A Winter Weekend in Yorkshire

A few months ago, way back, before I went to Australia, I saw some cheap train tickets advertised for trips up to the North of England. Some friends and I decided we would book some and have a cheap trip up Yorkshire way.

So last week, three friends and I caught an early morning train out of London to the City of York. We spent rented a car from a lovely Yorkshire lady at the Hertz at York station and I thought, "it's nice to be up here. The people are much friendlier!"

We looked around York for a bit for the benefit of those of us who had never been, and had morning tea at Betty's Tearoom.

Then we headed further up North, down some partly flooded, narrow B-roads, a route which was a result of my lack of ability to properly follow a GPS navigation system. But a route that was fun and scenic nevertheless.

Once in North Yorkshire, we stopped at various seaside spots on the way, and I was impressed by how rough, brown and wild the sea looked. Never had I seen beaches looking so uninviting.  We stopped by various cliffs overlooking the sea, each time only leaving the car for a few minutes before the cold and wind forced us back into the shelter of our Ford Focus.

We made it to Whitby, a town known for where Captain Cook first commenced his naval endeavors (no pun intended) and subsequently discovered half of the new world including Australia.  We made it to a pub named after his ship the Endeavour amongst a number of other fine drinking establishments, and apart from me not being able to understand some of the locals, it was a good night out.

We woke up to some home cooked breakfast in our B&B the next morning, went to the beach and checked out the Whitby sights before driving through the Yorkshire Moors national park, an area covered in a good foot of snow. I was surprised by what wilderness existed in Britain - places where you could see for miles without seeing much of anything.  We watched sunset from steep hillside covered with snow and drove back to York, to stock up with drinks for the two hour train ride home.

Overall a great weekend of getting out of the city, seeing a bit more of Britain and spending time with friends.  One of them beat me to it, and wrote her own blog entry on the trip, including some great photos.