Revolutionary Rants

Well, I said I would do a report of our trip to North and West Yorkshire, so here it is. We set off from Devon on Wednesday evening and had a stop over at the Travelodge near Tamworth (which, what with a digger working all night and the person upstairs up at 6am was very noisy!) There were a couple of problems, forgetting the computer and having to turn around at the start and the sat nav really letting us down whilst looking for the Travelodge.

Still, we got to Robin Hood’s Bay at around 12:00pm the next day. We found our B&B, Northcliff, very easily as it was on one of the first streets in the town. Northcliff was nice, we had a great big comfy bed, an en suite shower and toilet, cupboard space, tea and coffee making facilities and a TV.

Once we had settled in we headed down to the Bay. We walked down the cobbled streets and went to the Bay Hotel, the end of the Coast to Coast walk, for lunch. We enjoyed a proper Northern pint (with a head, unlike down here!) and food. Chicken partook of an amazing stake and potato pie and I had a crab sandwich stuffed full of meat. Then we walked on the beach and back up the hill the other way.

We then hopped back in to the car and went to Whitby. We parked up near the whale-bone arch, then headed down to the harbour. We explored the town and shops and walked up to the Abbey. We didn’t go in, as we were too late. I was sad as the donkeys that were there when I was a child were gone! We retraced our steps, had another good real ale in a CAMRA recommended pub, The Black Horse, and then went for our meal. We loved the fish and chips from the famous Magpie Cafe. We had a lovely meal of Haddock, chips and mushy peas (fantastic!) and returned to Robin Hood’s Bay stuffed and very, very content.

After a good night’s sleep we enjoyed a lovely breakfast before driving to Goathland. We expected it to be very ‘Heartbeat’ touristy but it had hardly any of it. The village is stunning and we went to the church yard to see the famous anchor grave. Then we walked to see the even more stunning Mallyan Spout. It was a good walk (especially back up!) but it was absolutely worth it, turning the corner to see the waterfall tumbling down the rocks.

We then visited Aunt Buz in Slingsby and had another amazing meal at a pub in Nunnington. It was absolutely lovely visiting her. When we left we went through the grounds of Castle Howard, which has inspired us to return to North Yorkshire again soon! It was a wonderful, if short, holiday.

Then we made the evil journey passed Leeds to get to Huddersfield. We arrived with Sandra and Neil at around 18:30 and that evening we all headed out for a drink at the Rat and Ratchet. Our mate Dan came over from Manchester as well, so it was a bit like old times. Very old times, now, but still!

The next day we had a trip to Marsden and up to Castle Hill, where we witnessed a fire. Some little shits set fire to a gorse bush and it went up blooming quickly. It went out but the fire brigade still rolled up. In the evening Chicks and I had a nice dinner over and Dan and Becca’s new home.

On Sunday we drove home, via Ikea, where we got some new pictures and things for our new house! It was a lovely trip, but it was also great to be home in Devon.