Mick's 60th - May

I'm arranging little surprises for Mick throughout the year as it will be his 60th birthday in August. I thought it would be nice to string out the celebrations, hopefully doing something each month.

For May, I decided to surprise Mick with a trip to York. This in itself wouldn't be much of a surprise as we often visit, we live less than twenty minutes away, but we don't really do the touristy stuff when we're there. As the weather was so nice, and also because May was always going to be busy with Daniel and Jasmine's wedding fast approaching, our visit took place right at the start of the month. We usually drive into York, or more often than not we use the park and ride, but this time we took the train. All will become clear later on.

The first thing we did was visit the Jorvik Viking Centre. It's years since I last went there, in fact, it must have been when I was at school. Mick's never been before. We've been saying that we should visit so this was the first place on my list when I decided to make York one of our days out. Between 1976 and 1981, archaeologists uncovered houses and workshops of the Viking city of Jorvik. The Jorvik Viking Centre now stands on that excavation site and a ride experience takes you through reconstructed Viking-age streets before dropping you off at the galleries showcasing Viking artefacts and even genuine Viking-age human skeletons.

We'd left home before having breakfast so we were getting a little peckish after visiting Jorvik. Our next stop was The House of Trembling Madness on Stonegate, an ale house whose building was part of the first Norman house in York dating back to 1180. Downstairs is a bottle shop but climb the stairs and you'll find a bar with an extensive craft beer selection serving good pub grub. It's famous for its quirky decor featuring taxidermy.

We grabbed a late breakfast and washed it down with an early pint (half for me!). The beautiful day, Mick having a day off work, and being on the tourist trail was giving us those holiday vibes.

Afterwards, it was time to sit back and enjoy the view as we took a scenic river cruise. Travelling down the Ouse by boat was a totally different way to take in the city and one I can wholeheartedly recommend, especially on a beautiful day. They hire out small boats too and that's something we've decided we'll definitely do on a future visit to York.

The main reason we took the train into York was because I'd booked a rum tasting experience at Villains Rum. Mick's got quite a collection of different rums so I thought this would be a fun thing for us to do. A costumed guide relayed tales of historical villains associated with York who inspired the different rums we were sampling. I don't actually drink rum myself though I did try a couple, and a couple of gins too, but that was enough for me. It was such an entertaining experience, the stories were really funny and the villains were brought to life through the engaging narration. Mick thoroughly enjoyed this and he brought home some new rums for his ever-growing collection too. It was a good job he wasn't driving, we were given good measures to taste!

Towards the end of our day we had a meal in a lovely pub restaurant in St Helen's Square. Mick went for a burger, I opted for a steak sandwich. It was such a lovely day that the doors were opened wide and music from the buskers in the square drifted in.

There was a little time left before our train was due so we sat for a while by the river. It was the perfect end to a delightful day.