1st Day
Wandered around the Whitby streets, listened to an animated folk busker whilst we ate our cake and drank our coffee outside Marie Antoinette's Patisserie. With every hour the cobbled streets became positively heaving with day-trippers. Window shopped, noticed the new shops, revisted a few old favourites. Whitby maintains its mix of the positively trendy with the oldest of old school seaside trading, without any of it appearing anachronistic. On the surface, at least, it appears to be surviving well.
2nd Day
A day trip to Helmsley. A truly fabulous veggie breakfast at The Feather Trail Cafe, that set the day off very much on the right foot. Because we had an hours walk over hill and dale to the ruins of Reivaulx Abbey. A walk to anywhere is a more active way of taking part in the journey and arriving at a destination. We could have passively driven there in all of ten minutes.
I've been to Rievaulx countless times and never tire of it. Tucked away in a bend in the Rye valley, you can imagine how secluded and separated from society they were. Amongst this glorious landscape, that remains to this day so beautifully quiet and serene.
What does change is the way information is imparted to the visitor. Audio guides have their uses, don't get me wrong here.The English Heritage ones at Rievaulx, with the avuncular local Brother Robert talking you around the ruins, I found particularly galling. Have a physical guide or if it must be recorded, let it be straightforwardly informative. None of this faux testimony from actors pretending to be people from the period, this is just insulting, to the point of infantilisation.
3rd Day
Short journey to Robin Hoods Bay with the idea of having breakfast there. Not a hope. But had the best coffee of the trip so far. The beans grown on a small holding run by three women in Brazil, imported and then roasted in Cornwall. Came back to Whitby, for brunch in Sanders Yard. Visit the Museum? It's closed on Mondays. Had drinks and a cake in Sherlock's instead. In the evening I ate the largest Calzone I've ever had to stuff down the chute to my stomach. I mean, you couldn't fit it on the plate or the table straight. Gorgeous, but gorging.
4th Day
This morning felt weighed down by last nights excessive carbohydrate. Set off to Malton, the self proclaimed Food Capital of Yorkshire, which never, quite rightly, undersells itself. A fantastic Egg Florentine and coffee in Lutt & Turner. The taste sensation that is Florian Poirot's macarons. Found a couple of new fabrics for the shop. Nice food, nice drinks, nice interiors shops, nice warm day.
Traveled back through Helmsley, to give the shops a proper look this time. Found a gorgeous art vase made by Anne-Marie Magson, for our lounge in a gallery called Saltbox. The weather today was so balmy we could comfortably sit outside in our short sleeved shirts and shorts.
5th Day
Stayed in Whitby all day. After having breakfast out, we ventured up the 199 steps to the headland. St Mary's Church, one of my all time favourite churches was closed for a school trip. So we romped around the site of Whitby Abbey instead. Not quite sufficiently dressed for the strong winds that were blowing. The colour and appearance of the Abbey changes with the weather. I was more aware this time of just how badly scoured by the weather it is.
In the afternoon we did The Whitby Museum and Art Gallery. The gallery is full of paintings by the men of the Staithes Group, the significant women noticeable by their absence. A lot of paintings in desperate need of a clean, if you ask me.
The museum is celebrating 200 years, it's a remnant from a bygone era of eccentric collecters. My favourite exhibits, a Tempest Barometer which was a device using leeches to tell you if a storm was brewing.. And a Hand of Glory, the severed hand of a felon, which would be lit by a burglar to paralyse a houses inhabitants, whilst he ran off with the silver. In the evening we had a much more refined and tasty eating experience of Italian food at Cosa Nostra.
6th Day
A day trip to see the ruins of Mount Grace Priory, something I've long wanted to visit. Once very isolated and tucked under the slope of a hillside. It now lives within hearing distance of the rumble if the A170. Its the only surviving Carthusian monastery sit in England. The monastics lived in smal semi isolated buildings. They are called cells but are really self contained houses with gardens. Great for a solitary retreat, but to.live in full time, I think most of us would find it a strain. The old gatehouse became an Arts & Crafts styled Manor House. This has seen better days and requires a bit more development.
We spent the afternoon in Saltburn on Sea, which, despite our feeling that it might have been decimated by the aftermath of the pandemic and cost of living crisis, is actually doing well. Lots of new interesting shops, cafes and restaurants. Used the funicular railway up the cliff from the beach for the first time. It's engineering from an entirely more optimistic and can do era. Saltburn appears always to have been a one off type of place.
Spent our last evening in Whitby eating chips with battered quorn sausages on the sea front, looking over to the harbour to the houses opposite and St Mary's on the headland above, in the fast paling evening light. Magical.
7th Day
A long journey home with breaks at Malton, Lincoln and Kings Lynn. It was raining most of the way, each time we stopped it appeared to get more torrential. Seemingly following a front of rain moving south east. But it was the only day with really bad weather all week, so we did really well.
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