York

We caught the train early Saturday morning (12 January 2008) to York! Reputably England's most haunted town and also home to the largest cathedral in Northern Europe.

Disembarking just in time to have a big English breakfast at Betty's which we reckon served the best toast we have ever eaten (big call we know but it was THAT good), we then checked out the abovementioned cathedral; the York Minister. The Minister is HUGE! We meanded around inside the nave, the undercroft, chapter house, treasury and then climbed the 275 spiral steps to the top of the tower.

After the Minister we investigated the ruins of St Mary's and climbed along one portion of the old city walls. After a late lunch and our first pint of the trip we checked into our guesthouse then made our way to the York Brewery for the 5.00pm tour. The tour must have worked up a thirst as afterwards we sampled a couple (okay 5 of their ales) with Lou's 'Best beer' prize being awarded to the Yorkshire Terrier for quality and taste.

Given York is apparently haunted we thought we'd take the opportunity to get scared! The Ghost Hunt of York provided us with many stories and screams but also plenty of laughs. The best bit of the tour however was that the tour leader singled out Rob for everything! Overall great tour! We finished the day with a late dinner in the local Thai restuarant.

Now the best thing about staying in a guesthouse (which we realised over our New Year's break) is the quality of the breakfast. Of course we filled ourselves to the brim before wandering back to the Minster to the start of the City Walls we had not yet covered. The walls took us to Clifford's Tower where we were afforded with some good views back over the city. Feeling like a sit down we found the Punch bowl, an old pub that served the pints we required to make it through the day not to forget the good Sunday roast and toffee pudding.

Now neither of us are major rail buffs but to pass the afternoon we decided to visit the National Rail Museum. The museum was massive and just when Rob thought we had seen it all Lou pointed out we'd only checked out one of the two main buildings. On top of that it wasn't until we were getting ready to finish that we realised there was an enormous outdoor museum as well! It was a great way to spend the afternoon even if you're not into trains. Highly recommended!

To finish up the weekend we had an early dinner at a Turkish BBQ restaurant before getting back on the train bound for home.

York was a great little town; very pretty, with enough to keep us busy for the weekend!

More York pics here!