatest landmark. I say sneaking in, it was more of a case of 'they are with me' as we nipped in through a side door past a warden. 

John took us on a circuit of the cathedral. As I said, we've been several times before and to be frank, York Minster is one of England's more plain cathedrals once inside. 

There's no denying the beauty of its lines, the light filtering through some of Europe's oldest stained glass, plus the sheer scale of the space - but it feels a bit sterile. There aren't many quirky features to catch the eye, except for the Doom Stone down in the crypt which shows demons feeding sinners into the jaws of hell. 

Speaking of feeding, those scones of Betty's weren't that filling and we were ready for a late lunch, but first John made good on his promise of showing us the bell tower up close. The southwest tower of the cathedral has many dozens of steps spiralling up it which took us well over 150 feet up into the air. Once we caught our breaths, we admired the view in all directions: over to the art gallery...

across the heart of the historic centre...

a unique viewpoint of the cathedral's upper heights...

a dizzying perspective of the floor far below us...

and an almost-so-close-you-can-touch-it look at the stained glass Heart of Yorkshire.

The bell-ringing room itself is a cozy affair, with the carillon keyboard set right up against one of the tower's many Gothic windows.

John treated us (and anyone else within earshot outside) to a couple of lovely church tunes, then let us each have a bash. It's much like playing the piano, except you need to use your fist to strike each note. Apologies to anyone who had to endure my off-key rendition of Joy To The World. Aside from the 'knuckle song', it's the only piece of music I know how to pick out on a piano (the opening is just one key after another, played in order from highest to lowest).

Before heading back down, John noticed it was coming up on four o'clock and asked would like to hear the marking of the hour? Here's the clip I made. TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON YOUR SPEAKERS OR ELSE IT WILL BE DEAF O'CLOCK!

To round off our day in York with out friends we had a delicious meal at a place called Rustique. We chose it on a whim, only because their low-price set menu offer caught our eye. It turned out to be one of the best meals we'd had in ages, all fine French food at a very low price (three courses for less than £15). Without any advance planning, we had stumbled into what Tripadvisor reviewers rank as one of the best restaurants in York. It's not many camping trips that end with five-star French cuisine!