Last week I took a few days away from blogging as we had a little minimoon planned and to be honest I think a break was definitely needed. I've been letting a few things get to me recently but I'm back now and hoping to get back to my usual schedule. Anyway I was so excited to blog about our trip. We planned on going to York a while ago but it felt like it took forever for it to come around! This post is going to be full of photos so I hope you don't mind, I just have so many I want to share! I'm planning on doing a seperate little haul post of the things I bought too as this would just go on forever otherwise!
First of all the hotel we stayed in was stunning! We chose The Grand Hotel and Spa, definitely the fanciest we've ever stayed in but as it was a special occassion, it was totally worth it. It's Yorks only 5* hotel and I can totally see why. When we walked into our room we were greeted with a lovely card congratulating us on getting married recently and there was a plate of chocolates for us too which was such a lovely extra touch. Totally unexpected but made it even more special. I'm planning a proper York travel guide for some point in the future so I'll talk about the hotel more in that but the staff were incredibly friendly and I don't think we'd hesitate to stop there again.
The first place we went to in the city centre after stopping by at the hotel was Stonegate Teddy Bear Tea Rooms. I spotted this online about a week before we went and as I just love all things bears I though it would be a nice place to visit. There's a little shop downstairs selling just about every famous bear you could imagine along with many other cute bits, and upstairs is the tea room. I had a vanilla milkshake which ended up being absolutely huge, and the Victoria Sponge and George had a Nutcracker Hot Chocolate and the Raspberry Bakewell. Everything was delicious!
We then explored The Shambles and did a little bit of shopping. Even though it was quite rainy, it was still absolutely beautiful. The cobbled streets, the wonky houses, cosy shops, all of it was lovely. One shop we were desperate to visit was The Shop That Must Not Be Named. There are quite a few Harry Potter shops on the Shambles now, so of course we had to go in them all but this is kind of the main one. I got myself a little magnet to go on my desk and George got something aswell, it's actually not as expensive as you might think and totally worth paying a visit to. I'm really wanting to watch all of the films again now!
After a good few hours out exploring we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our meal that evening. After seeing Chloe's blog post a while ago about The Cosy Club I was desperate to go so we booked a few days before, and it totally exceeded any expectations I had! Surprisingly if the name didn't let on, inside it's incredibly cosy, so comfortable and welcoming and just a really beautiful place. The food is pretty incredible too. We had camembert to start and then we shared Tapas, something we never have so it was so enjoyable! We were both far too full for dessert but next time we're totally getting the dessert sharing plate.
The next day we started off at a place called The York Roast Company. We didn't end up leaving the hotel til gone 11 as everything is so closeby in York which is great as there's really no rush. This place was amazing. George had the Yorkshire Pudding Wrap and I had a Pork Sandwich, OMG both were so tasty. It's somewhere we'll definitely be going to again in the future. We then headed to York Minster which is incredible to see. It's absolutely stunning!
As everything is really is only minutes away from one another we then went to see Clifford's Tower and then Merchant Adventurers Hall. Both a must see when visiting York I think. When walking around I was very aware that when I was younger I wouldn't have appreciated any of it but seeing it all now I was just fascinated by it all. These are places I'd seen online before so to actually be there and see how beautiful they are in real life was lovely.
The rest of our second day was pretty chilled out. After seeing the main attractions in the area we did a little more shopping along the Shambles, stopped off at numerous cafes, picked up some sweet treats from Bettys Tea Room (The Fondant Fancie is lush!) and then had a relaxing evening in the hotel. The bathroom was insane so I took full advantage of the luxurious bath! On our final day as we were in no rush to get home, we decided to go to the National Railway Museum. This was literally a 10 minute walk from the hotel so incredibly easy to get to and it's completely free aswell! Well they recommend you give a donation, which we did but if you're after free things to do in York, I think it's definitely one to consider. I remember going when I was younger, and again I'm sure I didn't find it as enjoyable then as I did now but I'm so glad we went. It was so interesting to see all of the different trains and to get to go and sit aboard them, and find out about the history of them all. We ended up spending about 2 hours there but there is so much to see and do that you could easily spend far longer there.
After collecting our bags from the hotel we then made our way home, and even though we had such a brilliant time, I was definitely a little sad to leave. 2 nights there was perfect, the right amount of time to see everything and it gave us plenty of time to properly take it all in and just take it slow really. In the end we saw everything we set out to but I'd already love to go back. It's just a wonderful city, really beautiful in whatever weather and people are so friendly. I couldn't recommend York enough for a weekend break, a little 'minimoon' like us or even just a day out, it's stunning!
Look out for tomorrows blog post to see what I ended up buying while we were there!
Have you ever been to York?
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