I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in the stunning city of York – And after taking quite a while to go through and edit the photos, I thought I’d share a little photo diary with you!
Is there a prettier city than York?
My 26th in a nutshell: Afternoon Tea at Bettys, Coffee at The Fossgate Social, and my Dad getting strangled by a vampire. What a birthday, eh?
The First Stop: Afternoon Tea at Bettys
I was really lucky to spend my 25th birthday having the Lady Betty Afternoon Tea with my parents at Bettys. (I reviewed it here, by the way!)
As my 26th came around, I was itching to go back, because it was lovely! And we did. Sadly, my mum was poorly and couldn’t join us, and I felt under the weather too, but that didn’t stop us wolfing down the dainty sandwiches and treats!
It’s an incredibly special birthday treat to have (the best) afternoon tea in the gorgeous setting of the Belmont Room. You’re even serenaded by a pianist as you’re eating!
Wandering Around York
After leaving Bettys, we needed some exercise to burn all those calories off, so we embarked on a stroll around York city centre!
Dad got strangled by a vampire-y undertaker man. (There’s photographic proof below, honest.)
I spent 15 minutes standing outside Oliver Bonas, trying to get a decent photo of Bettys Cafe Tearooms (It’s a different one to the one we dined at!) but tourists kept walking in front of my shot – So, in the end I gave up, and went shopping inside Oliver Bonas instead; where I spent nearly all of my birthday money on pretty, shiny things. (Like a magpie with more money than sense.)
Then we walked past an incredible Yorkshire Pudding shop, which we definitely would’ve stopped off at, if we weren’t stuffed after Bettys!
After that, we grew tired, so decided it was time for a caffeine-boost and a well-earned rest…
Our Last Port of Call: The Fossgate SOCIAL
I discovered this gorgeous coffee bar via Instagram a few months before my birthday, and I was desperate to visit when I knew I’d be in the area.
It’s tucked away from the busiest parts of the city centre, but it’s definitely worth a longer walk to get to this cosy coffee haven.
Sadly, we got quite lost trying to find it. So the time spent aimlessly wandering around, squinting at Google Maps, ate into our valuable coffee-guzzling time. In the end, we had to down our drinks and run for our train home!
(I wrote about this lovely cafe in more detail over on The Weekend Edition here!)
Some More Snaps of Beautiful York:
On my DSLR alone, there were so many photos (452 to be exact!) so I’ve only selected a few of my favourites above. That said, a few others that didn’t make it into this post are on my Instagram feed now! (Find that here, if you’re interested!)
I feel like I need to explain the above photo a little before I sign off. Except, I can’t really. This man stands around in York, dressed up, promoting the ghost walks. He volunteers to strangle people for photos. All normal, I can assure you. (He’s not as menacing as the picture would suggest either!)
We couldn’t work out what he was though. I (probably wrongly) assumed he was some kind of vampire, and my Dad saw him as more of an undertaker. Either way, he’s just doing his job.
Have you ever been to York? Do you have any recommendations on where I should visit next time?
