The Place Where Dracula Landed. Whitby.
Hey Peeps,
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What a magnificent day we have here.
It is everything that you could wish to see in the middle of May, with blue skies, no clouds and a wealth of sunshine.
Long may it last!
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Last weekend Big H and I were watching something that mentioned Robin Hood’s Bay, which is about a hundred miles away on the east coast of North Yorkshire, near to the holiday/fishing town of Whitby.
I mentioned that I had never actually been there and that I wished that I had seen it.
Big H said that he would take me there as soon as he felt up to a long drive out for the day.
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Well, we have been there now.
Unfortunately, although the weather started out promisingly, it never really reached being very warm and there was a long period of rain and black cloud which began on the drive there.
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First, we went through all of the surrounding industrial areas, before eventually reaching the most beautiful area of the Yorkshire Moors, which is a National Park.
Then we began a descent down into the bay, where it all looked very picturesque and pretty.
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After parking….which was very expensive….we walked down a very steep hill into the village, which was appealing and quite tiny.
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There were a few interesting looking shops, but everything like that seemed to be open only at the weekends, which was frustrating.
It is an old place with some unusual and quaint buildings along the pretty streets.
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It did not take long to reach the beach, which I personally did not particularly enjoy, because it was all seaweed, plus bits of concrete and plastic…and quite grainy and grey looking.
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This not being helped by the huge revetment of stone blocks that has had to be placed at the beginning of the beach because the steep dunes are eroding badly, which is a shame.
You have to bear in mind though that people from further up the coast where we live are very spoiled when it comes to beautiful beaches.
Up here they are all fine golden sands that stretch for miles and miles, backed by beautiful low sand dunes that are just created for picnics and sheltered day of enjoyment.
It is a heaven for building sandcastles and finding amazing shells.
If we had the sunshine then there are no beaches in the world that would be better and the sea is so clear on the long flat sandy bays that you can see the bottom quite clearly.
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There were however, plenty of people at Robin Hood’s Bay who were getting the utmost enjoyment from being there at the seaside.
It depends where you come from really and what you are used to.
There are totally stony beaches in lots of places like Brighton, on the South Coast, and the people living there love them.
They do get the benefit of hearing the ‘schoosh’ of the stones moving in time with the tides.
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Because the bay was so small, and the village so tiny we were ready to go very soon, even though you have to buy a minimum 3 hour parking ticket.
It was not somewhere I could live without going totally potty quite quickly!
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Although Big H was very fatigued after the hike back up the steep hill to the car, and really felt like coming back home immediately, we made a detour to Whitby so that we could have a rest and refuel at a fish and chip restaurant while he took his mid-day tablet.
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Whitby was a place that seemed full of energy and bustle, and of course it is where Count Dracula’s ship landed in Bram Stoker’s wonderful Gothic novel.
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This is the trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie of the novel.
This is the full movie of F W Murnau’s eerie 1922 adaptation of Stoker’s novel. In this adaptation Whitby has been relocated to Bremen but who cares?
I love this one!
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It was very colourful too, with a large amount of boats moored, and many people enjoying themselves for the day.
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We quickly found a good restaurant and feasted upon some most excellent food.
The fish was incredibly fresh, succulent and well cooked.
Big H was moved enough to leave a hefty tip!
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The only incongruous note was that you had to wait to be seated by a waitress….and there was a wine list on the table!
You were also served bread and butter with the meal but it was a bit stale for my tastes….I only like fresh and soft bread….but then again, I am quite picky.
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We had a little walk around after eating but I did not see any Whitby Jet Shops.
It is my birthday soon and I was hoping to find a big antique necklace and earrings but I had no sniff of anything like that.
I expect we would have needed to have a a good exploration about to find anything like that, but you cannot have everything you want.
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Once we got back big H was very tired but pleased with his day.
Needless to say, we had an early night.
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Have a good Thursday yourself!
J,x.
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Hey Jackie,
Sound like you had fun
The pictures make me want to visit England all over again. I envy you that – walking down towns and knowing they’ve been around for a really long time. We have an amazing wildlife at our disposal, with the term “new world” suiting the outdoors very much. But on occasion, my Euro-half misses the old stone, shops, narrow windows and cobblestone roads.
Oh well
have a great day~
nelly.
Greetings Nelly,
Glad you enjoyed the post, it really is thrilling to be surrounded by so much history here, and on a small scale.
Canada must be amazing, but I am a bit weirded-out by huge places that contain dangerous animals.
Although I used to enjoy the letters from my Aunty Muriel in Vancouver, I did not ever wish to visit it myself and risk the mountain lions and bears she had contact with.
I am definately a bit of a townie and most definately a ‘fraidie-cat’ where the great outdoors is concerned!
Euro-half?
Have fun yourself,
J,x.
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Hi Jackie,
I’m a scardie cat too! I saw a loose bear once, in the then-unfenced backyard of a neighbourhood I shortly lived in. I stayed away and ran upstairs, after turning off the oven and anything that could make the bear think food is ready for it.
