Welcome back to When Wine Calls “The Winter Grape Tour” of the UK and Europe.
York is a cathedral walled city founded by the Romans and home to famous landmarks such as York Minster (one of the world’s most magnificent cathedrals dating back to the 7th century), the Shambles (historic street of medieval buildings dating back to the 14th century and now of Harry Potter fame), The National Railway Museum and 30 other various museums.
On arrival at the Principal York Hotel located near the famous train station and in proximity of York Minster we drove into the car park after sunset and became concerned that we could not see a spare spot anywhere.
Suddenly, we noted what looked like a space further up and immediately headed for it and as I turned in there was a sign at the end of the space stating “Reserved for Pauline”. We looked at each other and just started laughing as we could not believe what we were looking at. It turned out that Pauline had requested parking, but the hotel would not guarantee it at the time, so we certainly were not expecting a “reserved spot” but as I have said previously in these blogs when travelling you never know, despite all the planning you have undertaken, when you will be surprised, and we certainly were on this occasion.
The Principal York is a grand hotel built back in 1878 blending late-Victorian architecture with modern features and with over 150 rooms. In the large gardens opposite the hotel we noted that an enclosed marquee had been erected for Christmas serving drinks and light food that non hotel guests could also enjoy. We located another of these marquees across the river in the botanical gardens and was a great idea to enhance Christmas.
York is a city where you could easily spend at least a week exploring and appreciating this intriguing city but being there for only a few days and the weather cold and wet we concentrated our time around the Shambles Market area where all the Christmas activities were centred to really enjoy the Christmas atmosphere. The Shambles is only a very small street, so it was crowded as expected but the odd shaped shops filled with Harry Potter memorabilia, “The Shop that Must Not Be Named” and “The York Ghost Merchants Shop” make it a must see if your visiting York. As night fell the lights all came on along the main streets and provided a wonderful Christmas atmosphere with drink huts set up offering Mulled Wine or more interestingly Hot Chocolate with Baileys. We could not bring ourselves to try the hot chocolate though as it sounded just too rich. What was disappointing was that we expected to see the huts being filled with all things Christmas but instead found mainly food and general paraphernalia i.e. normal markets at Christmas time rather than Christmas markets.
We did come across this magnificent merry-go-round in the piazza and decided that that was for us so we hopped on and could not believe how fast it went compared to others we remember going on all those years ago but so much fun.
The next day it was raining heavily so we decided to head for the British National Rail Museum located close to the hotel and importantly is all indoors. The visit here is free and is fascinating with all the large steam trains and carriages of that era on display in this massive shed. The only engine missing was The Flying Scotsman which was out on tour although they have a virtual experience as an alternative. The famous blue Mallard was a centrepiece of the museum which holds the record for the fastest steam locomotive in the world clocking 126mph back in 1938 as was a carriage from the Orient Express.
This museum is a must see when visiting York.
After the Museum it was onto a road mini train that takes you through the city around to York Minster. York Minster is the second largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe behind the Cologne Cathedral and dates to the 7th century. They impose a considerable charge to visit inside the cathedral to assist pay for upkeep and since we had seen it previously, we decided against going inside on this visit and instead headed for a warm pub for lunch and, course some vino.
The next day it was time to leave York and hit the road to head south towards London, but we decided to break the journey by stopping off at a village called Leamington Spa located near the well-known Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had booked into a grand English country house, Mallory Court Country House located on the outskirts.
As we were late booking this accommodation, we were a little unsure what we would find when we got there but were so pleasantly surprised on arrival- it is a stunning property with a manor house and other accommodation situated in a magnificent English garden setting. On arrival we were upgraded to a suite which was a fabulous room overlooking the gardens. We had a wonderful dinner that night in the restaurant in the Manor House itself with a tremendous menu finished off with an aperitif by the open fire – a great end to a travel day.
The next morning, we were planning to visit Warwick Castle but at breakfast we overheard that at Stratford-Upon-Avon there were large Christmas Markets with over 300 stalls, so we decided to risk getting caught in the crowds and headed over there. We struck it lucky in getting a parking spot and couldn’t believe how popular these markets are snaking their way down every street in the town. As was the case in York they were more markets at Christmas time than Christmas Markets, but the atmosphere was nevertheless very festive. We had not been to Stratford on Avon since we visited there with our children, William & Portia back in 2010 so it was good to walk around the town and see Shakespeare’s Birthplace, the Royal Shakespeare’s Theatre and the canals and locks along the river which was almost ready to break its banks after the heavy rain they had had. What caught our eye was the white swans swimming around the river and the size of them – truly magnificent birds and very comfortable with humans close by.
We headed across to Warwick Castle in the afternoon to have a quick visit and not only had the opportunity to look through the fantastic rooms within the castle, but we also climbed one of the turrets to get a gorgeous view over the surrounding countryside, almost exhausting ourselves in the process. They had also set up an ice rink in the grounds with food markets and fabulous lighting which was proving very popular. It was good to be part of the Christmas activities and see what the owners have done to promote these old castles and obtain funds to enable them to maintain them for the future.
The next day we had to say goodbye to the Mallory Court Country House but not before a photo of the hotel’s Veuve Clicquot bicycle on display and head for London Heathrow to drop off the car.
The weather was awful with heavy rain for a fair bit of the journey, so we decided to detour to Windsor where it looked finer and call in on Charles for tea. It had been a long time since we had visited Windsor, and we could not remember doing a tour of Windsor Castle at the time, so we decided to have a look. It is a magnificent palace and well worth a visit steeped in so much history and with many recent events having been held there it was great to be able to picture yourself there as you walk around the various rooms. We really enjoyed the relatively brief time we spent there.
We finally headed off to Heathrow, dropped off the car and onto the tube into Earls Court and our apartment where the next day our daughter Portia would be joining us after flying in from Australia via the US to continue our “The Winter Grape” tour. It was exciting being back to where we had started our “The Summer Vintage” adventure over 6 months ago and writing another chapter on London (but this time during the lead up to Christmas) – it such a wonderful city which we get very excited each time we visit.
Read up on our Christmas adventures in London in our next blog – until then.
Bruce & Pauline
When Wine Calls 
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