Captain Cook, Whitby and Scarborough...(Saturday, 9th April)

Having decided we'd go across to the east coast and see Whitby, the day turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. This was one of those gaps of days in our itinerary, where we hadn't booked ahead, and we realised that it was a Saturday.

We left Hull early enough to beat the Saturday traffic, but on getting to Scarborough, we were faced with one of those narrow coastal resort-everything-crammed-on-the-seafront resort type of towns. It is very pretty, but getting parking is the usual problem so we zoomed up into a multi-storey, and went for a walk. We had put our name on a waiting list for any cancellations at the newish Premier Inn, but that hadn't happened by the time we thought of leaving.

Scarborough has it all, donkey rides on the beach, fun parlours (8), cafes, tea rooms, and a very old clifftop-to-beach tramway which creaks and rattles for all its 5 minute journey, and costs 70p each way! Standing atop this scene is the Grand Hotel, probably Victorian (?), and one of the biggest, ugliest buildings of its kind, and totally dominating all around. It must have been heaven in its day, but is gross now.

walkway down to Scarborough beach

 Having gone past the allotted time we'd allowed to hear about cancellations, we moved on to Whitby. Also not a good day to do so, and everyone by then was out for a day at the seaside!! Parking was even worse, but we ended up on West Cliff, which was a good idea in the end as it allowed us to walk along the flat part, and see down to the ocean and the town. Whitby is very popular, for many reasons, and the ruined castle on the hill was used (I think) in the Coppola Dracula movie.

This was also not going to be a good place to try and get accomodation, as every place we passed showed No Vacancy signs. Yet another small plan gone wrong, but never daunted, we decided to move on to Darlington, where we knew they had a Premier Inn. On the way back to the car we passed two men, one of whom was laughing a lot. It appeared his mate had been successfully "bombed" by a large gull, and he'd copped the lot, all over his nice black leather jacket and in his hair. Lee gave him a couple of tissues to help him clean up.

Whitby inner harbour and part of town

Breakwater and beach

 (Haven't worked out how to arrange these photo's any better, so the spacing is not good.

Decided I could do a bit more posting after all, as we have this room until 11.00am (Oban), and they have free wi-fi, so why not?)

The Castle (Abbey?)

Jumping forward to Oban...

I am ahead of some of the other places we've been to get here, but this is just to say that we are going on board the boat for the small cruise today, around Mull, and they tell us we won't have email/internet access in all places.

So, there may be lull in posts until we get back to 'civilisation' again on the 22nd, but who knows?

This room they gave us here at Oban, looks out over all the harbour, and the town. It is really one of the best outlooks we've had, only let down by the bed! Thew tides are amazing and rise and fall quite remarkably.

After all the rich and wonderful food we've had lately, we settled for a veeery nice pizza and a beer last night and were in bed at 7.30pm.

More soon, (I hope)

My dates are all stuffed...

Don't like what's happening to the dating on these posts. I have set the laptop to UK time and date, but it keeps dating my posts a day ahead!!!

Most frustrating.

Obviously, the date on the top of each post is not the day(s) we were at the places mentioned, so I'll have to add those as well.

Today is only Wednesday, the 13th April, and it is 3.40pm in Ardrossan.

Beverley and beyond...

On our second day in Hull, we drove up to Beverley, which is a very pretty town, 10 miles north. Got parking in one of the town squares, (we were early), and walked along what is becoming a very welcome addition to a lot of towns , and that is where they have closed off streets and created pedestrian walks. It really does enhance the shopping/looking experience and makes it easy for everyone. Beverley Minster is also very nice, with the most charming "tune" on it's tower bells, chiming the hour.
By the time our alloted (parking) time was up there were masses of people (it was a Friday), and we were glad to get away.
Went very slowly into Hull town centre, which was starting to seem like a bad idea, but found a multi-story carpark, and had a look around an enormous shopping mall, covered in glass roof, and the largest Tesco's (think Big W, but muuuuuuuch better!), and got some T-shirts, coffee, and some milk powdery stuff (yuk), but at least it gets us a coffee when we want it.

