Yorkshire Puds

This weekend saw us take a trip up North to the beautiful, medieval city of York, which is one of Europe’s most visited cities – i.e. full of annoying tourists. If you can’t beat them, join them we thought and after a busy week of work we trundled up the motorway four and a half hours North, arriving at our B&B a little later than expected thanks to an accident on the M1. Needless to say, we were a little peeved and after being shown to our lovely little room, where we had to take a few passive aggressive hits about sharing a room whilst not being married, we were ready for a good night’s sleep.



We slept like babies and bounced out of bed the following morning, ready for our Full English. Satisfied, we set off to explore, armed with maps, vitamin C and cough lollies in aid of us both suffering from colds, complete with a death’s door cough from Brad. York is a pretty wee place with history to die for, going back to ancient Roman and even Viking times. We walked around the medieval city walls, which soon directed us to the beautiful Gothic Yorkminster Cathedral – ooh la la. We[‘ve seen our fair few of pretty cathedrals and this was no exception. Its apparently the most visited cathedral in Europe, which surprised us, although suffice to say it is very impressive. Thanks to a hefty entrance price tag, our oohing and aahing was limited to the entrance way, before we were on our way again, trotting off with the hundreds of other visitors down the pretty wee cobbled streets.



We’re always keen to scope out the shops (well half of us) when out of London, as for a start you don’t have to queue to actually get in the entrance way, so making the most of personal space, we did a fair bit of shopping and before we knew it hours had passed and our arms were aching from carrying countless bags. That’s not to say we didn’t have a delightful time – we did, and our shopping extended to a little historical district called The Shambles, which is a medieval street of tiny, independent shops, as well as a stop at the local pub for Brad where he enjoyed a pint while I took advantage of the neighbouring department store. We even managed to stumble across a little Churchyard second hand sale, where we picked up a few books, before finding a quaint wee Chocolate Boutique for a glorious hot chocolate and a rest.





Our next stop was a gorgeous wee late lunch at a little old-lady style tea-room. It was great to be out of London and actually able to take advantage of some good food at affordable prices – the only drag being the fact it was agony to try and choose what to have off the menu. Sufficiently full, we slowly meandered to a cute wee park, where we spent a few moments soaking up the sun and watching a wedding party, before winding our way back home, via the scenic route, as well as a supermarket for some cheese to go with the bottle of wine we had brought.



After a lovely, low-key night, we were awake one hour later thanks to losing an hour with Daylight Savings and speedily got ready for breakfast, before packing the car and setting off – destination, car boot sale. Brad had done a bit of research and was anxious to get going, which is how I found myself still wiping sleep from my eyes as I ran after Brad through freezing fog at a bustling boot sale, while the rest of Yorkshire were sleeping! Of course, we managed to find a few goodies which made it worthwhile I grudgingly admitted as Brad sped off to the next boot sale location. This one was in the glorious city of Hull; however by the time we got there, Brad was rather miffed to see that they were packing up. All wasn’t lost my end, as I managed to get my grubby hands on the mother of all finds – hot chips and curry (said with a think Yorkshire accent). I stuffed my face while Brad ran around like a madman, before calling it a day and picking up some deep fried goods of his own.

Our next stop was a beautiful wee town called Lincoln, which we first learned of in Morocco, when we met a lovely couple from there. Lack of prior planning, meant we didn’t get in touch but the place was so quaint sand pretty, we just might head back for a bit longer. The medieval town is situated on a hill, which of course, houses its own glorious cathedral. In terms of prettiness, Lincoln tops the charts, with a cathedral on the hill and tiny, cobbled streets curving all the way down. Of course, the steep trudge back up the hill is something to avoid at all costs, but you can recoup your energy over a scone with jam at one of the many tea-rooms littered all over the show.



The weekend was topped off with a traffic-free trip back to London – karma after our ridiculous journey Yorkshire-bound on Friday night.