ENGLAND - Are we going to Hogwarts?

Greetings everybody and welcome back to the blog - this time I'm having a winter break in the north of England starting in the historic city of York.

First stop Betty's - Betty's tea shops are a Yorkshire institution and having afternoon tea there is one of the big things to do in this part of the world. The problem though is getting a table, when you walk past Betty's, there is usually a queue, often a long queue, outside. My top tip therefore is to head there at 9am when they open and treat yourself to breakfast. The service is impectable, the surroundings stunning and the food - well take a look for yourself ......

After that I needed to walk the breakfast off, so I headed up onto the city walls that almost encircle the city centre. Its a nice walk at this time of the year, partly because there are few tourists and partly because there are no leaves on the trees so the views are more open.

The cathedral or minster in York's case, is usually the first historic sight people head for, unfortunately its closed all week for the university graduation ceremonies so you'll just have to make do with some outside pictures.

The most famous street in the city is the Shambles - in days gone by, home to the city's butchers shops, it has recently found fame through bearing a striking resemblance to Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter books. There are many references to the street having inspired the author, something she of course denies, but that hasn't stopped the Harry Potter themed shops moving in. By day its a bit of a tourist trap but come dusk it becomes amazingly atmospheric.

Should you need to spend a penny (in fact forty of them to be precise), there are public toilets near the Shambles and please don't worry about the 40p charge, as in the new improved post-covid world they take card payments, just tap reader by the turnstyle and by a bit of Hogwarts magic the gates will open!