York makes the perfect weekend away – packed full of history to fascinate, cute alleyways to explore, and some delicious food and drink for sustenance! And if you’ve got an extra day, like we did, you can visit some of the beautiful countryside nearby – ideal!
Shambles and Snickelways
York’s historic centre is known as the Shambles, packed full with cute leaning houses, markets and many a tempting cafe. I recommend strolling slowly up and down, taking in the historic details and picking where you’d like to have lived centuries ago. The smaller streets are known as Snickelways – some are only wide enough for one person at a time! Others are larger and would have been lined with shops plying their trade, like butchers or bakers.
The River Ouse flows through the city, and while I imagine it would have bustled with merchants in the past, now it’s primarily the ale-houses pubs and restaurants that seem to do a roaring trade. We enjoyed walking along the banks, taking in the excellent people-spotting… it was a big weekend for hen and stag parties while we were there!
Historic York
I loved how visible York’s long history is when you walk through the city, but my particular highlights were Clifford’s Tower and the York Minster. From the Tower, the building is simple but the bloodthirsty history and views are fantastic. At the Minster, the ornate detail will blow you away upstairs, while in the crypt underneath you can be fascinated by Roman ruins and then a little perturbed by the lengths modern-day engineers are going to in order to keep the Minster upright. Fun indeed!
Ghostly York
York is well-known as the most haunted city in Britain, and whether you’re a believer in the Other Side or not, a ghost tour is a highly entertaining way to learn more of the city. We chose to go with The Original Ghost Walk of York, partly because they seemed to leave the latest, at 8pm – I am a firm believer that it needs to be at least a little dark to buy into a good ghost story! Our excellent guide Chris took us all over the city, regaling us with stories of bloodthirsty massacre, sacrifice and creepy little children. I was so entranced by one story that, rather shamefully, when a pigeon burst from beneath a roof over his head, I may have screamed a little… take that as a testament to the quality of the telling!
A Yorkshire in Yorkshire
After Kelly’s stellar suggestion, there was no way I was going to leave York without eating a Yorkshire pudding there. I’m a fan of a good roast, so I was extremely happy to find The Hole in The Wall offered these ginormous puddings with a full roast inside. Highly recommended!
I have to give a special shout-out to the Perky Peacock cafe by Lendal Bridge as well. Located right next to the city walls, not far from the Minster, it is super-teeny but very cute. They had a great little menu of various bacon-based breakfast rolls, and other delights both savoury and sweet – and great coffee too!
Stroll the City Walls
If you’re feeling the need to walk off that Yorkshire pudding, head to the city walls. At 3.4 km a complete circuit will take you about 2 hours (more if you stop constantly like me, to photograph). But it’s just as easy to pop up at one of the ‘bars’ or gateways around the city and stroll a section, taking in the views. And what’s more, it’s completely free – win!
Bonus: Get out into Yorkshire
If that’s not enough to keep you entertained for your time in York, or you’re road-tripping around, make sure you experience some of the beautiful countryside around Yorkshire. I can’t recommend a trip to the glorious Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Park highly enough – it absolutely blew me away. And I’m sure there are many more sites like them to discover – I’ll just have to go back!
Have you been to York? Which of these activities would you most like to try?
Linking up for #WanderfulWednesday with Marcella, Lauren, Van and Isabel – check out their travel link-up and their fantastic blogs using the links!
