York Trip – Jinny’s Birthday!

For a super surprise which I planned to take Jinny to York for her birthday. York is a walled city in northeast England that was founded by the ancient Romans. It has amazing architecture, an 13th-century Gothic cathedral, cobbled streets and many things to see! It would be the perfect British, romantic, surprise get away….if only someone hand not told her a few days before we were planning to go.

Oh well, while a surprise trip might be best. A trip that you know about is still very much enjoyable!! And you can at least plan some part together in advance too.

Train to York

Our main method of public method of transport during our stay in England has been train. It is actually pretty cheap if you book ahead, there is a toilet and you can even drink too! What more can you ask for, at least until we get fully self driving cars on the roads. High expectations here Mr. Musk!

Another advantage of taking taking the train is that we could take our time in Leeds. As we would have to transfer there anyway AND it works out cheaper buying a ticket from Burnley -> Leeds and another ticket to Leeds -> York than to get a ticket from Burnley -> York! How does that logic work?!

Well the win here is that we could spend a few hours in Leeds before York! So we had a birthday brunch in the town centre. We ended up in Bill’s Leeds Restaurant.

After our massive brunch and beer we were off again on the train to our final destination York!

York Minster

After arriving in York we decided to do a quick tour of the city as we wanted to head to our accommodation to relax. Our main destinations were York Minster, Shambles and Clifford’s Tower.

One of the highlights of York is York Minster. It is epic and beautiful.

York Minster is one of the world’s most magnificent cathedrals. Since the 7th century, the Minster has been at the centre of Christianity in the north of England. It is a bit expensive to go in and as we didn’t have much time decided against it.

TOP TIP: If you decide to go to York then get a York City Pass OMG if there is one thing we would do differently is getting one of these bad boys! (FYI we have no affiliation with this pass) While the cost of a single attraction is pretty high in York, with one of these you can enter a number of top places. If we had know about this in advance we would have definitely invested.

What a shambles!

So after the cathedrals we went to the Shambles.

The Shambles is an old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, probably from the Anglo-Saxon Fleshammels, the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat. 

Now, as we wrote about, even though Edinburgh’s Victoria Street is probably where JK Rowling got the inspiration for Diagon Alley. The Shambles in York is like the movie set of Diagon Alley! It not the inspiration but like you are actually there! so much so that there are a number of Happy Potter themed shops here too.

We had a fun time exploring and looking around before heading towards the BnB going past our next stop.

After the Shambles we went to Clifford’s Tower. Built originally on the orders of William I to dominate the former Viking city of Jórvík, the castle suffered a tumultuous early history before developing into a major fortification with extensive water defences.

Essentially it is a tower on hill. And looks pretty cool.

BnB – The Plough Inn

Apart from the beautiful city, another key high light of the York Trip, was for us to stay in a Bed and Breakfast (BnB). It would even be my first time staying a proper BnB just above a traditional English Pub.

I had booked the The Plough Inn which is about a 30min walk from York town centre.

We had booked one night including Breakfast. The room was in traditional British Style. Very homey and comfy. Just above the main Pub which shut down at 22:00.

We got washed up and headed down to the main Pub for our dinner. Of cause it was traditional pub grub. We both love lamb. So got the Lamb Shank and Pasta.

The Inn is also famous for its resident Cat, Tom. He lives downstairs in the Pub and is apparently one of the most photographed cats in the world! (Not sure how to prove that though!). He was very friendly and was even a feature on their menu.

Back to York

After a very peaceful and delicious stay at The Plough Inn we had half a day in York before heading back to Burnley. We had our pub breakfast to fuel us for the day and heading back into the centre of York.

For our second day in York we decided to re-visit a few places that we had seen the day before such as the Shambles, as well as just allow ourselves to get lost among the many back streets. We even discovered some great street art too.

We also took the time to explore part of the Wall of York which runs around the city. York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England.

Afternoon Tea

One of Jinny’s bucket list items while in the UK was to do a traditional Afternoon Tea. So once our clocks hit afternoon, we power walked off to Betty’s Tea room. There is more than one Betty’s Tea room in York, we decided to go to the smaller one on Stonegate.

We enjoyed a very fancy and British Prosecco with afternoon tea. It was time for us to head back to the train station. Thankfully we still had time for one more pint, and English trains stations have a pub inside. Sorted! We went to York Tap for a pint before catching our train.

Summary

York was a great short visit. As we mentioned, we wish we had invested in a York Day Pass so that we could have explored some more of the attractions. As it is such a small city with lots to do, you can easily visit many of the places on the pass, saving big money!