Our Farewell Dinner

Robin Hood's Bay

Today dawned with a clear blue sky, the sound of seagulls and postcard-perfect views in every direction. During a delightful breakfast with two English couples from Shipton who have done the Coast to Coast, we were so happy to see Jerry's smiling face come in the room to say good-bye.  We had missed them last night at dinner and now he and Jayel (not sure of that spelling) are leaving by bus.  We have met the nicest people on this trip.

Of course we couldn't just sit around and relax our feet.  NOOOOOOO, we had to traipse all over town, up and down hills and steps some more, and I'm so glad.  This is the village that the word picturesque was coined to describe.  Besides the obvious physical appeal, it is rich in works by local artists.  There is also a wonderful National Trust museum and store where I deposited quite a number of pounds.  Thank goodness I am restricted by weight and bulk. We also had the pleasure of listening to a group of Lifeboat shanty street singers.  Another video I'd love to be able to post.  Very catchy tunes. There are streams of tourists coming down the hillside toward the bay, which is now at high tide.  The tides here are dramatic. Here is the same location where we took our photos yesterday upon arrival.

Our B&B, the Clarence Dene, is the one with the For Sale sign in front.

A few views of the village:

Esplanade in Robin Hood's Bay (for Sonia)

Charming patios everywhere

This beautiful St. Stephen's Church is right up the street from us:

A very ornately decorated organ

Notice the lovely tile floor

The ceiling

A few more ramblings whilst I wait for photos to arrive.  Last night at dinner we ordered one bowl of soup, a goat cheese starter and some vegetables to share.  The British can't seem to handle us.  The waitress brought us two full bowls of soup, saying they had divided the soup for us and then the starter arrived with obviously TWO helpings!  Of course they only charged us for what we ordered.  Another thing I've noticed is that it is apparently way too painful for them to bring only one piece of toast to the table no matter what we order.  I guess they can't handle the unbalanced state of the cute little toast tray and don't realize that it's even more painful for me to waste food.  I hope all that leftover toast has gone to a good cause.  Pigeons maybe.

Barry showed up about 4:30 and we're still waiting to hear from Sheri and Jere.  All set for dinner at The Victoria Hotel again tonight.  Our original plan failed as the reservation at the Smuggler's was not confirmed and both it and the Bistro near us are already completely booked for tonight. The gorgeous weather has brought people from everywhere today. Can't blame them.

Just back from dinner at The Victoria Hotel again, this time with Barry, Annette and Jim.  Had a very fun evening laughing and reminiscing together and also joking with the servers. One of the servers, who is only 20 years old, is a veritable character straight out of Dickens.  I only wish I could have gotten a video of him. He is bigger than life and very sweeet. Barry and Jonathon (in absensia ;() very generously treated us to dinner.  The oddest thing happened as we were all getting ready to eat- Jim looked over and saw a man at the head of a nearby table that looked exactly like Jonathon! We had just been saying that he was with us in spirit, and voila.  Spooky, but he's a pretty powerful guy!

Here's the space where the photo of all of us will go when it finally catapults through space and finds it way to my Chromebook.

One last anecdote tonight:  our waitress used to be a teacher and on the 60th anniversary of the children of Robin Hood's Bay being evacuated to Penrith during the war, someone suggested they do a recreation.  She ended up taking 5 teenagers, 14 and 15 year olds, on horseback for 6 days across Yorkshire.  As she was laughing and telling us what a great time they had, she said no one considered how much preparation it would take, etc.  I tell you once again, these Brits are TOUGH!

Good night for now.  Tomorrow we leave the Coast to Coast Trail and make our way back to Peterborough by bus and train. The whole adventure has a surreal quality about it and I'm so happy that I took the time and had the patience to deal with erratic wi-fi, syncing and a temperamental blog program.  Otherwise, I may believe that I imagined the whole thing.

Much love to you all and to all a good night.  Mary

WE DID IT continued

I think all the photos have arrived now so backing up a bit.  First a little trivia.  A couple of days ago the common greeting of "Hiya" changed to "You all right?"  It threw me at first, thinking that I must look flustered or confused, until I heard it a few times and realized that it's the local way of saying hello.

Here's the old toll road sign between Egton Bridge and Grosmont.  I guess walkers were free.

and the beautiful Esk River.  You can see the beginnings of Fall here:

The Grosmont Train Station:

Our engine, The Green Knight

Grosmont

All aboard!

and on to Whitby:

and Whitby Abbey, the jewel in the crown.  It's impossible to capture its magnificence by camera.

Here you can get a sense of how it was all painted

and on the coastline trail to RHB:

First view of Robin Hood's Bay at VERY low tide.

and proof positive:

The End, or is it only the beginning?

The traditional feet in the North Sea.

The day we broke open the box!

