Yuletide York

Last weekend my Hb and I travelled up to York for his annual work Christmas party, held on the Saturday night. He works for a company who have offices around the country and each year the party is hosted by a different office. This year it was the turn of the Leeds office and they decided to host it in York. We always make a long weekend of it and pay for the extra night on the Friday. His company are very generous and the rest of the weekend - all the food,drink etc is taken care of. We are indeed very fortunate.

I always do a little research for a meal on the Friday night and came up with a restaurant with the amusing name of "Ate O'Clock". We arrived at (you can guess 8 o'clock!) and found a beautiful little restaurant set back down an alley way. If anyone ever goes to York I can really recommend it. Everything was first class, right from the menu..

..to the food and the delicious drinks and cocktails. The pudding above was my "Trio of lemon " pudding and had no less than a homemade lemon meringue, lemon cheesecake in a pot and shot of limoncello, oh my goodness it was fab.......

After we had finished our meal we decided that rather than head straight back to our hotel would would take a  late night walk to walk off some of the food (and drink) we had indulged in. As you can imagine fuelled by this wonderful food and drink we positively glowed during our night time walk around the city centre. It was quite a cold night and we could see our breath visible in the air as we walked. Although all the shops were closed for the night they looked so beautiful with the Christmas  lights shining. No these photos are not blurred due to my camera shake it's just that my camera needs holding still for a while to capture night time shots..honest! I actually find them very atmospheric

Magical shop fronts....

                                                                               

It was a really memorable walk around the ancient streets. On the right  is the famous Betty's tea rooms all shut up for the night. During the day the queue stretched around the corner!

We then made our way back to our hotel for the night.



After a good night's sleep followed by a full English breakfast served in our room (such bliss!) the next morning we again set off for the city centre. We were staying a short bus ride away.

This time in daylight the streets looked very different and were also SO busy. We have visited York in the past so we have been inside the Minster but still loved to view it.

As you can imagine it was also an ideal opportunity to do some of our Christmas shopping as there are some very original shops in York, as well as the staple high streets shops which are found anywhere. The Shambles is a very famous street in York where originally all the butchers sold their meat. Nowadays there is a single sausage maker there but the old building are fascinating with their low doors and ceilings. The buildings nearly touch one another as they now lean forward so much with their old age.

As the queue for Betty's stretched round the block, and we have had the pleasure of having our afternoon tea there in the past, we headed instead for a lovely, little known tea room, situated in the Mulberry Hall china shop. We had our tea served from this wonderful Christmas china tea service..I was so delighted at this touch. Is it possible for tea to taste so special when served in such a way...I think it does! I know it is a good marketing ploy by the shop but I also thought it really made our visit so memorable.

The tea room is on the upper floor of this shop, at the front. We sat by the window where the two Christmas trees are close together on the outside wall. We so enjoyed watching the bustle of the shoppers below and it was good to rest our legs for a while. Before we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the party we took a last stroll around the grounds of the Minster where it is so peaceful.

It was then time to head back and get into our party clothes. It is always fun to dress up for these occasions. The party was lovely but I really think my fondest memory of our recent trip to Yuletide York was the late night walk around the deserted, sleeping city centre. It was such a contrast to the daytime and we felt that for a short time that it belonged to us.......and our ever so slightly tottery legs!!

Bye for now,

Jane x

(Don't forget to keep up with my **days to Christmas posts...the next one is coming up mid week next week when it will be time to really count down - it will be 1st December, time is now really flying by).