So, for Maite’s Christmas I had booked a hotel in York for a weekend.  York was one of these wee historic towns we had wanted to visit for a while.  We made our way down on the train after work and checked into Elmbank Hotel which was a super nice historic 19^th century townhouse only about a 20 minute walk from the city centre.

The next day me and Maite started of our city exploration as we always do, with a walking tour.  Our guide was pretty funny and knowledgeable and took us around all the main spots in York city centre.  The main spots included the old city walls, The Shambles and of course York Minster.  It was really interesting to learn about York’s extensive history.  There were some areas around the city wall where you could see where the ground level was during different eras.

The Shambles is a really cool medieval street which is thought to be one of the inspirations for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.

York Minster is a really impressive cathedral dating back to the 7^th century with some serious stain glass windows (they don’t mess around).

After the tour we went for some lunch at the Cosy Club which was really good and had a decent selection of vegan options.  After this we went to the Jorvick Viking Centre which told the story of York’s Viking history although this wasn’t as interesting as we had hoped it would be through.  We then began what was a bit of boozy afternoon / evening and visited some bars with great beer selections which included Brew York Craft Brewery, Fossgate Tap and House of Trembling Madness.  In the last place we even found a craft beer from Zaragoza!  There was a surprisingly large selection of craft beer in such a small city centre.

The next day we visited inside York Minster.  It was massive inside and really beautiful, definitely worth a visit.  Also the undercroft museum under the cathedral is really interesting.  Here they have 2000 years of history.  In total we must have spent over 2 hours in here between the cathedral and the museum.

When we dragged ourselves a way, only because we were starving, we went to Hole In Wall, a really nice cosy traditional pub with your classic ales and pub grub which was a nice way to end our trip.  We had a great time in York, learning about its vast history, admiring its architecture and visiting its modern and traditional pubs.