Half way through the trip - hard to believe really. What were we thinking?
Merilyn still coughing her little head off. Went to a Methodist Church Service in Haydon Bridge - 17 in the congregation and only one male (guess who), apart from the visiting lay preacher. A nice traditional service in a lovely, bright worship place - they have individual chairs instead of pews but still have a platform out front. On the road again before lunch and skirted around Newcastle and it's seemingly endless suburbs and satellite towns. Getting past lunchtime, Bruce hungry and getting a bit tired of all the traffic and highway driving, Merilyn, the map reader, not sure of which highway we are on or which direction we are going. "I'm taking the next ramp off" says Bruce, and we did, and right there was the carpark of a club/pub with a sign 'Carvery on Sunday', so in we went. And what a carvery it was! We both had melt in your mouth beef and turkey and as 'many hot vegetables as you could eat'- they also brought out G/f gravy in a silver dish. Feeling much better we decided we were on the correct road and going the right way and so on we went. Not long before we reached the town of Sandsend where the road dropped steeply down to sea level and we were amazed! Sunday afternoon and the Poms were out enjoying the beach. We just had to stop, rug up because it was about 15C with a stiff breeze, and go for a walk. There were cricket games, kite flying, surfing, dozens walking the esplanade and on the pier, amusement parlours, ice cream vans, at least 6 fish and chip shops, an old style funicular transferring people to and from the town, brightly coloured beach boxes with people sitting outside on deck chairs ( you can hire one for £50 on Christmas Day - imagine how much fun that would be!), horse riders and dogs and their walkers everywhere. What must it be like in a warm summer's day?
Monday 2nd October
Whitby. I was expecting 3 parallel streets on the side of a hill sloping down to a small quaint port. Boy was I wrong (again)! This place is still buzzing with tourists even though the season is over, and is a mixture of massive Victorian homes and hotels, very narrow winding cobbled medieval streets with all types of quaint shops and buildings, lanes only wide enough for one person to walk and traffic everywhere with few places to park. On busy days visitors have to park well out of town in large car parks and catch a special bus into town. Our guest house is on the main road and within walking distance of the town centre. We do have parking space but the Proprietor backed our car into it's place and he arranges a swap around, which involves stopping traffic on the main street, as people are leaving.
Poor dear Merilyn spent the whole day in bed and slept for most of the time. I finally persuaded her to take some cough mixture which I had bought in town and it seems to be having some effect. I spent the day exploring the town. The sky was blue for much of the time but it was blowing a gale from the north - just as well Merilyn was rugged up and warm in bed. Apparently the remnants of the recent Atlantic Hurricanes is still affecting Britain's weather. I walked many streets, watched squirrels
playing in the gardens, walked the pier (and did not get blown off), counted at least 20 fish and chip shops/restaurants, and climbed the 199 steps to the Abbey ruins which is on the site where, in another building, a Synod of the Church in 647 decided that the Roman Dates for Easter would be followed and not the Celtic Church dates for Easter - this had been the cause of much division in the church at the time. I also visited the Captain Cook Memorial Museum which is in the house where he had been an apprentice Mariner for nine years before he joined the Navy. It was quite interesting - he certainly was a skilled map maker and leader of men, and his voyages, three in total, added a lot to the understanding of the world at that time. By tea-time Merilyn was up and walking so down we went to, you guessed it, a fish restaurant for a meal that would have fed four people.
No comments:
Post a Comment