Let’s talk: York - City walls, tea rooms and plenty more to see

This post is in collaboration with hotels.com, but all views are my own.

Since we’ve been in lockdown again I’ve found myself thinking about travel, and I’m sure I’m not alone.  My mind’s been buzzing with the plans we had that have been postponed until next year,  looking back at the replacement plans we managed to take (just) and well it’s been quite a year for not really going anywhere much, hasn’t it?  It seems though that my travel feet are getting itchy it seems - and realistically, for us, for the time being our travel plans will be in the UK.  But really that’s no hardship as there’s plenty of beautiful places to explore and it’s not that unusual for us to take a UK break either. The real pondering though is do we go somewhere new-to-us, or go back to somewhere we’ve been before as a couple, or revisit places from our childhood holidays.  

One of the places that I’ve visited a few times, both as a child and more recently with MOH, is York.  It’s one of those places, that for me has a bit of magic, and even though our most recent visit is now ten years ago (no, I’m not sure how that’s happened either) but it’d be great to go back as there’s so much to see.  And so, I was curious to see how many of the things on the “best things” list I could tick off  - six easily, which is great, but that also makes we want to head back again.

But that trip, which I’m struggling to believe was 10 years ago, but was also easy to date - you’ll see why -  was also memorable as it coincided with the volcano in Iceland erupting and disrupting travel. I was so glad I’d reserved our seats on the train, and that our train was one that still ran.  Phew.

When we’re away we explore as much of where we are as we can on foot, and I’m certain we clocked up a healthy number of steps walking the City Walls, exploring York Minster, wandering up and down and around The Shambles, climbing up Cliffords Tower for some spectacular views, before heading to Betty’s for refreshments and then later full of cake people watching in the gardens and dragging ourselves out again in the evening.  I know enjoying yourself is hard work.

And you know what? I’d do all of those again, but I’d also be keen to take a look around the National Railway Museum too - MOH is convinced I’m a secret travel nerd, but I dispute that - there’s nothing secret about it! Remember that time we spent a whole day at BMW World in Munich? Yes, exactly.

Photo by Sarah on Unsplash

With its mix of history, shops to explore and cakes, as well as my new discovery, it’s probably just as well we’re still currently in lockdown.  None of us can be sure what the tiers system will bring until it’s confirmed later in the week, but if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to plan where we can, check the current restrictions and do what’s sensible.  But most of all, to make sure we take the opportunities that come our way, safely.

Shops of Lyon

We are one of the fortunate ones who managed to get away, albeit briefly, before the first lockdown back in March. For Valentines weekend we headed for a few nights in Lyon - you might remember that getting back was more stressful than it needed to be as we almost missed the flight. Even now, just typing this, I’m reliving the feelings that brought - we will never cut it so fine again for a flight. Given this year, it will be a fair while before we go anywhere near a flight, I’m sure, but even so.

Lyon was lovely though. We did the usual thing of arriving ‘close enough’ to our hotel and then wandering, or rather, marching through the streets in search of where we were staying. I say marching, as at the start of a break, somehow we always walk much more quickly, by the end and when it’s time to leave everything is a bit more leisurely. More so than normal it would seem on this break, ahem.

I’d booked a hotel in the old part of town and so we walked past these shops many times - it was no hardship at all really, though.

I wanted to peer into each and every one of them. Perhaps this one especially…

Even those which were no longer in use and full of faded glory drew my attention.

Sometimes it was the content more than than the shopfront that caught my eye.

I still haven’t worked out the significance of those human figures, but if they had a price tag on then I’d be more than interested in acquiring them. And isn’t it peculiar, this is probably the closest I’ve got to browsing shops this year, but it’s something I’m missing - even though it’s not something I do a lot! Probably linked to the fact that we can’t at the moment, and absence making the heart grow fonder as the saying goes. Though I’m sure I’d also hate wandering around a packed shopping area too.

Browsing an actual shop

I know, what a novelty. Last week we were away in Norfolk staying in a beautiful, but tiny, cottage close to Holt. More on the cottage another day, it was stunning. But then again, so is Holt - it’s one of my favourite Norfolk towns. We’ve only been to Norfolk three times this year - thanks 2020 - but hadn’t managed to get over to Holt, until this visit. It has some great shops, and it felt almost decadent to be in them, looking around, albeit with face coverings and social distancing, of course.

So today, join me for a wander around the shops, and see what caught my eye.

Holt has plenty of small yards, which are packed full of shops to explore, and we started in Follyology, a new-to-us shop, both of us drawn in by the garden ornaments. The wall art below was very well strategically placed, and caught our eyes. It is stunning, and realistically priced at about a hundred pounds ( I think from memory - sometimes it’s good not to know, or remember, isn’t it?)

From what was on display outside I was keen to see more of the shop inside. That didn’t disappoint either. It was full of colour.

As well as items which I’d not considered before, like these pretty ceramic teaspoons,

Downstairs there were homewares, upstairs clothes and accessories. And it was the latter, on a table in the centre that was my focus, with a number of decorated velvet pouches.

I resisted at the time, but resistance was futile and a day or so later returned to purchase one of the small pouches - you might have already seen which one on Instagram?

Feeling more normal, despite the masks, next up was a wander around the nearby streets and yards, and a pop in to Bakers and Larner’s food hall for something for tea. Another fabulous shop, which seems to have a never-ending series of departments, though in Covid-19 times there are designated entrance and exits, as you’d expect, but which made me realise I knew more of the shop’s layout than I realised.

Around the town I spotted a couple of penguins in one of the shop windows. Clearly not real ones, but they were rather cute. I think MOH was glad these weren’t the things we popped back to Holt for.

Well, not that time anyway.

Maybe my attraction to Holt is its colourfulness, maybe its quirkiness, who knows?

But what was clear was that it felt good To be back, even just for a short while.