Wintering at Harmony House

Harmony House Boutique B&B is a great place for a winter getaway or weekend break. Amidst miles of open countryside, huge skies that go on forever it’s a wonderful place to be!

We are very near York city. It’s so lovely to come back to such relaxing and peaceful surroundings after a busy day or two sightseeing in York, or shopping at the York Designer Outlet nearby.

Below are just a few things that are still worth doing in the winter months.

CASTLE MUSEUM

During a visit to York, we thought we would just ‘pop into’ the Castle Museum for a little look. I had forgotten just how much is in there. When they claim there’s something for everyone, it’s true. It’s fabulous and one can lose oneself in there for the best part of a day. Indeed, we did. It has both ancient and modern history, which is unusual for such a place. I thought I recalled seeing Madame Tussaud’s waxworks last time we were there, but they were nowhere to be seen this time. Though that detracted from the experience, not one jot.

We were all mesmerised by the mock Victorian Street, Kirkgate. It is so very detailed and interesting and not in the least bit meagre. We loved the fact that you could actually buy the ‘olde worlde’ sweets in the sweet shop too, and what’s more, we did!  

One last point on the museum…if you don’t get time to finish it all in one go, they do a free return for one year in exchange for your email address. Sweet!

Now this, this, is an experience that we’d recommend to anyone and everyone! Have you ever heard of such a thing as a ‘snickelway’? We certainly hadn’t. I had a little book given to me by a friend a couple of years ago and a guest pointed out to me the merits of reading this book! The book is called A Walk Around The Snickelways of York, by Mark W Jones, published in 1983. The book shows all the walks around the alleyways, ginnels and snickets to find places one would never come across just sauntering around the main streets of York. I found the whole concept of walking around the city of York, within the walls and without hardly setting foot on the regular roads, enticing and intriguing to say the least.

The book takes you through the whole tour section by section, map by map and narrates the whole lot. After sneaking though the first snicket at ‘The Hole in the Wall’, we were already hooked!