The Potions Cauldron

Well we had another ‘day out’ today - along with seemingly half of West & North Yorkshire - doing a Harry Potter trail in the old part of York City Centre.

Eldest granddaughter has been captivated by Harry Potter and is reading the first book - so she wanted to visit ‘Diagon Alley’ alternatively known as ‘The Shambles’ in York. We met up with her and our daughter and the Potions Cauldron was one of the places we ‘had’ to visit!! There was also a Harry Potter themed trail to follow. The whole place was absolutely heaving - you could hardly move, and of course any thought of masks and social distancing was long gone. Another very uncomfortable day me.

Lunch was a disaster too - daughter had booked a table for 1 pm at a restaurant - and just before 11 am they called to say booking had been transferred to their other branch. We turned up to the new venue - and (surprisingly!) they were expecting us - but as they showed us to a table they said that there would be about a 40 minute wait for food. Anyway, I went to queue up to order the food which took almost 10 minutes - and then they said that the menu had been reduced and all the stuff we wanted was off as their food deliveries had been missed and they had no stock, so they gave us a revised menu. We chose again and queued up again and were told 45 minutes wait..

Over an hour later - past 2:30 by this time, some food arrived - and it was cold - my melted cheese topping had set again…. the manager (who was only his second day at this branch) was very apologetic - said that they were seriously short staffed. He did refund the cost of the food.

It took ages to get home - a very long queue for the Park & Ride return bus - and very heavy traffic on the A64. To say I am not a happy bunny would be an understatement, but thankfully granddaughter loved it all (she struck lucky with a luke warm lunch too)!