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 conditionswe stopped into Saint John’s Churchwhere 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 usthere 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 MoorsWhile 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 describedfor 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 townuntil the sun set over Whitby Then it was on to our accommodation at Robin Hood’s BayFor 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 nightcapwhich 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 hillfor a wander around the village

then it was back up onto the Moorswith a covering of heath vegetation on top and a patchwork of fertile fields in the valleysan ideal place for a walkup 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 BayThen down to the Bay for dinner at the Ye Dolphin InnNext day Lisa had a day of Castle visits on the itinenary, as we drove up to Seahouses in Northumbria4 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 villageCastle 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 backThere was a traditional kipper smoker in Crasterwho’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 Islandsto 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 tidethe 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 roadwayReluctantly 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 ScotlandI am now 8 days behind with my blogging. Scotland has been an amazing experience. I will get it up to date……….eventually.