Dracula, Captain Cook and Whitby Jet

Hello Dear Readers,

It's been a while, but that's because I've been so incredibly busy.  I knew August would be crazy and I was right, but it's also been a lot of fun.

 

 I'm fortunate to have a friend Jane who's husband runs this great bed and breakfast in Whitby, which is in the Yorkshire area (North east coast of England).  I highly recommend it, it's called Union Place.  She let us stay there the last weekend in July and showed us around the famous seaside town of Whitby.  We walked around the town a bit, here is Jane trying to Splat the Rat at a local fundraiser.

 

We walked around the port and downtown area as well, and climbed up the famous 199 steps to the church and ruined abby.  The steps are famous in their own right, but also mentioned in books set in Whitby such as Elizabeth Gaskill's Silvia's Lovers and...... DRACULA!

 

 Here we are at the top by the church and graveyard, overlooking the very beach at the mouth of the river where Dracula jumped to shore on the ruined ship in the shape of a giant Dog.  Below is the reverse view from a boat ride we took around the port.  The large curved breakers are to protect ships in the port.

Since I'm not taking any time off this year to go anywhere (I'm just having stay-cations as guests come to visit London, but more about that later) this was a good chance for me to go to the seaside since I haven't been since the Scilly Isles at the end of May. 

As you can see, Chris was really having a good time throwing the stick for Jane's dog Hettie.

 On Sunday Jane's son Tristan was generous enough to show us around the sights of North Yorkshire.  One of the highlights was the train station that still uses real steam trains.  Apparently they were some of the trains (or similar to) the ones they used in the Harry Potter films, as well as the train station. How cool is that?  We also ate lunch at this fantastic little pub and walked around a local little town called Gotland that was apparently also the setting for a TV series called Heartbeat.

 It was a refreshing and relaxing weekend away, and so nice to see my friend Jane, who fortunately is going to be back at the museum in September doing some more work on seaweed.   Here is a parting shot as we were driving back to the train station in the evening, a rainbow over the sea, just beyond the moors and Heath (full of flowering Heather).  If I lived in Yorkshire, I'm not sure that I'd ever want to leave.....

Next week, adventures with my cousin Elias in big old London Town, and my Olympic experience!

Cheers!