We set off on our journey to York a little later than we had planned, stopping off at the Denby Pottery visitor centre with a view to having lunch. The food portions were very large and the choices did’t fit what we had in mind for a light snack so we opted to carry on with our journey hoping to find something more suitable along the way. Before we left the Denby complex we looked around the Denby shop and saw some plates upon which we would enjoy eating our ‘Fine Dining’, especially on the patio in the summer months. We intend to go back and look again soon.

We stopped off at a motorway service station to pick up some sandwiches for an ‘in car picnic’ only to find, after a long trek over the motorway bridge, that all the sandwich options were over fancy and gooey. I am a little bit particular in what I like but usually Mr C can find something he likes. On this occasion he was not inspired by anything. We trekked back over the motorway bridge to continue on our journey, eventually finding a service station with both Gregg’s and M&S, comparative food heaven. After our enjoyable ‘in car picnic’ we continued our journey to York, calling in at the ‘York Nuclear Bunker’ where we had hoped to spend a couple of hours before checking into the hotel.

When we arrived at the bunker we were surprised that it was bizarrely situated in the middle of a housing estate and that it looked decidedly shut. On closer inspection we found that it was closed until further notice due to a mechanical problem.

We decided our best option was to check into our hotel and head into York for the afternoon. Once at the hotel, The Churchill, we were taken to our room on the ground floor which, to me, was reminiscent of Churchill’s War Rooms in London.

We left our bags in the room before heading into town to explore the ‘Ice Trail’ sculptures that were being displayed that weekend. We walked part of the trail and saw some excellent sculptures, although they were melting due to unseasonable warmth.

After our short walk we gravitated towards Betty’s tea room where I indulged in a raspberry macaroon. It was delicious. We then made our way back to the hotel exploring a few more ice sculptures along the way.

Later we dined in La Vecchia Scuola where we encountered another problem. Our online booking had not registered with the restaurant despite us receiving a confirmation of the booking. They were able to accommodate us but the service was rather slow and the presentation of wine was quirky. I was shown the bottle for approval and Mr C was served first.

After dining we visited the atmospheric Lamb and Lion pub for a nightcap before retiring to our hotel for the evening.