Stresses at work and that I’ve not had a proper holiday away from the house for over a year saw me heading off to York last Thursday for a couple of days holiday.
I decided to treat myself to East Coast’s First Class service, although to be honest I did not feel it was particular worth the additional outlay. I stayed at the Ibis, York Centre.
All photos can be found on my Flickr account. Main set here, York Minster here. All photos taken on an iPhone 5s (I packed light and taking the Canon would have been too bulky).
Day One
Caught the slow service from Woking to London Waterloo in First Class and made my way to Kings Cross St. Pancras by Underground (Jubilee Line to Green Park, then change to Victoria up to Kings Cross). Had breakfast in McDonalds before heading over to the East Coast first class lounge. Paid a fiver for the privilege. Nowhere near as good as the airport business class lounges – selection of food/drink not great, seats weren’t that comfortable and wi-fi access was poor.
East Coast’s fast service to York is indeed fast. Service going up was fine, and the two people sitting next to me managed to find free seats further down the carriage, so had a block of four seats plus table to myself. Food served was peppered beef sandwiches and a cake. To go along with the main course I had a glass of white wine. Quite civilised. The journey back, however, was a different story.
Upon my arrival in York, I made my way down to the Ibis – about a 7-10 minute walk away from the station. The room itself was clean, tidy and comfortable. However there were a number of problems:
1) No double glazing. The room faces the main road which often is very busy. You hear everything. This is usually not a problem for me because I live along a main road myself, but in a much smaller village. The window blind was fiddly, and managed to smack myself in the head a couple of times trying to get the hooks into the hole.
2) The floors are very creaky. This is an old building. York is very old. I understand that there will be associated problems with such a thing. But you can hear your neighbours every bump, clang and whatever whenever they move around or even talking. The walls are paper thin.
3) Door slamming. The doors, if not shut carefully, when slam on their own accord. Too many of my fellow guests were just letting the doors slam which echoes throughout the whole floor. Further more, anything happening within the hallway is easily heard in the rooms. Can’t tell you what a racket a party of hen nighters made when they checked in.
I was to get very little sleep for the next two nights.
After checking into the Ibis, I made my way to the National Rail Museum. I’d been here before 10 years ago, but remembered very little. My visit was intended to kill a bit of time (and I’m no trainspotter), but ended up being an impressive journey through history of big giant mechanical beasts. They even had the Hogwart’s Express on display. I loved the Japanese bullet train – very comfortable.
The evening was spent wandering around the city and I ended up at the Guy Fawkes Inn where I had a couple of pints of Ghost Ale (and one Black Sheep) and ate a most excellent three course meal (pigeon breast for starters, steak and ale pie & mash for main course, apple charlotte for desert). All for under £35 for one person.
Day Two
York Minster. I’d forgotten just how impressive and also intimidating this place is. Strikingly beautiful. The guide, David, was very good and told many fantastic stories of the building, the statues and the stained glass windows. The chapter house is a hidden gem. See below for a quick ‘n’ dirty walk around video that I shot, examining the grotesque head carvings that surround the chapter house’s interior.
After visiting the Minster, I lunched at Bennetts (a few metres away) for an excellent tuna melt sandwich and mocha. I took myself down to the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens for a lovely afternoon exploring the history of York and to look at some rather splendid ruins:
That took up much of the afternoon. I headed back, had an afternoon snooze and then ate at the Ibis restaurant for dinner (chorizo and bread for starters, four cheese pizza for main course).
Day Three
Started the day off at the Castle Museum – a fascinating place that recreates an entire Victorian street inside the museum along with examples of various rooms from different periods of history. You also get to explore the old prison and a rather bizzare 60s exhibit that’s situated between the prison and the prison yard.
Stopped off at a lovely small english tea room for a pot of Yorkshire tea and tuna sandwiches before heading off for a walk along the city walls. It was rather slippery as it had just been raining, but excellent views made up for that. A visit to the Jorvik Centre finished off the day.
Ate at the Ibis again (one course – green chicken curry). Having mentioned the problems about the location of the room and sleepless nights, I was given another room – one that was actually much larger than the one before, which had no adjoining rooms. The only downside was that the lack of double glazing allowed me to hear all the loud music emanating from the pub across the road. Otherwise this would have been the perfect room.
Day Four
Had one final walk along the city walls before heading off to the railway station. Stopped off at the Duke of York for a pint before then heading over to Costa for a mocha and an ham and egg sandwich for lunch. The lack of waiting room facilities saw me head towards another pub where I tried an ale similar to the Black Sheep I had tried the other day.
The East Coast train home was not as good as going up. The seat I had been given wanted me to recline whether I wanted it to or not. The woman sitting next to me had been using the seat for her handbag (the old sentient handbag problem again) and felt terribly inconvenienced. So I decided to move – thankfully there was a table of four that was completely empty and moved there. The power sockets to charge the phone didn’t work. There was no menu advising me of the service that was coming through. The service felt rushed. Sandwiches on the menu again. Long and short of it was that for the extra cost you didn’t get the extra comfort or service that goes with it.
