She was a day tripper

It's become a bit of a festive tradition to visit York at Christmas. If all goes to plan I might not be in the UK next Christmas, so I wanted to make the most of this feasive season and so a trip there was a must. It's possibly my favourite city in the UK, it's absolutely beautiful full of ancient architecture and rich history. Also most of the shops are local small businesses, which are my favourite to shop in. After all, high street shops are identical all over the country so why bother? I never spend much, this visit being no different. I left with just a single vintage psychedelic maxi dress which was hanging in the window of the Sue Ryder charity shop. It's perfect, I can't wait to show you in a future post.






The Shambles is my favourite area, it's the oldest street in York dating back 900 years and is full of 15th century Tudor buildings leaning slightly higgledy-piggledy over the narrow cobbled streets. Hidden in amongst the shops and cafes are gems like the tiny shrine to Margaret Clitherow, a Catholic woman from the 1500s who was martyred for hiding priests and holding Mass in her home when Catholicism was considered treason.







There's even architecture dating as far back as the Roman Empire, when York was the main fort in northern England. It was the Romans who created York, only they called it Eboracum. This statue of Emperor Constantine the Great sits outside York Cathedral.



I can never resist the teddy bear shop!

For lunch we visited Bettys tea room which is always a real treat! It's exclusive to Yorkshire and serves traditional afternoon tea and English Swiss meals. I had the Alpine Macaroni with my favourite Christmas spiced tea - it raised some eyebrows when I asked for milk with it, but it makes it taste a little more like chai (and I can't abide not having milk in black tea!). All in all, a lovely day out indeed!