Thursday 28th September 2023

Up early, and breakfast from a couple of Yorkshire tea cakes each.

We wandered into the town centre along the river, I knew there were boat trips along the Ouse, so we decided we’d do that.

First, we wandered around the beautiful York Museum gardens finding their Ghost Statues, the gardens are beautiful.

After that, we wandered back to the pier for a boat-trip, and just as it was ready to depart, £13.50 each and we were off, about a 50 minute tour of the centre of York by river, Andy the skipper gave an entertaining history lesson, really enjoyable (and you can buy drinks onboard).

When we got off, it was lunch time, and we headed back to the food market for a smoked sausage each, really tasty.

I opted for paprika and Gayle had an oak-smoked sausage.

We weren’t quite full, so we wandered around a bit, looking for something else, and remembered the “Heavenly Desserts” place, we were the only customers, but their cookie doughs were amazing, we were both really full after that.

I spotted we were 15 minutes from the York Rail Museum, so a quick phone booking, and we wandered round.

They are clearly prepping for the bicentennial of the Stockton & Darlington rail line, so it’s undergoing a lot of renovation.

Lots of old items out on display, big plans for the museum in 2025, and it will definitely be worth returning.

We did get to see the Shinkansen train, and the Mallard and Duchess of Hamilton trains and lots more rolling stock.

I also really enjoyed a lot of the railway minutiae on display, from hand-built models to a lot of the plaques and smaller items, really giving a bit of insight into what it was like to live on the Railways.

We wandered back along the riverside as far as the Millenium bridge and crossed over at that point, it’s nice, a lot less built up than the Clyde in Glasgow.

For dinner we wandered over to Lal Quila a wee Indian restaurant on Bishopthorpe Road (which is the road you come to if you go out the “pedestrian entrance” from the site), it was good.