There are the odd bunch of animals walking around, like Moose, deer, some little snakes, beavers, other types of ground hogs and tons and tons of geese. None of which are scary (except moose or deer through the windshield).
I don’t think there are very many mountain lions in Ontario, BC has Whistler and the Rockies nearby so it makes sense that they spot those more often. My province is mostly lakes – so if you’re the sailing/kayaking type, it’s not too bad.
Eurohalf = technically, I suppose fully European. My mom is Russian, and my dad is Greek – so it was only nature that Euro culture and numerous trips to the continent were part of growing up
Morpeth sounds interesting – I hope you had some good haggis
Good luck in hospital today.
nelly.
Hey Nelly,
Enjoyed the comment.
It can be bad enough to have unexpected company but a bear must be the worst kind!
The UK sounds much safer ‘cos a Moose would definately scare me too.
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Having said that, we had an awful experience in the car some years ago, when we were driving along on a lonely road near Hexham.
A car was coming towards us in the darkness and we were totally blinded because it was madly flashing it’s headlights.
As soon as it had passed us, there was a horrible crash, and huge cow landed on the bonnet and crashed against the windscreen.
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We stopped and then the cow rolled off onto the road.
It seemed injured, so we collected our wits, before calling in at the nearest farm to tell someone, so that they could find the animal and help it if neccessary.
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The car that was flashing had stopped to watch the crash, before speeding away without checking to see if we were dead or injured.
Bastards….they must have been trying to warn us somehow that there was a cow loose but had not realized that they were completely blinding us….and then they got frightened!
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As you probably suspect, I would not like to be in a field with a herd of cows either, but I like to talk or sing to them from the safe side of the fence….and as for bulls!!!
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What an interesting ancestry you have, it all sounds very glamorous to me.
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Take care.
J,x.
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that is pretty horrific with the cows. We had something similar happen in the mideast, with a winding road and a small car my dad rented out, there were bedouins and sheep crossing, and one got loose ran around and we hit it. The sheep didn’t make it, but we were more-or-less okay.
I’m glad to hear you made it out well. As for those that left you there, karma — it’s an odd but perfect thing in the world: what goes around comes around.
as for my “glamorous” ancestry, it sounds more interesting than it really is. with mixed parents, come mixed issues regarding homes, ethnic belonging, stereotypes, etc..
and on occasion, I feel like I got genetically mangled: instead of having the typically long russian legs, i have the rounded slavic cheeks, and instead of getting the strong hellenic nose, I wound up with a bum the size of Crete
have a great weekend.. I’m off to celebrate my mom’s birthday. She blogs too http://www.dessertatelier.com ,but mostly about dessert
Hi,
We are in total agreement on the karma issue…I have seen it in person….sometimes it comes around very quickly too!
Besides, it is always better to be kind, nobody wants to start moving towards the dark side!
I am always aware that once you do something you have to live with it, and that regret changes nothing but your next actions.
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Glad you were all OK with the sheep in the mideast.
We had a few scares with loose camels there, and I think if we had hit one we might have been lynched on the spot.
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I had not thought about the possible problems with a very mixed ancestry, but I would imagine that it would also provide a much larger canvas for a person’s final development.
I found that when you grow up in one area of a country, with parents from that same place, along with their friends etc….and their experiences, influences, expectations and experiences are all absolutely similar….especially before the advent of television….then you have a less colourful palette to choose yourself from.
I would have loved something a bit more exotic and global myself.
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Having said that, I was very dark, full-lipped and olive skinned when I was younger and everywhere ‘Mediterranean’ we have been I have had the people asking if I was a native of the place.
This has happened in Crete and Spain, and even in the UK people would say I was a half-cast.
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In Kuwait I was puzzled to be followed by women in the supermarket, and have them touch my skin, while I was wandering down an isle.
It was explained to me that they were thinking I had been applying one of the whitening creams that are very popular there….whole isles full of various types.
There was also a problem sometimes because the men would think that I was an Arab woman who was both dressing and behaving inappropriately in public.
I was most confused once, in the early days, to be stuck on a traffic island in the middle of a scarily busy road, with an arab gentleman in full robes etc. shouting at me in a very abusive manner, probably not helped by my penchant for very red lipstick on a very big mouth!
Also the assistants in the shops would ask me in Arabic if they could help me etc.
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This is all very confusing when you grow up with a tiny blonde mother with bright blue eyes and very pale skin.
She also used to get very annoyed when Indian bus drivers would speak to me in their language, obviously also fooled by the waist lenth hair which I had at that time.
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I think we must all be citizens of the world in our past ancestry.
Perhaps one of mine had a fancy for the handsome gypsy who passed through!
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Your mum’s site was a good one for those who like cooking….I must show it to Big H (you never know!)….you must be going to be lucky enough to get some excellent food this weekend.
Have fun at the birthday celebrations.
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My goodness, I am writing a book here I think.
J,x.
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