Do What? Where?
York is a proverbial jewel in the crown of Northern England. According to many Yorkshiremen, it’s the centre of the known universe. The capital of God’s own country. Well, they would say that. It’s part of the identity.
But on a more practical level, York falls into the realms of “places I went to as a kid, and then never again”, and it sits proudly alongside The Isle of Wight, Pembrokeshire and Jersey in that regard. Of that list, York is by far the easiest for me to reach. In terms of interest, the place has more history per square foot than most places in England. It’s been around the block a few times. Just different blocks to me, apparently.
But enough history. Why go there?
Well, the usual suspects. There’s a parkrun beginning with a “Y” – well, actually there’s two of them, because another opened in the spring. And there’s quite a lot of lab caches, especially in the central area. So that’ll do. The fact that it only takes two hours in the car is a not insignificant factor too.
The Booking
I booked two nights only. No consumption of vacation days was needed, because it was Easter weekend. I booked from Friday to Sunday. I’m not sure why I didn’t stay until Monday, but hey ho! I guessed that would mean it would be minging with tourists, but the cost was not prohibitive so long as I didn’t mind staying a mile or so out of the centre. I didn’t mind.
So I booked myself a room at the Holiday Inn by the Racecourse. That was OK for travelling to the centre – 5 minutes on a bus or 20 minutes by foot. It’s also very close to York parkrun, which takes place on the racecourse.
I think I included breakfast with my room rate. Not transport costs were paid upfront. I took the car, and one advantage of a slightly out-of-the-way hotel is that fact that it had a free car park. So that’s where my car spent its weekend. Outside the hotel.
Eating
I ate at the hotel both nights. I’d been walking a lot and frankly couldn’t be bothered to go back down into town for dinner. The food at the hotel was perfectly serviceable.
Stuff to Do
Well, it’s York, innit. So there’s a cathedral, a lot of ancient walls, and old town centre, and a fair amount of random culture.
I planned my weekend around caching and the parkrun. That makes it sound like I actually planned something though. I didn’t. As ever with caching, I sort of wandered aimlessly from cache to cache until my feet hurt too much to continue. That took a surprisingly long time on all three days.
Summary
It was a lovely little break. Yes, the place was packed with tourists, but not in a miserable way. There was plenty of caching for me to do. I’ve cleared the central area fairly well. Food was an afterthought on this trip, to be honest. Maybe because I’m still finding my feet where this whole “being alone” thing is concerned. Sitting in a hotel bar eating alone feels less lonely than sitting in a nice restaurant alone.
The weather was pleasant most of the weekend. Not warm, but sunny enough. I’d definitely come back.
And as I discovered later in the year, I could get there fairly easily by train, so maybe I’ll try that one weekend.
