Whitby: Day #1
Woohoo, Friday saw the kickoff of London Museum A-Z (LoMAZ)'s Dracula trips! The book goes to Whitby this weekend - and so did we! With 18 signed up, as someone at work remarked, that's a lot of cats to herd.. Now, we were having dreadful trouble trying to figure out how to get there, with complicated travel routes - until I was at one of Laurence Summers' walks, we were having lunch afterwards, and talking travel, and I mentioned this trip to Whitby. "Whitby!", exclaimed the woman sitting opposite me, "I love Whitby!" She's always there, it seems.. to which, of course, my response was - "How?!"
So, she always gets the fast train to York and an Uber from there - says it's the quickest, and cheapest, among any of the alternatives. So.. we all got the fast train to York! to meet early at the station, where some were having breakfast at Leon.
I booked with Uber, which got me the best deal - and points - and I had credit with them. Most of us headed in the morning - I took the day off. Ah, I had fun trying to find Leon.. Google Maps sent me in roughly the right direction, and when the organiser, Shelley, who'd suggested it, mentioned it was no longer in the main building, that helped! I found her sitting outside. Others joined in due course, we had a great chat, and when it got to half an hour before the train, we headed in to stare at the departures board. It was a while more before the platform was announced, and we could board.. meantime, another (new) group member arrived a little after, and completely missed us.. turned out she was one table away from me on the train, and I went to say hi - as did Shelley, en route from the buffet car. So at least she'd met us by the time we disembarked.
The countryside was pretty samey on the way up - fields, crops, the odd town in the distance. Looked much like Ireland, I have to say - perhaps flatter. Train WiFi was pretty awful, so I had a restful trip. Anyway, we ultimately arrived in York - two hours or so, nonstop. Headed for the loo - met the rest who were coming in the station cafe. Left our bags.. the "left luggage" place offered a discount for "groups". What that actually meant was if a backpack was left on top of a case, the whole would be treated as one item. Which we did.
Some of us were heading straight to Whitby by Uber, some by connecting trains or bus, and some of us were staying in York for lunch and a wander around - it's a beautiful city. (And we're a flexible group.) We had a vague idea of heading for lunch at Betty's Tea Rooms - JW (as I'll call him, to distinguish him from others.. uber-organiser of LoMAZ) wanted to visit the Minster. Our routes initially converged:
Apparently, the arches in the city walls are so large because they originally accommodated multiple train tracks. We also came across a cholera grave:
Well, Betty's Tea Rooms had a humungous queue.. we shunned it, and came across a lovely, Tudor-style building that houses Gert & Henry!
Looks as though it should be a pub, but it isn't. We took a table outside, remarking that the temperature was much nicer than in London - pleasantly warm, but not sweltering:
Have to say, lunch was delicious - I had the chicken in mushroom sauce (with chips, which unfortunately were chunky), and we were all happy with our lunches. JW, meanwhile, had discovered that the Minster was a bit big for a quick visit, and thinking we'd gone wandering, had purchased something from Gregg's and come in search of us. When he found us seated in front of Gert & Henry, he had a seat and ate it there. When I needed the loo at the end, and had to go inside for it, I was half sorry we hadn't eaten in there - it's a fascinating and beautiful old building - albeit the toilets don't have a strong flush.
Afterwards, we did go for a ramble through the Shambles.. medieval streets with medieval houses, and not a few curious little shops:
And so, back to the station.
We then carpooled Ubers to Whitby. We only needed two, each seating four, what with others doing other things. I tell you what, I hadn't been on the North York Moors before, and was not expecting so spectacular a journey, once the view opened out..
Big Sky country.. hard to do it justice, of course. And finally, after about 90 minutes, we got our first glimpse of the sea:
The driver insisted on dropping us at Whitby Station - but Whitby isn't a huge place, and it wasn't a long walk to our sundry accommodations. I tell you what though, we hadn't been expecting it to be so hilly! Hardly a street in Whitby but goes up (or, happily, down) a steep hill, and wow, we got a workout, particularly dragging cases. Compensation came in the form of the views of the abbey, which you could hardly miss, in its prominent position:
We all booked our own accommodation - I was in The Captain's Lodge, and it turned out that lots of the group were right around the corner. When I finally, and with relief, got closer to my accommodation (pretty near the top of the town), I discovered it was right across from what turned out to be St. Hilda's Church.. the name features in the area, referring to St. Hilda, the founder and first abbess of the abbey:
I'd been left instructions on how to get the key, and the room number, so I knew which keybox it was in, inside the door - I'd been given the code too. Went up to my room - mercifully, on the first floor - and lo, no WiFi! No regular signal either - the whole group were to have trouble with that for the duration of our stay. Southern phones evidently unable to cope in the harsh north..
Well, I needed to do a bit of shopping - and the nearest supermarket turned out to be the Co-op, right beside the station. My phone was nearly dead, but I needed directions, plus to check my messages, so out it came with me again. I had to go two streets away to get signal:
Got my shopping done - ran into Jules, one of my co-organisers, in the Co-op.. she'd opted to take the train the whole way, but ended up with a nightmare journey when one of her trains was cancelled.. she ended up on the bus for the last bit. Which, at least, as she said, had a gorgeous view. I left her staring at the chocolate aisle.. she'd already had dinner, was too hungry to join us later that evening.
Great joy and jubilation - when I got back, the family that run the place had returned, and the WiFi had been turned on, gee. We had booked The Fat Badger in Whitby for dinner that night. 13 signed up for dinner.. how appropriately spooky! Food was prebooked. Happily, I had time to charge my overworked phone a bit - all the messaging had really worn it down. And there was time to freshen up. Of course, pretty much everywhere in Whitby is close enough to walk to - and The Fat Badger was only a few minutes walk from me.
JW was propping up the bar.. when a few more came, we ordered drinks at the bar, then moseyed on to search for our table, which Stefan, another of the group, who'd joined from The Hideout, was apparently sitting at. We found him down the back:
We had a long table.. and I'm afraid the service was a bit stretched. Anyway, I'd pre-ordered soup of the day.. and you know something, I had a premonition it was going to be tomato. Which I'm intolerant to.
It was tomato. I had about four spoons, and stopped before it made me sick. The roll that came with it was nice and hot, and butter was served on the side. That ended up being my starter. Meantime, I'd finished my drink and wanted another - but the guy clearing away the finished drinks informed me it wasn't his job to serve them, and I'd have to ask a server. There weren't any to ask. I noticed he didn't bother sourcing a server for me. I waited half an hour, then traipsed all the way down to the bar to get my own drink. Which he served, now that he was back behind the bar. You couldn't make it up.
The pie I had for my main was salty, the mash tasteless, and I didn't finish either. When I did get the attention of a server for another drink, it took ages again for her to return with it. This is not a place I'll be returning to. Anyway, we queued to pay at a terminal at the edge of the dining area, then I stayed on for a couple of drinks with a couple of the group. Before repairing to my room, and STARTING the blog.. when I fell asleep in the chair, and woke at 4.40am, I decided I'd better put myself to bed properly. So, no blog that night.
More in the next post.. keep tuned.
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