Mike Laycock enjoys a day out in York city centre with his daughter.

We Yorkies are a funny lot. We live in a beautiful city with stacks of things to do, but many of us leave it to the tourists to take advantage of the city's delights.

With half term coming up, I decided it was time to sample some of York's attractions with my daughter last Sunday for this, the penultimate column of our Days Out season.

We started out by taking a stroll in the autumn sunshine along those fantastic City Walls alongside Lord

Mayor's Walk to Bootham Bar, taking in great views of the back of the Minster and the huge gardens of the Dean's residence.

We then headed across Exhibition Square to York Art Gallery. I was paying my first visit since the gallery was given a major revamp, and was pretty impressed with the results. With new light wooden floors and modernistic display cases, a cafe in the foyer and on the pavement outside, a new education room and a bigger shop, some of the rather staid and traditionalist feel has been blown away. And there's no entry fee.

The autumn's major exhibition, Fired Up, features more than 200 pots from York's ceramics collection - ranging from classical Roman urns to modern studio pottery by the likes of David Hockney.

Next, we headed down a path from the gallery to the Museum Gardens, to take a look at the Yorkshire Museum's Ice Age exhibition, which runs until the end of December.

This gives visitors a chance to explore the causes of the Ice Age, and the impact it had on our landscape. Slightly bizarrely, you are greeted by a 20ft fridge mountain, with everything you may have always wanted to know about ice inside some of them.

To the accompaniment of specially composed music, we saw creatures such as wolves and bears, while a video starring TV weatherman Paul Hudson tells all about the impact of the fierce winters of 1947 and 1962/63 on Yorkshire communities. In the Ice Lab, my daughter had a chance to don a white coat and examine specimens under a microscope.

On Monday and Tuesday of half term, at 11am, 1.30pm and 3pm, families visiting the exhibition can see "flint knapping" in action - the making of arrow heads and hand axes.

This museum is worth a visit - particularly if you've got a YorkCard, entitling you to free entry.

Factfile:

York Art Gallery, Exhibition Square. Open daily 10am to 5pm. Admission free.

Yorkshire Museum, Open daily, 10am-5pm. Admission £4 adults, children £2.50, but free to YorkCard holders.

Further information on both attractions: 01904 687687.

Updated: 10:52 Saturday, October 22, 2005