On the way from Keswick we crossed the Yorkshire Moors (scenes of Wuthering Heights) which were quite sparse and desolate. You could imagine it would be bleak in winter.....misty and snowy....but it was quite attractive, in an empty kind of way, and certainly a very different landscape to the ones we are used to.
We were impressed with the rugged cliffs and little villages nestled in the river esturies as we made our way along the coast to Whitby.......courtesy of an earlier wrong turn....but very scenic!
View from our breakfast table at the Whitehouse Hotel in Whitby. The view and the food were good....the room...not so!
Whitby is a very old seafairing town with a great seafairing history and culture as we found out in the Captain James Cook Museum. Just wonderful. We saw his charts and where he did his apprenticeship and actually walked the streets that he would have walked in the 1760s.
As a very old port, they have preserved their heritage really well with the tiny, windy cobbled streets and the wobbly, out of square old bulidings providing a historic atmosphere that we certainly don't have at home, but can appreciate.
We also have found they love their dogs in England, and they take them everwhere. Big dogs ( I mean wolfhound style) little dogs, pampered and preened dogs, dogs in jackets, dogs with booties and quite often dogs in the cafes or pubs.....and very well behaved. There are almost as many dogs as people getting around the town and Wendy is up to 21 in her Jack Russel count.
We also visited the Whitby Abbey which dates from the 13 century, and what an impressive ruin it is.
It sits high over the town and is flanked by the rugged cliffs of The Yorkshire coast. With the storm clouds as a backdrop, it was an impressive sight.
Kingston Upon Hull sounds much better than it is! We went there because of the Megson branch of Wendy's family tree ........but it was just a run down port city without much charm so we headed off to York..... and my, what a contrast.
View from the bridge we cross going in to town.
The Romans were here in about 40AD and I was here about 40 years ago.....and for me not much has changed.....except it's become a bit more swank.......and I couldn't find the "Tavern in the Town" where I used to enjoy a few beers all those years ago.
We organised our flat ( really nice and really close to the centre of the city) and then strolled into town to check it out. Spent a number of hours at the Minster and shopping but there is so much to see that we have agreed that on Saturday we will go our own ways ( me to the museums and Wendy to the shops) so we can get our fill of the things we want to do and see.
The crowds have been huge in York, many shoppers but also many tourists......bus loads at times mostly to see the Minster but also the other museums and attractions.
The Minster is the second largest in Britain but has the largest windows dating from the 16C. It was slumping in the 1960s and when the engineers investigated they found it was built on a Roman fort which you can go down into and see the structures And where people lived their lives two thousand years ago.
Very impressive and quite an experience.
The lanes are all cobblestoned....and in places Roman stoned, and many of the buildings would have great difficulty meeting building codes these days....especially in the "Shambles" which is a street of old butcher shops dating from 1400s and mentioned in William the Conqueror's Doomsday book.
In keeping with our genealogocal theme, we headed out to Leeds and Armly to see where Tommy Palframan came from.
The shipping manifest had his address as 17 Whingate Ave, Armly. We were warned that it has changed, and our observations and my conversation with the current owner confirmed it. It's a bit like Newtown in the 70s. The houses were built for the textile mill workers very early last century. They are a typical terrace type houses which we are sure would have seen some interesting history.
No. 17 is on the far right, (and our Golf on the left...with the engine still going) the only free standing house and with a big basement, which is why the current owner, a muso, bought it five years ago....sound proof for band practice!
Well, after a really nice stay in York, it is off to Cambridge and then London for the next leg of our journey.
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