A Birthday Trip To Whitby

It was my birthday on Saturday, and after such a lovely trip to the East coast on Friday, we decided to head back in that direction, this time to Whitby.

I'd got up and opened my wonderful presents on Saturday morning. I did very well and got lots of surprises as well as some money. I was totally spoilt. After breakfast, we headed off.

We parked up near the Abbey, which is set on the East Cliff above Whitby.

From here you can look down on the beach and harbour.

The lighthouse stands at the end of the pier.

Just in front of the abbey is St. Mary's Church and Churchyard, which gave Bram Stoker the inspiration to write Dracula. There are 199 steps from the churchyard down to the old town. There are some lovely little shops to be found in the pretty cobbled streets, and we spent quite a while looking round them.

Along the harbour you will find The Magpie Cafe which is known as one of the finest fish restaurants in the area. I don't think I've ever been to Whitby when there hasn't been a queue outside this restaurant.

We had a lovely walk right along the harbour and then headed in to the back streets. Looking back over the harbour you can see St. Mary's Church perched on the cliff.

As we started walking back towards the car, we watched the fishing boats bringing their catches back in to the harbour.

Before we headed home, we took a short drive to Sandsend. There's a long sandy beach here, perfect for Archie to have a run.

Of course, he couldn't resist a paddle in the sea.

There were only a few people, as well as ourselves, on the beach.

We had a lovely view of the bay from where we'd parked the car.

This is the first decorated Christmas tree I've seen this year, and where did I see it? Driving home on the North Yorkshire Moors.

The weather had held out beautifully while we were on the East coast, both on Friday and Saturday. I was surprised how warm it was, we were all in short sleeves both days. The rain started just as we were crossing the moors on our way home from Whitby, I didn't mind then.

There was one last surprise waiting for me when we got home on Saturday evening, though I'm sure they got the 3 and the 4 the wrong way round. That's what I'm telling everyone anyway.