Several months ago, after wanting to for years, we finally in the North of England and boy, was it worth the wait! It was just everything I’d hoped it would be and more.
My only ‘regret’ (I use that word very VERY loosely – Yorkshire was just so amazing) was that we never really got to explore the city of York.
All we saw was the drive after picking up the car and the drive back to drop off the car (both of which looked absolutely gorgeous in a quintessentially English way) so, at some point, I just knew we had to come back and explore this beautiful city properly!
And so we did! On our latest , I figured it was time we got to grips with some of our island’s absolutely fascinating history!
And where better to than the city, with a history that spans back thousands of years, a city once occupied by Romans and Vikings and one that still held on to its ancient history rather visibly everywhere you went!
With that, we hopped on the train from Kings Cross station in London and 2 hours later, we were in York – eager to kick start !
The walk from the station to the hotel (it was just such a lovely day – too sunny to hop into a taxi for what would have been a 10 minute walk) left me super eager to chuck my luggage aside, whip out my camera (actually, perhaps get the camera first before chucking the luggage) and just run off exploring!
The hotel – – is pretty amazing!
It’s steeped in so much fascinating history, and, in their own words is a building that “has seen knighthoods bestowed, played host to kings and has the privilege of being the only privately owned building in York with direct access to York’s City walls.”
Pretty special, right?
Let me show you around! Starting with the room…
… then the bar and general communal/chill out area
… before showing you what is easily my favourite spot in the hotel – the library!
I’ve always had a thing for libraries.
I love the smell of the books, getting lost in said books and the game of finding the cosiest nook to hunker down in a get lost in a world of imagination (I’m of a fiction kinda guy).
Distracted by , time for lunch arrived surprisingly sooner than I’d expected and, prompted by a rumble in my tummy, we headed over to Cafe no. 8 Bistro, a cute little spot in town.
We wasted no time in getting stuck into things – Lloyd went for the beef sandwich while I went for the Kedgeree.
I’m not usually a sandwich kinda person (shock horror but bread-based meals – despite my obvious love of carbs, never really do it for me) which is why I didn’t even consider the beef sandwich to begin with. When it arrived, it came with a side order of (rather generous) food envy!
This is not a beef sandwich like I’d imagined.
The delicious smell wafting from the beef sandwich did nothing to alleviate my food envy!
I was totally convinced I’d made the wrong choice until I tucked into my Kedgeree!
The delicious mix of herbs, fish and veggies all delightfully blended into this rice dish (topped up with a poached egg) was just so amazing (it totally took me by surprise, I have to admit) and, despite never having heard of it before, made me super glad I decided to take a chance on something different for lunch this time.
The whole meal was just so amazing and the rave reviews we’d read prior to arriving at the cafe just made so much sense once we tucked in! (I tasted Lloyd’s – for research, of course,
