Day trip to York

It had been such a long time since we last visited York, so I felt it was time to rectify this.

We did the journey by car, which took around two hours, arriving around 11pm. Ready for something to eat and drink, we went into York’s supposedly most haunted pub, the Golden Fleece. A very atmospheric pub, adorned with skulls, suits of armours, framed ghost stories. After finding seats we ordered lunch, which was a bit disappointing as it was mediocre and a bit cold. But still, it was good to visit such an iconic establishment.

Next we popped into the Harry Potter Store, ‘The Shop that must not be named’. Packed with beautiful Harry Potter merchandise, we purchased some lovely souvenirs and enjoyed a good look around.

We have been wanting to visit the York Ghost Merchants for some time, so we rushed to their store on the Shambles and were disappointed to find it was closed. Luckily there was another Outlet about 5 minutes walk away. Here we were delighted to find it was not only open, but there were no queues. Apparently the queues to buy these little ghosts can be about 3 hours long, so we picked a good time to try the Ghost Merchants. We bought 4 ghosts and photographed them on their own little display case. I had no idea these ghosts were so popular and highly collectible little items. I will write more about the Ghosts in a separate post.

For the last part of our day out, we did a Harry Potter Location Tour. This was a marvellous little two hour tour. Unfortunately there was only the three of us on the tour but the young lady who acted as our guide was very impressive. She interspersed the walking tour with several Harry Potter quizzes- my daughter loved this as she’s a bit of a Harry Potter expert. We saw and learned about so much more about York than we would have done just walking about on our own. From the various ghosts of York and Harry Potter filming locations to the cats that adorn the rooftops of many establishments, we learned quite a lot in a short time.

After the tour, there was just time for a quick drink in one of the local bars near car park and then off for the drive home.

We plan to return soon to York for an overnight stay to take in the Jorvik Viking centre and hopefully an evening ghost tour.