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York is practically on my doorstep, yet the last time I stepped foot into this beautiful city was for my birthday nearly two years ago - I hadn't had my blog long! So, when the opportunity came up to visit for the day with Martin and his family, I couldn't say no. Martin's parents actually parked at the York Designer Outlet and we hopped on a Park & Ride bus to the city centre, which worked out to be incredibly cheap.

Me and Martin had a bit of a wander around by ourselves for a bit, nipping into Boots and TKMaxx (I know... things we could've easily done in Leeds!) along the way. We met back up with Martin's family for some lunch, which we had at The Last Drop Inn; a York Brewery pub that not only had a fantastic selection of ales, but a great food menu too. I went for the"Black Pud" - pork sausages studded with black pudding, served with creamy mash, gravy and garden peas. This meal also came with a pint, so I chose the Centurion's Ghost Ale - which was dark, smooth and went incredibly well with the food I'd chosen. The pub, like all good pubs should be, was dog friendly and we made friends with two adorable dogs that took an interest in our food. You have Martin to thank for the lovely picture of one of those dogs above!

After lunch, we went in search of some cake and ended up in the National Trust cafe in Treasurer's House. The cafe is actually downstairs in the basement, so all the walls were bare brick but it still managed to be quaint and quite pleasant - not dark and dingy at all, despite it obviously having no windows. I had a Fair Trade hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course) and a slice of lemon drizzle cake. Both were equally delicious, and filled that ever-demanding sweet hole nicely. After that, it was time to head home via some ale shops, so we walked back through the grounds of York Minster, where I managed to capture the last image. I used a technique called "High-dynamic-range imaging" with the program Photomatix Pro to bring out the details and turn it greyscale. I've not used this program in several years, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed using it. It's a fine line between getting it right and it looking a bit strange, but I'm quite pleased with this image - I might even get it printed and framed one day!