Day 2 14th July.
After a good night's sleep, which was quite unexpected in a strange bed, we breakfasted and headed off towards Whitby. Thankfully, the petrol station we found shut the previous night, the Flask, a few miles north of the cottage, was now open and we filled up with reasonably priced fuel. We followed the picturesque A171 coastal road up to the Abbey turn off, and arrived in the Abbey car parks at about 9.55am. I've been to Whitby many times before, and love it, but the sight of the Abbey, usually silhouetted against a moody sky, always gives me goose bumps! We got in to the Abbey, which is looked after by English Heritage, for free with my corporate membership, and approached as we were told, by the long path, as the weeks of rain had made the direct route very muddy.
As you can see, the weather was lovely, again! I actually forgot to bring my camera to Whitby, all these shots were taken on him indoors's i-phone.
I took this shot, the view from the Abbey towards the west side of Whitby. Strangely, Whitby faces due north, so has an east and west side.
Love the colours of the brickwork on this, and there's actually a hidden spiral staircase in the wall too!
It's an amazing feat of engineering, you have to marvel at the construction.
Him indoors, dwarfed by the Abbey!
Over in the English Heritage gift shop, we sampled several different types of mead, and decided to purchase a bottle of banquet mead, to take home with us. I've always wanted to have a go at making mead, but the amount of honey required means making small amounts just isn't viable.
At the back of the Abbey, there is a little church, St Mary's, and as it was a Saturday there was a wedding...with a difference!
It was a Goth wedding!
We only had a 2 hour parking ticket (£2 for 2 hours so not bad, and one of the best views from a car park ever!) so came out of the Abbey at 11.45 for a quick cuppa in the car, before driving on to Robin Hoods Bay.
We couldn't find a parking space in the car park nearest to the steep descent into Robin Hood's Bay, so doubled back and found a larger one at the top end of the town. A lovely couple gave us their ticket, as they bought one for 4 hours but left after just 90 minutes.
As per usual, Robin Hood's Bay is full of folk walking up and down the steep road to the shoreline, it's not for the faint hearted! When we finally got to the bottom, the tide was right in and lapping up the slipway. This is me, I'm not talking to the waves!
Looking the other way, not sure if you can walk along here even if the tide is out.
There was nothing for it but to walk, or climb, back up to the car again! On the way back up, him indoors noticed this sign on the wall of a cottage, Robin Hood!
Almost at the top, this is the view north
And south, this headland is Ravenscar, just near where we were staying. The properties in the foreground are the topmost ones in Robin Hoods Bay;
After just over an hour in Robin Hoods Bay we headed off back to the cottage for lunch and a big pot of tea!
After a relaxing lunch, we set off on foot to explore a bit of Staintondale, it was a lovely sunny afternoon by this time. This is the view from the farm entrance towards the sea.
I don't think the cows were used to people, they really gave us a 'Paddington Bear
hard stare'!
The sea stretches across the whole horizon!
Him indoors found another equine friend to talk to,
I call this 'Microsoft Windows Hill' the Yorkshire version! It is actually Tofta hill.
Love these steps built into the dry stone wall on the farm.
Muddy boots from lots of groundwater on a bridleway we squelched down!
We drove through Scarborough in a vain attempt to find a chippie, and found one on the north bay, a little overpriced and the chips were oven ones, but the fish was nice. We took them with us to Boggle Hole, and enjoyed a cup of tea and fish 'n' chips in the car, before embarking on a descent to the sea once more! The car park at Boggle Hole is not very big, and is by a farm, where the chickens roam freely around.
Boggle Hole is where the locals go to the beach, there is also a youth hostel on the seafront too, only accessible via a fairly steep, and fairly long, path to the shore.
You can actually walk along to Robin Hoods Bay at low tide, it isn't far. That's Robin Hoods Bay on the right.
Him indoors found a cave, and took a picture of me, while I took a picture of him! I wasn't going to paddle, it was quite deep.
View from the other side!
The view towards Ravenscar, again!
We were now utterly shattered and went back to our lovley holiday cottage to avail ourselves of the inviting spa bath!
What a thoroughly exhausting, and interesting first full day!
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