Yorkshire 7 - Dracula and Whitby - I must go down to the sea again.

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Where in the world is Suzy? It is Day 5 of 120 days . 5 Days have passed since we returned home and there are 115 left before we head off on holiday again. So what is Suzy doing? Not a lot . Her windscreen has been repaired . Not an easy job. The call to the insurance company went well however the call was dropped between insurance company and windscreen company and when we got back on it turned out they wanted to charge us £15 for the repair . Sorted in the end and Suzy is now looking good. The weather has been unkind since we arrived home. Although it starts bright in the mornings by mid afternoon it feels colder by a few degrees and rains. We don't want to be here and reading blogs is making us worse. We want to be on the road again. We are missing everything about our travelling life.



Day 15 of 120 and Suzy is on the road albeit to the Fiat garage to go on diagnostics. It has taken over a week to get her booked in and will cost over £85 for the test . We should know this afternoon if she needs attention or if it is just a sensor that has failed. Optomistically we hoped to get her back as it is a Friday which is not a good day for a repair job and it is Bank Holiday weekend and everything will shut down until Tuesday. By 5 we got the call. It was the sensor which would need ordering and would not be in until Wednesday so could we come and collect Suzy. Of course we would . We felt as if our arms had been cut off without her on the drive and we did not relish the thought of leaving her over the weekend in an unguarded garage where every likely bit of damage could be inflicted upon her. She is our baby. The vehicle that takes us to places we never dreamed we would see and we wanted her where we could see her. Sadly she wouldnt start and reluctantly she had to be left . Wednesday came and went and the parts had not all arrived . We were promised we would have her for dinnertime Thursday. This sailed by . The parts had come in but were the wrong ones. We eventually got her home on the Friday. A week later and £100 was knocked off the bill to compensate us for the inconvenience.



Days 20 to 22 of 120 were cleaning days. The fridge emptied , the remnants of rock solid bread thrown out and the toilets cleaned . All those jobs you put off whilst you are on holiday. Oh to be on the road .........................



And so on Day 35 of 120 we did indeed find outselves on the road. Not in Suzy . She is still on the drive.

This trip to the seaside was to be done in our car. And how we missed Suzy. We had to stop for a bacon butty and a toilet break on route near to York . Actually that wasn't bad as the bacon butty was really very nice . We parked on the new park and ride just outside Whitby. Why Whitby? Well why not? Just two hours away it offered sea, sand, a really nice church, a museum, a boat and a gruesome Abbey and a bit of Dracula. Plus Whitby fish and chips . All we needed was sunshine which we got .

Rather than park in the town we decided to try the new park and ride just outside of the town. The site was easy to find and would be suitable for motorhomes as there were no height barriers and an overflow car park specifically for motorhomes. We paid £1.30 each for our tickets. Half price as we were old age pensioners with reduced bus passes. It would have cost us more to park in town.

So what were our first thoughts of Whitby?

Glenn had been before but it had rained which always puts a dampner on the visit. I had never been before . It smelt of the seaside . It had the sounds of the seaside . The gulls were squawking at the top of their voices . You could smell the fish and chips. Shops full of tat, rock and doughnuts . Burnt toffee and fudge. A clairvoyants stall where you could have your future told. She offered to tell you how you would fare in work, how your wealth would be measured and what would happen to your health . We walked by and saw a very modest fairground. The harbour was pretty enough with a museum to James Cook. His ship or a replica was supposed to be in the harbour but sadly it was not there today. We never did find out where it was . The boats were sailing in and out of the harbour, some going out fishing others taking day trippers for half hour trips to see dolphins and Whitby from the sea. £2.50 for a half hour trip.

Whitby is an old town. The Synod of Whitby was held there in 664. In 867, the monastery was destroyed by Vikings who raided the north country. In the following centuries Whitby functioned as a fishing settlement until, in the 18th century, it developed as a port and centre for shipbuilding and whaling, the trade in locally mined alum, and the manufacture of Whitby jet jewellery made from the fossilised remains of the monkey puzzle tree. .

Our first port of call was the harbour side. The harbour is sheltered by the grade II listed east and west piers each with a lighthouse and beacon. The west lighthouse, of 1831, is the taller at 84 feet and the east lighthouse, built in 1855, is 54 feet Both have suffered the ravages of the wind, sea and the weather as the stone used to build them has weathered badly . . On the west pier extension is a foghorn that sounds a blast every 30 seconds during fogLuckily today there was no fog. The sea was calm and blue and the sand perfect. It was lovely to feel the sea air on our faces. Further up the town is the aptly named Kyber Pass through which we passed and climbed up to the whalebone arch which is on the West Cliff and commemorating Whitby's historic link with the whaling industry. This is a lovely spot to people watch and sea watch. On the West Cliff is a statue of Captain James Cook who served his apprenticeship in the town.

We crossed the historic swing bridge which was built in 1908. It has a 75 foot span and crosses the Esk river. We headed up the town in the direction of the historic abbey. We knew that there were 199 steps from the lower town to the upper reaches of the abbey and that in the hot day it would be hard going. But what a view when we got to the top. It was well worth the climb. The first place we stopped at was the church the church of Saint Mary and Anglican parish church which has served the town for generations. Founded in 1110 it had a venerable feel to it even though it had been heavily altered inside in the late 1700's. The church graveyard is used as a setting in Bram Stokers Novel Dracula. Inside it had the feeling of a methodist hall with 19th-century galleries accessed by internal and external staircases and a three-decker pulpit which was installed in 1778 and altered in 1847It retains its 18th-century box pews. One of the pews was noted for strangers only which made us smile inwardly. We lit a candle inside as we do in many churches abroad.

From here we walked to the abbey huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top. But was it worth it ? Of course for the view of the bay alone. .The Abbey is a ruined abbey of the Benedictine order which overlooks the North Sea . It was disestablished by Henry VIII and left to fall into ruin. It is an iconic building and evocative . As members of Cadw we got in for nothing which was a bonus and the money saved would go on a fish and chip dinner. It was so peaceful as we walked around it poking into corners and imagining what it must have looked like in its heyday when full of its treasures . We even commented that perhaps it was even more impressive a ruin than Jumieges which we had visited some years ago.

On our way down we stopped for dinner. A huge plate of cod and chips. Far too much to eat and I left rather a lot on the plate . They tasted so good freshly caught and sourced locally. The trip finished with us walking back to the bus station for our bus home. On the way we passed the railway station. In the station was the maroon and cream heritage train which had just pulled in. You can guess what I am thinking ................................how about another visit to go on the train. All in all a lovely day. Did we miss not going in Suzy ? Of course we did but nevertheless we had a good day out, good food, some good sites to see and a desire to go back again. We had been down to the sea . And no we didnt see Dracula although there were a number of Dracula shops in the town. Perhaps he was hiding in one of them. We didnt see him but neither did Sion.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

England
This is a nice one.

[JenGog]

whitby
Thankyou. when do you move ?