Back to the very nice Premier Inn, and a great meal of beef stew with mash, and peas, and cheese cobbler (damper). Very yummy.

Next (hopeful) stop, the east coast and Whitby...

Oops, almost forgot Lincoln!!!...

 After leaving Nottingham, we headed towards Lincoln, on the way to Hull. We weren't sure we wanted to stop there but as you zoom along, Lincoln Cathedral looms large on a distant hill, just like Ely. The town and cathedral are on the top of the hill, and we decided to try and get up to see it. (Not all cities are as easy to access as others, and we had missed Coventry altogether, because all the roads criss-cross each other in such a maze, we went in and out and around, but didn't manage to get to where we wanted)

Not so the drive up the hill to Lincoln, and having found parking (another problem in this country!), we walked through these beautiful cobbled streets, with old and new shops, and then you come out into a space and you are facing the cathedral. It is beautiful, and for two people who are non-believers, we shouldn't have bothered I hear you say, but you just have to admire all the beautiful stonework, and the effort over the hundreds of years it takes to build them, so you can't be unimpressed. The weather was sunny, and the light inside was just "divine" (sorry), and I think I captured some of it in one of my photo's.

You can pay extra money to walk up to the bit near the altar, or take all those stairs up to the tower, but that's too tough, so we just had a good look 'round, and went back through the town. We found Lesley's cafe, in Gordon Street, and a shop named Chantal (our niece's name), so it was a very 'homey' visit.

The country, and the languages and the accents...

"Ah loov thess koontry" is my attempt a trying to convey phonetically, how some of the accents sound.
I really enjoy hearing all the accents, but it can take a bit of getting used to, as I suppose it is for them to hear us. 
When we asked at the Reception at Hull about directions to Beverly, Vikki said to me, "oh, joost go art of carpark, and ont roared, und tearn rate at roundabout, end follow sarns to Beverley" 

Later, in Hull, a very helpful Christine was writing down some postcodes to get directions on-line for us to go on to Dumfries, which is DG1 3JX. When she was spelling it out to me, it was DEE, GEE, WON, THRARE, JAIR, HIX. 
Love it, but now we are in Scotland (getting a little ahead of myself), we have to listen even more carefully!!

Nottingham 2...

The hotel we stayed at was booked on line, and first impressions were OK. Ann later said she wondered why we were there, as it was a bit far out. Anyway, the room was OK with a great view of the rear car park and the motorway in the distance. The triple glazed windows are required, because if you open them for fresh air, you also get horrendous noise. They are very efficient.

When we got back from the cemetery, we got a call from Ann to arrange seeing her the next day, and so we eventually went down for dinner. Worst experience we've had so far. They produce this fab menu, and all sounds good, so after we had ordered, they brought Lee the wrong meal altogether, and mine was left over from some other time, maybe lunch or the night before. It was terrible, and only because we were so hungry did we persist.

I have never been one to complain, but I didn't finish and when we left the restaurant, and the lady who served us asked if we enjoyed everything, I said a very curt NO, and told her it was one of the worst meals I've ever had. We got apologies, but they offered no recompense of any kind, and the meal had been charged to our room BEFORE we got back to it!!

(I have since received an email asking for my comments on our stay at their hotel, and they got both barrels!!. I only hope something is done about it, but I won't hold my breath)

Next day we saw Ann and she and her son James were home. He works from her house and it was great to see them again, and we caught up with as much as we could, and then had a nice lunch in the backyard. James' kids Harry and Lucy were coming by after school so we excused ourselves and went and found a laundrette to catch up with the washing. This is a big problem over here and I suppose anywhere, and so much stuff can't be tumbled dry these days, so our rooms end up looking like drying day with traveling clotheslines in bathrooms, and socks and bras hung over the handiest chair back or whatever.

We went back and took Ann out to dinner, as James and his family had things to do. Nice meal at a hotel called the Corn Mill, which Ann said would have been good for us, as they do rooms as well, and it's only 5 minutes from her house!

After the bad feeling about the hotel, and the fact we'd done our things with the cemetery, we decided to move on earlier, and cancel the last night we'd booked. We lost that money, but it was a small price to pay for such a bad experience.

