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York 2025 - Horrible Smells and Tasty Treats (Day 3 & 4)

For our third and final day in York, we had a couple more touristy places to visit. First, we headed to JORVIK Viking Centre to find out all about the city's Viking history. This is somewhere that you wouldn't want to visit if you don't have a strong stomach, as they have made the experience realistic in many senses including imitating the smells of Viking York. The museum involves a short talk about York's history, a 20 minute ride which takes you through their recreation of what parts of York would have been like during the Viking age, and then an area with various artefacts to view. We found it really interesting and learnt a lot about how the Vikings lived. 

After we escaped the horrible smells of JORVIK, we headed back to The Cheese Trader for lunch. Nicole had been eyeing up two options on the menu the day before and so we decided to make sure we tried both. Today we opted for the dirty loaded fries, which are a huge box of seasoned fries topped with cheese of your choice from four options (we selected a small baked camembert) and a topping (we selected spring onions). We also had crispy fried onions and sriracha mayo on top. The portion was huge, but the combination of the camembert and fries made for a very naughty but delicious lunch! 


Our second activity for the day was the York's Chocolate Story. We were slightly early, so we stopped off to watch some of the street theatre outside before our time slot. The chocolate story went through the history of chocolate manufacture in York which, unknown to us before our trip, was the home of Rowntrees, Terry's and Craven. We also didn't realise that Rowntrees once made some of the most famous chocolate treats such as KitKats, smarties and Aero, before they were taken over by Nestle. The chocolate story offered tasting in each room, an opportunity to make a chocolate lollipop and a chocolate making demonstration. Just a warning on some of the tasters, a few of them are very dark chocolate and quite bitter, so it may be worth just trying a small amount to decide if you like it before having the whole piece. This experience was a great way to end our trip and both informative and fun. 


We finished our day in York by a bit of shopping, before going back to our AirBnB to play our new Viking raider game and enjoy our pastries (Lemon Crumble and Apple Crumble) from Heppni Bakeri!


Before we headed home from York after one more night in our AirBnB, we just had time for a quick stop at another local National Trust property, Beninbrough Hall. This is a house with more than 300 years of history, and which is in the middle of having a huge transformation of its gardens. We enjoyed the opportunity for a wander around to learn about the history of the house, and then sat down for some lunch in the restaurant. We then made the short journey home ready to unpack and set off to Squirrels.




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