Our driver was a nice young man named Mark. He had recently returned from a cross country trip across the US that started in Miami and ended in California. Even though he knew it prior to the trip he was amazed at how big the US is compared to the UK. He described himself as a music loving foodie and admitted to being more afraid of the snakes than alligators when he was kayaking in the everglades. Smart guy on all three.
We traveled through the North York Moors National Park. Compared to our National Park system the national parks in Britain are fairly new. Towns and communities already existed inside land designated for National Parks and these continue to operate within park boundaries. Land and homeowners still have their own property but do have to maintain it in traditional Yorkshire style.
There is a picture of the symbol for the park below and you can see it in the link to the park as well. It's called Ralph's Cross and there was actually a very interesting story behind it that may or may not be true. I've cut and pasted it below:
http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk
According to legend, the cross was set up to mark the resting place of a monk from Farndale and a nun from Rosedale. They would often meet here and a romantic liason of sorts occurred, but they were found out by their superiors and came to a nasty end, possibly with their deaths. But the most common folk-tale tells us that a farmer called Ralph from Danby found the dead body of a traveller at this spot. He was so moved by this that he decided to erect a cross in memory of this poor unfortunate traveller, who had starved to death and was found to be penniless. Ralph had a hollow carved into the top of the cross so that more wealthy travellers, those on horseback, might place a few coins for the benefit of any less fortunate travellers, or as a thanksgiving for having reached this point on their journey. The poor traveller was able to take a coin, if he/she could reach the hollow, and buy a hot meal at the nearest inn. Ralph then vowed that such a terrible thing would never ever happen again, and it seems to have worked, thanks to him.
We spent the majority of the day in the seaside town of Whitby which overlooks the North Sea. There is a fairly large and very well protected harbor full of fishing boats. The banks are lined with a mix of fish nets and traps as well as shops, restaurants and small hotels. Beth had done her research as usual and read about the Magpie Café which we made our lunch destination. This café is in a building that was built in 1750 and has been operating as a restaurant since 1939. Their specialty of course was seafood and most specifically "fish and chips". In addition to the fish and chips we had an amazing order of steamed mussels in cream sauce as an appetizer. We didn't go away hungry or disappointed.
http://www.magpiecafe.co.uk
The major landmark of Whitby (other than the Magpie Café) is the Whitby Abbey. The Abbey was originally established in 657 AD. The monastery was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The ruins of the one there today date back to the 15th century. There are some pictures below and if it looks vaguely familiar to you that might be an indication that you are a fan of Dracula. It was used as inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula movie. Because of this Whitby is often referred to as the "Birthplace of Dracula".
Our last stop was the very small but quite famous town of Goathland. By small, I mean just a few shops, a small hotel and a building with a sign on it for both a garage and funeral home. This little town is famous for two reasons. First, if you're British you'd know it as the setting for a TV series called Heartbeat that ran for twenty years over here. If you're not British but a fan of Harry Potter I'm neither) you might recognize the train station as Hogsmeade Station.
Now about that garage/funeral home. It was used in the Heartbeat TV show. If they wanted to show the garage they just filmed the lower part of the building. If the scene required a funeral home they filmed only the top half. Clever Brit's!
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| Read the signs carefully! |
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| North York Moors National Park |
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| Ralph's Cross |
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| Whitby Harbor |
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| Whitby Harbor-Note the "Swing Bridge" is Open |
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| Fish and Chips anyone? |
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| Remains of Whitby Abbey |
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| Goathland Train Station a.k.a. Hogsmeade Station |
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| Graves with a nice view of Whitby Harbor. There was a church right behind us. It was interesting to note that many of the graves were older than our country. |
