Short Break

Last month we were able to get hold of a couple of cut price train tickets in the Rail Network Spring sale. Our choice of destination was York.  We’d not been before and it was a simple journey, just one change. 

So we headed off on Tuesday morning, getting a lift to the station. A quick 15 minute journey to Peterborough then an onward connection to York just an hour and a quarter away.  Arriving in York at 12:30, just right to get our bearings and find some lunch.

York is not too huge so everything is in an easy walking distance. Lots to see and places to visit. Some with entrance fees whilst others are free. The choice is yours.  The weather was perfect for walking about, with just a bit of rain late on Tuesday evening.

I took lots of photos, of course, so I’ll caption them so you can see what we did.

Tuesday - mainly wandered around and worked out where everything was in relation to our hotel. Walked part of the City Wall walk which is actually great for walking above the traffic and people.  It was very quiet on Tuesday afternoon.

Wednesday we were up and out early as we didn’t sleep too well. We had a very nice breakfast at Rise Brunch which I didn’t take and pics of.  I had poached eggs with smoked salmon and hollandaise sauce and Peter had Turkish eggs. Both meals were very good.

Photos below show York Minster and surrounding area

The following photos show the City Wall walk which is approximately 2 miles long and circles the town with a few breaks where you rejoin the footpaths.  It great for being nosy in some of the push house gardens and also some

of the not so posh!  Great views of the Minster too.

We walked through the gardens of the York Museum which were lovely.  Plenty of seating, old ruins and also an edible plant garden which was very interesting.

After the walk and gardens we had a bit of liquid refreshment. Beer is much cheaper in Yorkshire than it is in Cambridgeshire…..

After a further wander we decided to go for a Yorkshire cream tea at Betty’s Tearooms. I think we queued for about 20 minutes which wasn’t too bad and with some really good street entertainment and people watching the time passed quickly.

Thursday - the day started grey but as we planned to visit the National Railway Museum it wasn’t a problem. We went back to Rise Brunch for breakfast again, it was that good!

The Rail Museum was really interesting.  I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but do love all the begone era memorabilia.  

Old railway posters. We actually have a few old train posters at home.

There were old Royal carriages, done out like luxury hotel rooms complete with beds and sofas. They certainly travelled in style

This was a mail train, complete with post bag catcher.  Mail sorting and telegram systems.

Duchess of Hamilton - I loved the Art Deco paint work on this train 

Mallard

Stephensons Rocket

This was a really good museum. Well set out, with coffee shops, gift shop, picnic area.  Model trains, educational areas.  This museum was very popular with school parties!  It is a free museum which depends on donations. I think that most people dipped their hands into their pockets on the way out, it was certainly worth a donation.

So what did we think to York?  We enjoyed it, though wasn’t tempted to venture in the Minster at £25 for the two of us to look around a church.  Similarly, we weren’t particularly interested in the Jorvik Centre which from the queues was full of school children. We didn’t have enough time to visit the museum or the art gallery and do them justice, maybe on another visit.  We did enjoy poking around all the little streets and looking at all the quaint shops. We had a quick lunch at the Shambles Food Market on Thursday, lots of stalls/vendors to choose from. 

We had planned on visiting a couple of National Trust properties but one wasn’t open whilst we were there and the other was a gardens just out of town, which we decided to miss due to having our luggage and the grey weather. Though in actual fact not long after deciding against a visit the sun came out but we spent the time sat by the river watching the boats before catching our train home.

We would definitely travel by train again, it made a change and was cheaper than driving/fuel/parking and gave Peter a break too. Just need to keep an ear out for any special offers