Day 11 - Thursday 28Dec - exploring York

We didn’t sleep too well last night. It was really warm in the room and the noise from the street continued all night. We had breakfast in the hotel as it was included in our room rate. Pretty average but ok. 

We then walked into the city in the very crisp winter air. (Maximum was 4 today!). We had plans to go into the cathedral, the York chocolate story and perhaps the Jorvik Viking Museum. ....well the queues were simply too long and to stand still outside without moving as crazy! So we simply enjoyed it all from outside and pottered around the shops. We wanted to walk on the city walls but sadly they were closed as there was too much ice. The York walls look so appealing to walk on as you really notice them as they encircle the city. 

The huge hotel lobby/staircase area.

 

The Shambles street. So quaint. As you can see, you can hardly move for people!

Love this particular lopsided building.

The Harry Potter shop. See the queue? Though it moved quite quickly. Darn expensive. I wanted a chocolate frog...well one frog cost GBP 12.50 - R212! Dunno why it was so expensive!

I’ve dubbed York as a giant outdoor shopping mall. Inside the city walls are hundreds and hundreds of shops and restaurants and tea shops with thousands of people shopping in the post-Christmas sales. The ancient architecture is amazing and the York Minster cathedral is monumental and so beautiful!

 

We dropped off our shopping bags at the hotel and relaxed our very weary feet ( my phone said we walked 10km). We had been wandering the streets and browsing the shops for 5 hours! 

Shannon googled and found us a reasonable restaurant for early dinner called Bill’s. It turned out to actually be a chain of restaurants, but really good and  although still expensive with the exchange rate, it was good value. We’ve also realized that to avoid crowded restaurants, we go eat at around 4 or 5 as the sun sets. Not all places are open for dinner that early, but it really helps to get in before the crowds arrive from 6pm onwards.

I’ll add some photos here tomorrow as I haven’t yet uploaded the photos from the camera onto my iPad. Thankfully the WiFi in the hotel is amazingly fast so I am able to post easily. ( if you scroll backwards you will notice I’ve added more photos to the other blogposts...) * update .... photos added.