Last night we broke loose from the shackles of Mr. Wainwright and decided to ditch the 16-1/2 mile walk to Robin Hood's Bay in favor of a two mile walk to Grosmont and a steam train ride to Whitby, followed by a 7 mile walk along the coast to Robin Hood's Bay. Good for us.  We were like little kids who found out it was Saturday and there was no school, or two rebellious kids who decided to cut school.

We left the Broom House about 8:50 this morning after a nice breakfast during which we had a chance to chat with our waitress, who is from Jordan.  Very sweet.  This place was physically beautiful, quite newly renovated, lovely restaurant and gorgeous yards; however, we never saw the owners!  Very odd.  Rather cold, except the servers were wonderful.

After one brief mistake walking through Egton, we found the right path and very much enjoyed our 45 minute walk to Grosmont along the Esk River. Lots of pheasant and grouse, cows and sheep.  It was raining as we awoke but by the time we started walking the weather was perfect, cool and with cloud cover. We arrived at Grosmont with plenty of time to buy our train tickets and meet two wonderful women, Sheri and Jere, sisters who were also doing the Coast to Coast.  It was so much fun comparing notes with them and as they said, no one who didn't actually do the walk could possibly understand what we have done.  "They'll think we are exaggerating!"  One is from Portland and the other Carlsbad and they want to do a walk with us. How fun.  THEN I got a video of the steam engine from Harry Potter.  There were lots of people at the station for the celebration, most of them British and all of us taking photos and videos. Lots of enthusiasm. It really was a thrill.  I have tried to post videos before and I'm afraid you have only gotten the visual without the sound.  Too bad.  I have videos of the dogs herding sheep, grouse calls and now the steam engine.  You'll just have to come and see them when we get home.

Grosmont Station

Once again, a bunch of my photos from today have not transferred from my phone. Maybe by the time I finish this they'll arrive.

Outstanding solid brick railway bridge just before Whitby.

The got videos of our train ride also, complete with lots of steam and whistles.  The ride was way too short.  20 minutes later we arrived in Whitby.  What an amazing site. It is so picturesque it looks like a postcard, but it's real.  We wandered over the bridge to the old town after taking a zillion photos of boats and buildings, and looking for the Captain Cook museum we happened upon a very cute tiny shop where I finally got my cream tea.  Coffee actually, with a scone, clotted cream and red currant jam. Delicious. My trip is complete.

Whitby is a must-see place in England.  We got a kick out of this sign on the street.  There was a matching one on the other side, saying Look Left.  We could have used these the whole of our trip.

Here are a few of the sights:

Steps up to the crown jewel of Whitby, the Abbey.

We weren't able to get into St. Mary the Virgin's church because of a funeral, but wandered about the yard.  We managed to avoid, unintentionally, the 199 steps up to the church, but we did quite a few on the Caedmon's Trod (probably only 85).

Notice the beautiful sky.

Without a doubt, the most spectacular ruins I have seen are at Whitby Abbey.  It was started by an Abbess in the 7th century.  We didn't have time to do the whole audio tour so I won't even attempt to give any history here, but I'll surely look it up when I get home if Carol Jones hasn't already informed me.  The glory of the ruins speak for themselves.  I only wish we could have seen it illuminated at night. We toured the Abbey with a large group of elementary school kids who had spent the night in the hostel next to the Abbey. They all had clipboards, paper and pencils and various assignments, we assume.  Very cute.

None of the photos from the rest of our day have arrived, so I'll go ahead with the dialog and you may check in tomorrow to see the pictures.

The trail, the Cleveland Trail, to Robin Hood's Bay, began just behind the Abbey and ran right along the cliffs all the way.  In fact, some parts of the path were closed due to landslides.  The views are dramatic and the North Sea is huge and quite calm today.  It's probably always huge. We felt quite vindicated because the trail was not easy (What a surprise!).  We can't seem to avoid those stony steps, stiles and steep inclines and descents. Quite a few people on the path today, many with dogs.  We got a laugh watching one couple trying to get their standard poodle (a lovely reddish brown 1-year old) over a stile. We also met a woman with a boxer who had done 142 miles of the C2C on a bicycle in 19 hours!  These Brits are another breed. It's no wonder they make fun of us Americans.

About two thirds of the way, the folks who had done the official route joined the trail and we had fun reconnecting with people we had met at various stages of the trek. We were all becoming quite jubilant and congratulatory of each other as we got close to the finish line.  And then, Robin Hood's Bay came into view just about 3 hours after we left Whitby. What's great is that we really noticed how strong we've become. It's not our stamina, the legs, knees, hearts or hips. We are only limited by our FEET.

