Whitby Day #2
I have to say, my bed in The Captain's Lodge was comfy - not always true of places I've stayed. Why, I didn't even need earplugs.. but then, I was tired after Friday. With no breakfast on offer, when I was ready, I headed straight out - the group was meeting down at the station to head up for the early performance of Dracula by Time Will Tell theatre company at the Abbey. I was a bit early to meet them, so decided to take a different route down, and explore bits of Whitby I hadn't seen before. Such as the famous whalebone arch, soon to be replaced by a plastic one because of weathering:
Lewis Carroll also lived here for a while, and you'll find the odd reference to Alice in Wonderland:
I'd passed a funfair setting up along the way, and the town centre was buzzing - it was the first day of the regatta.
My co-organiser, Jules, who'd done her own thing the night before, was with us, and it was good to see her. When we'd all assembled, we made our way over to the famous 199 steps up to the abbey..
I took ONE LOOK at them and cried off. Bless, the group tried to persuade me - JW (uber-organiser and general Master of Revels) promised to go slowly to accommodate me. Speed, however, wasn't the problem.
I have bathmophobia - a sometimes extreme phobia of steps or slopes (oh look, we have both in the photo! The slope beside is known as the Donkey Path, and wouldn't have been much easier). I literally couldn't have taken one step closer to them - even looking at the photos in the article I linked to about them, above, made me shudder. The following were the red flags I immediately identified:
- They're old and uneven.
- They're curved - always a problem for me.
- They're quite wide - which means not only that I wouldn't have the reassurance of being close to both railings, but there'd be streams of people moving past me in both directions, both distracting me from the serious business of putting one foot in front of the other, and also potentially blocking me from the railings.
- They're up the exposed side of a hill. I've had trouble with that before.
- There are 199 of them! so, whatever terror - yes, terror - I was experiencing was going to go on for a while. I know I like horror, but this was a step too far (no pun intended).
I didn't need to go onto them to know I'd never make it up them, so I waved the group off. Bless Connor, another of the group, who volunteered to go back to the centre with me and call a cab to go up the hill (yes, there is road access). You know, the local sightseeing bus does go up there as well, but is just as expensive, and if you share a taxi, you save money! We figured the station would be the handiest to catch it from, and went back there to call. My hands were still shaking from the shock of the steps as we waited..
The dispatcher told him to look for a car with a licence plate ending in "TAX". So we did, and got in it. Traffic was bad, the journey took a while - and en route, Connor got a call to complain that he'd never picked up his ride. Well, it turned out this company's cars all end in "TAX".. ah well. Meantime, we ended up stopped in traffic with what the driver said was one of the best views of the abbey:
He said he'd nearly have let me out to take a photo over the fence, except then the traffic would probably have started moving.. anyway, he dropped us at the entrance to the abbey, phew:
Well, the play was 10 minutes in.. it's a promenade play, so the actors move around the site and the audience follows. Here, we see Mina bidding farewell to Jonathan as he embarks on his trip to Transylvania:
(That long skirt must have been a nuisance on a hot and sunny day!) The third actor starts off as a train conductor, but they all play multiple roles:
Here, he's very fetching as the carriage driver that arrives to take Jonathan to Castle Dracula:
And he gets a turn at being Dracula:
As the play progresses, they move all around and through the site, giving you a good view of it:
I ultimately got tired of getting up and sitting on the ground again all the time, and subsequently just stood at the back, or leaned on the masonry. The play proceeded apace.. and was absolutely hilarious, and well-received.
And wow, they let us pose for photos with them afterwards! Excellent production, making for a great day out - not least for all the dogs that contributed to the script by barking - at Dracula, and at each other. And then we had enough of the sunshine, and went to hang out in the dark of the Abbey exhibition. The costumes at the entrance - which JW always makes a beeline for - this time finally persuaded me, with a properly heavy cloak, obviously evoking Dracula. After which, we were off around the exhibits:
The giftshop had a proliferation of Dracula-related goods:
JW invested in a very nice copy of the book itself. And then we had lunch in the cafe - mine was a very moreish ham n cheese toastie. And then a couple of us had ice cream, me eschewing the Magnum - caught Jules' eye, and we both dissolved in laughter, the only two in the group who'd been privy to the recent Museum, Arts & Culture Socials Great Debate on whether you should bite, or lick, it..
