Light up, Light up.... All a glow in York...

Light Up, Light Up.....All a glow in York....
An overnight stay in Blossom Street Premier Inn, York
Date of stay : Friday 28th October 2011

Last year we visited the 'Illuminating York' event and really enjoyed it, but it was a long day & meant travelling back home in the dark afterward and we missed one or two things as the kids were tired from walking round all day. 
So this year we decided to stay overnight & not have to rush about & worry about getting home in the dark.
The 'Little Dude' is heavily into trains, so the obvious choice was travel by train & finally have an opportunity to use my 'Friends&Family Railcard'. (If you have at least 1 child between 5-16 this railcard saves you a third off all fares, quite a saving by anybodys standards.)
So off we set to York. 'Little Dude' loved the train ride & the hotel was easy to find and literally just a 3minute walk from the station. In a nice position near to Micklegate.
Its very expensive to stay in York but we got a great deal with Premier Inn, £39 for the Friday night at their Blossom Street Hotel and only £7.99 for an all-you-can-eat breakfast (complete with a special offer of buy one get one free PLUS kids get free breakfasts!!!). Bargain!  The room was very nice. The kids had 'proper' beds (important to 'Little Madam' as she wasnt keen on the ' floor level matress on wheels' she'd slept on in Nottinghams Travelodge).
Premier Inn rooms are usually of a high standard & this one was no exception however it was a strange layout with all the rooms in seperate blocks & the breakfast room was actually 2 doors down the street as we discovered the next day to our amusement! If only I'd known I was gonna face the public so early in the morning I would have put my face on, I'm just glad I din't set off in my jim-jams!
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon as we headed off into York via Micklegate Bar & across the city wall which is very pretty & gives a great veiw of the Minster. It was an easier route into town & saves standing forever, waiting to cross the road.  After a few hours of sight-seeing & window shopping we were all a bit peckish so stopped off for a spot of tea before the Illuminations started at 6.30pm. Another great 'family-on-a-budget-tip' is Pizzahut... they have lots of special offers. You can register online & download various vouchers, also instore if you ask about the offers they have on, they actually tell you!! £6 happy hour was great for us & we were all stuffed when we headed back to the hotel to 'Glo-stick' up for the nights events.....
Illuminating York happens all across the city in a variety of large and small ways. This year there was no projection onto the Minster (it was under restoration/scaffolding so that was maybe why), the main focus this year was down at the Castle Museum. We stopped off at Deans Park but were not impressed by the strangely 'non-illuminating' event being held there. It consisted of everybody standing in a circle while strange languages & lots of smoke were pumped at us...errrmmm ok..??... so we headed off to Treasurers House for their Spooky Candlelight evening event...
From stepping into the gardens the whole place was bathed in colourful lights giving such an unusual & magical atmosphere. Inside there was a 'find the ghosts&bats trail' to keep the kids occupied while us grown-ups took in the individual ambiance of each room.
The national trust had done a fantastic job bringing the story each room to life with mood lighting, signs & sound effects. I especially liked the sounds of the 'galleon' & 'swordfighting' at the bottom of the staircase & 'Little Dude' was much impressed with the 'glow-in-the dark 3 armed juggler' (who only had 2 arms really!)  The lollipop reward for completing the 'find the object trail' was enough to impress 'Little Madam'....
We headed off through the Shambles, stopping to admire an imaginitive pumpkin display, past the Glass Cat maker (who was holding  a special evening glass making demonstration) & breifly resting under the
 sparkling 'firework tree' en-route to the main event at the Castle Museum....
'Envisions' was absolutely fantastic & definatly worth the visit to York. A mix of funky techno music & colourful  spooky 3D images, allegedly depicting the museums former use as a womens prison, impressed us all, even the children! We managed to get a brilliant veiw from a space right at the font of the crowd too. A great night was had by all.
 The next day we took the 'Little Dude' to the train museum, which he loved of course! They've had a change around since the last time I was there & the shop layout has changed (I didnt find it as good actually) there's now a charge for the trainride outside in the goods yard & they've jiggled the trains around too.... After a few hours of admiring trains, browsing the model railway exibitions & chatting to the 'Evil Genius' (who popped down from university to spend the day with us) we headed off into York for a visit to Cliffords Tower and finally a picturesque walk by the river completed our trip to York...

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