After checking into our B&B, The Clarence Dene, and rearranging our room so that it could accommodate us AND our luggage (no kidding!), we tromped off to finish the deed: put our feet in the North Sea and toss in our stones (Which neither one of us did.  We just put them in the sea and promptly back into our pockets. But don't tell anyone.)  Then up to the Bay Hotel and the Wainwright Bar to sign the official register and have a glass of wine.  Hooray for us.

  WE DID IT.

Walking from heaven into a picture book!

Before I launch into today's spectacular walk, here are a few shots of the Lion Inn where we stayed last night.  I had Tara stand in the doorway so you could see how low the ceiling beams are:

This is only one small section of the dining rooms

The Lion Inn

We were are dumbfounded when we saw the dining rooms because there is NOTHING anyway near here in any direction and yet the dining room filled up last night.  We had a lovely dinner with our trekking buddies Jonathon and Barry.

The day dawned clear, crisp and gorgeous!  A poor group of 12 arrived last night completely soaked after walking hours in pouring rain behind us.  They had walked for 20 miles.  I'm so glad we had divided the route up and missed the rain completely.

This morning we were able to see the vistas all around us that we shrouded in mist when we arrived.  In this picture you can see the Lion Inn way in the distance.  We began the day walking around the valley.

Our first stop was at Fat Betty's to make a long-awaited contribution of very heavy protein bars we have been carrying all the way from Stockton! It's another walkers tradition here - take or leave treats.  We were thrilled to "leave".

Fat Betty's.  Note the beautiful blue sky.

Then on through the high moors.  They remind me of the desert, at first glance it looks barren and lifeless, but when you look closely it's beautiful and full of interesting sights.  I have been a bit disappointed about not seeing some fauna I was looking forward to, red squirrels, deer, curlew, badgers, stoats, hares and foxes, but I have loved the grouse and their sweet little calls.  They were all over the moors this morning singing us along our way. I also enjoyed seeing these little creatures:

This one's for you, Annie.  Black banana slugs.  This is a little one.

The sky this morning reminded me of the north Texas sky-a huge blue dome with puffy white clouds and  unobstructed 360 degree views.  I love the stark contrast between the moors and the lush green river valleys.  We were sad to learn from an expert guide we met along the way that this is prime grouse-hunting land; in fact, the mysterious structures I posted yesterday turn out to be like duck blinds for hunters. The grouse nest in the heather, making nests from the grasses you can see in this photo.  People pay 500 pounds to have a champagne breakfast and then have "beaters" scare the grouse into the air so they can shoot them. So sad.  Where is the sport in that?  and the grouse are so cute.

We arrived in Glaisdale about 1:30.  It's a very cute village that slopes down steeply into a place called Beggar's Bridge where some of our new-found buddies were staying.  We walked today with a couple from the Washington DC area who have been weaving in and out of our days since the beginning.  In so doing we were reminded of another guideline for trekking, "Don't be gabbing whilst yer walkin'." Since we had ignored this good advice we lost our way twice and added at least 2 miles to our walk today, but we enjoyed the company so it was worth it.

Glaisdale.  Here is another very clever British convenience.

Beggar's Bridge:  In the 17th century, Thomas Ferris, a humble pauper, was courting the daughter of a wealthy local squire.  In order to win her hand he thought he needed to improve his standing in the community, so he decided to set sail from Whitby and make his fortune on the high seas. The night before he put his plan into action, he went to visit his beloved to say goodbye, but the river that lay between them was swollen by heavy rains and his plan for a romantic farewell were dashed. The story has a happy ending, though. Thomas returned from the seas a wealthy man and married his sweetheart and used part of his fortune to build Beggar's Bridge so other young lovers from the neighborhood would not suffer the same torment he had that stormy night.

This may just be ones of those couples!

From this point we entered a wooded wonderland.  If it weren't for the occasional commercial airliner passing above us I would have remained lost in the dream of a picture book world:

And then we emerged from fairyland onto the road again, finding a sign to Egton Bridge.  We still love those Coast to Coast signs!

Entering Egton Bridge:

Now THAT's a hedge!

and just around the bend in the road from our B&B, the Broom House:

These last two are for you, David G!

and this is our room:

Unfortunately after we moved in.

View out our window.

Can you see the railroad tracks in this photo?

The sitting room downstairs.

and LOOK, I'm so close to my daughter Gina and her beautiful family in RIPON:

Tomorrow we are walking to Grosmont (pronounced Gro-mont), through this gorgeous village, to catch the Hogwart's Express to Whitby.  It's the 40th anniversary of the North York Moors Railway this weekend. What a wonderful coincidence.  Then after exploring Whitby, and hopefully avoiding vampires, we will walk the coastline path to Robin Hood's Bay where we will reunite with all the other stalwart walkers we've met along the way and celebrate together at dinner.

Tune in tomorrow.  We may end up on King's Cross Platform # 9 1/2!