(Forgot to mention we went to the Crematorium and saw the gentleman who did all that research for us about the grave sites, and I think he was pleased that we wanted to thank him personally, so I felt good about that).

We had booked Hull (see Kingston-upon-Hull) for the Friday night but rang and asked if they could do us for the Thursday as well. The people at Premier are VERY helpful and obliging, and although they have their rules, they bent them a little and we were able to get the two nights together, and so set off for The North.

When you are on roads, the direction signs are good, but we always like the big ones that give you the road number you want, and let you know that you are going to The North, or The South.

The drive from Nottingham up to Hull is very pretty, and when you get it all right and know that soon you are approaching the Hull bridge, it comes into view looking like The Golden Gate in San Francisco, and you are quickly on to it. It was the longest single span suspension bridge in the world for a long time.

It is hard to get shots from the car, but it is a fabulous crossing, and once across we had to make some very quick decisions about getting into the correct lane. We did that, but then missed the next turn which would have taken us into the road where the motel is, so we went round and round for a while, and then stopped and phoned them, and eventually got into their carpark.

The hotel is ideally situated, not far off the water, and we got a room overlooking the bridge. Great room, and an even better pub/restaurant attached, one of the best in the chain. So, lovely meal again and some wine, (surprise, surprise!!), and tomorrow we had planned to go up to Beverley, as small town 10 miles away.

On to Nottingham...

The run to Nottingham is very pretty and we stopped at Banbury for coffee, and realised we were in the town (area) of the famed nursery rhyme, and there is a statue of a lady on a horse in the town centre. Twyford is another pretty town, and it is this sort of experience that you savour, because if you just zoomed up the A's or the M's Freeways, you'd miss it. It does make for a slower and perhaps longer day. but you're seeing stuff.

Like impossibly cute villages with impossible pretty gardens, and patchwork countryside, and about 10 billion daffodils, EVERYWHERE!!!!! They appear along roadside and verges, and in town squares, and gardens and fields. A lot of the early blossom is still clinging on, but the others are coming and we've seen the start of crab apples flowering.

Looking up the hill

We found our way to the hotel we'd booked, (and sorry we did, but that's another tale), and after we'd got our room, triple glazed against the freeway noise, and it works, but you can't have the windows open and get fresh air! As it was still early, we thought we'd check out the Stapleford cemetery, where the headstone for my great-grandfather remains. We had excellent directions from a man on-line before we came away, and he is with the local crematorium/cemetery trust, and has been very helpful.

It did take a few tries to locate the entrance to the cemetery, (the street signs are either not evident, or non-existent or appear about 5 metres into the street you're looking for) 

Anyway, once found, we parked behind the imposing entrance 'gate', and walked up to where we thought it should be.

 And there it was, and I was a little overwhelmed by the moment, realising that this was the resting place of Aaron and Elizabeth Bezear, and two of their children Harry and Annie. They were the deceased older siblings of my grandfather George Wray Bezear and his brother Walter. It is a lovely spot, if not a little austere and 'cold', but it was really nice to be able to be there with them.

 

The gateway/arch

Talk about food...

The food is great, but in these early days we've done mainly hotels and the like, and as mentioned before, they don't do fridges or toasters in the rooms and most don't do breakfast to your room either.

So, most days, it's down to the restaurant for a cooked breakfast. Don't know what this is going to do to the waistlines, but we've found that a good breakfast lasts us all day, and we have rarely wanted anything else much before dinner. The couple of times we have, there are always places where you can get a simple filled roll,  with a myriad choices of fillings, and either a bottle of nice mineral water or juice. 

The Premier chain always have a restaurant of some kind attached, and the food has been excellent, with a wide choice. Last night we only had an entree, and me a dessert and Lee a very nice cheese platter.
Next week on the small island cruise, we get all meals included, so who knows what will be offered, but I've drawn the line at haggis!
We are however, still under our guesstimated daily budget, both in accomodation and food/wine, but it doesn't include other things we've bought, like other bits of clothing or essentials.


(Just a quick  note about photo's, they will be forthcoming, but we want to organise them better on the laptop, and label them, so we know which ones we can go back and choose to include.)