..with graves, unusually, laid into the path:
The gravestones have a beautiful aspect over the bay:
Another co-organiser - actually the one who did most of the organising for this trip, to be fair - Shelley, had organised a Bram Stoker walk for us, and now tasked us with finding the grave of William Swales, who appears in the book! Kudos to the group member, Art, who did:
Not only did the pews have doors on them - which I'd never seen before - but inscriptions on them specified who could sit there!
And Connor and I got a cab down again - he had to call again, I was getting no signal.
We ran into the others at a tearoom at the base of the steps, and sat there for a while. And then we went en masse to the beach, JW purchasing a quantity of buckets and spades on the way, which I think he donated to some nearby kids afterwards.
And then JW got people building sandcastles - which authentically crumbled to ruins:
And I got sunburned. As I said to him, it's 20 years since I was on a beach.. trust him to get me out of my comfort zone. ;-) Eh, it was lovely. No way I was going on the rides though:
Some of us then repaired to - honestly, the first place we could see that had space - the Monk's Haven Cafe. Where we got only intermittent signal, so it was hard to tell the others (who'd got distracted beachcombing and the like) where we were. I had wine, some had ice cream, some had soft drinks. Another dog-friendly place.. they all seem to be, here. And it was a really pleasant distraction..
Continuing on Shelley's walk took us back up to the arch:
Have to say, they were very solicitous of me, having to climb the steps on the interestingly named Khyber Pass.. I was being urged to take it easy and such. Of course, I had hardly any problems at all here - even, narrow steps with railings, snuggled into the cliff. No bother.
Somebody appeared to be beating our sandcastle effort (the moat, at least):
And then emerged to meet one of its victims!!
Heading back into town, we met one of the vicious seagull population:
JW went in search of toothpaste. We were rather relieved when he found some, it having become like the Quest for the Holy Grail. I did a quick shop, and headed back up to the hotel to recuperate.
Arriving at the restaurant, the minute I told the person behind the counter that I was joining a group of friends, she said, oh, they're upstairs. In the event, there was a much reduced number of us (a number having elected to do other things), so we managed to squeeze into one table, which was nice. They had printed a reduced menu, and scrapped the pre-orders, so we could have what we wanted. No-one was now having a starter, unless a group of three starters instead of a main - and they had trouble finishing those. The chips, in particular, were a massive portion, and should never have been classified as a "small plate". For me, I'd originally ordered the smash burger - but Jules, sat beside me, was now having the chicken burger. It sounded good, so I changed to that - and God, it was gorgeous. The fries were good too.
They had a cocktail menu as well as a regular drinks menu.. and with most people getting cocktails, so did I, and had a couple of very nice margaritas. Shelley was delighted to find a dark and stormy - not so delighted with the thing itself. Anyway, afterwards, most of us headed in the direction of The Ship, where there was live music. And headed straight out again because it was too noisy. The others having bailed, five of us headed on.. and one of the group, Lauren, seeing The Golden Lion, rather fancied an Irish pub. So we went there.
And started doing rounds. Irish music on the stereo, a couple in the corner, she asking them to turn it up. She ultimately disappeared.. and was apparently chatting to the barman, outside collecting glasses, when her partner spotted her through the window, took offence, and smashed the glass in the window. Right over Shelley's head, I might note. Fair play, the staff were all over it, blocking him - she came in and got her bag, and they left. As the barman told us afterwards, he was now barred. And then the police arrived.. and Lauren had great fun chatting to one that she said looked just like her son..
Well, they were closing soon after. So we went on in search of an open pub. And wouldn't you know it, we ran into a lovely couple of ladies outside a pub that was still open.. and after a prolonged chat, in which they were delighted to discover I was Irish, and there was a further discussion of origins, they insisted we all follow them inside. I took one look at the place, which had wrestling on the telly, and karaoke in full swing, and said.. on balance, no. I still had half a bottle of wine to finish in my room, and I didn't want to have to bring it back home with me.
Not a chance I was blogging that night, of course.. again, I crashed on the chair, woke, and put myself to bed.
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