Driving east from North Wales, our first major city was Chester
Lisa spent her childhood growing up in Cheshire, so a visit to Chester was like coming home for her and an enjoyment of showing me around the city
the overnight snowing and sub zero temperatures, made for slippery conditions
we stopped into Saint John’s Church
where we took time to acknowledge how lucky we are to be able to go on ROAD TRIP
We stayed the night with Lisa’s friend from college Jacquie and her husband Mike, who live in Lymm, Cheshire. Dinner that night was Indian in Manchester, where Lisa’s brother and sister and her good friend Rachel joined us
there was plenty of snow and fog around as we continued our drive east, the next morning
to Robin Hood’s Bay on the North Yorkshire coast
as we got close to the coast, we drove up onto the North York Moors
While Lisa drove, I worked Google looking for a quirky pub for lunch. The one at Beck Hole had received some great reviews, so we headed that way.
The road down for the final mile had not been gritted and salted, so we parked up the top at Goathland, which had been used by the BBC for the set of their TV series Heartbeat. Renaming it Aidensfield
the walk down the hill was enjoyable in the snow
the pub was as quirky as the reviews described
for the walk up the hill we found a beautiful snowy path, through the woods
Then it was onto Whitby, to see their ruined abbeyand a walk around the old town
until the sun set over Whitby
Then it was on to our accommodation at Robin Hood’s Bay
For the evenings entertainment Lisa had booked us tickets for the local amateur dramatical societie’s pantomime production, of Treasure Island
It was a very pleasant surprise for us to see the pub used in their production, was the Admiral Benbow (from our visit to Penzance in my Cornwall blog post).
It the tradition of pantomime, the female lead was played by a maleat times there was a Benny Hill feel to the jokes and production (definitely would not pass a PC test in the city)
After the show, we went to the Victoria Hotel for a nightcap
which turned into “rounds” with the locals, who insisted we try all the locally distilled gins.
I was not too bad the next morning, but the same could not be said of Lisa.
We did go for a walk down to the actual Robin Hood’s Bay, but there are limited available photos, as Lisa vetoed all the ones as she was feeling a little peaky and she was not in the mood to take any photos herself!!
Then we were away to explore the old coastal fishing villages along the coast. First up was Runswicknext village up was Staithes, where a very young James Cook gained his early maritime experiences
there was no parking down at the village so it was another steep walk down the hill
for a wander around the village
then it was back up onto the Moors
with a covering of heath vegetation on top and a patchwork of fertile fields in the valleys
an ideal place for a walk
up to “The Seated Man“
on the top of a ridge, looking out over the Moors (in 40kts of chilled wind)time for a quick half pint of my namesake beer “Old Peculier” , at the Lion Inn on our way back to Robin Hood’s Bay
Then down to the Bay for dinner at the Ye Dolphin Inn
Next day Lisa had a day of Castle visits on the itinenary,
as we drove up to Seahouses in Northumbria
4 castles in one day, (rhymes with seasons…….sort of)
First up was Warkworth
next was Alnwick Castle, which was used for the castle scenes in the Harry Potter movies
Alnwick castle was part of a lovely old village
Castle number 3, Dunstanburgh was our favorite, with a couple of miles of walking along coastal grasslands to get to it
with time for a well deserved half at the Jolly Fisherman Inn after the walk back
There was a traditional kipper smoker in Craster
who’s product was exceptionally good
The fourth and final Castle was Bamburgh
where we did a castle tour, trying on the medieval armour
(the blind spots would have been hard to cope with).
Then off to our accommodation in SeahousesAfter dinner we went down to The Olde Ship,
where I had a half of Fosters, because it was Australia Day
and a whisky chaser of 12 year old Scotch Whisky distilled on the Orkney Islands
to acknowledge my ancestors who migrated to Australia. Including 3 generations that left the Orkney Island (off the Scottish north coast) for Australia in the 1830s.
We woke the next morning to the forecasted 40-50kts North Seas gale warning
All the boats were safely hiding from it in the harbour at Seahouses This was the day we were very much looking forward to going over to Holy Island on the causeway that was only usable at low tide
the wind and rain put a serious dampener on the experience to be had
The walk from the car park to Lindisfarne Castle was very easy with a 40kt tailwindcoming back into the wind was a different story, with a noticeable lactic acid burn in the thighs
The seas were not ones I would like to be in in Logic
Lisa had fun trying to see how far she could lean into the wind
I got a better photo of the water blown onto the roadway as we drove back across the roadway
Reluctantly we conceded defeat to the wind and rain and cancelled any further activities for the day. Going back to our accommodation for a traditional Sunday roast with Yorkshire Pudding
Next up is Scotland
I am now 8 days behind with my blogging. Scotland has been an amazing experience. I will get it up to date……….eventually.