Day 241 - Off to Whitby

Time to continue our circumnavigation of Britain...well, sort of. We head south to Whitby in North Yorkshire. Getting there from Edinburgh requires three trains...usually. Today, a train broke down on the track near York so we were unceremoniously dumped off the train in Newcastle and made to find our own way from there with all the other people trying to get to points south, too.

We decided to have a quick sandwich and wait a bit while the crowd on our train crammed themselves into the next available train that was taking a route around the stuck one. We then managed to get a local train to Middlesborough. However, there are only a couple of trains a day from there on to Middlesbrough, so we arrived to find we had missed the 2:00 train and would have to wait until 5:45 p.m. for the next one. As luck would have it (if you want to think about it positively), the last time we went to Whitby with the kids, a train strike had occurred on the same line, and so we had to take a bus. We thetefire knew we could do the same this time. It was actually a lovely ride through the North Yorkshire Moors.

We had a bit of difficulty finding our cottage at first as it is down one of the narrow streets that are common throughout the town. Eventually we found it and were settled it.

I'll tell you more about Whitby in the coming days, but for now I'll let you know these two things:

1. It's known as the fish and chips capital of the UK. You only need to ask my son Alex if you need this confirmed. Don't tell him it was our first meal here.

2. Bram Stoker was inspired by Whitby when he wrote Dracula. So, it was perfectly fitting that when we decided to take a quick walk around town, we were met with a short but violent thunder and lightning storm.

A perfect beginning!