A visit to Captain Cooks old sea port and Dracula - Whitby North Yorkshire

The Doncaster hotel is ok but the pillows are like wafer thin so we dont have a good nights sleep. Also the quilt is thin so when we get downstairs I ask the reception for 2 more pillows and another quilt. He first asks "why do you need more pillows" I tell him "because I do" he then asks "why do you need a quilt havent you tried turning up the heating" I cant beleive his attitude but this is England hahaha!We head off to the "boating lake" which is a local park with an old, old cafe which serves a good English breakfast, Glen hasthe full English of course and Rhonda has a bacon sandich with a side of baked beans and 2 big mugs of tea mmmm. Breaky is $8 for the two of us and it is really greasy but tasty lol. A breakfast comes as it comes you get no choice of how you want your eggs done or type of toast etc etc.

After breakfast we drive to the care home where Glens dad lives and we visit with Glens dad and his sister Sue. IT is really good to see dad and he is reeally happy to see us. We give dad some photos we printed so he has some to look at when we are gone. The care home is all trimmed up with flags as it is the Royal Wdding tomorrow and the old folks are really excited to watch the wedding - not dad - Bah humbug lol.
At noon it is lunch for dad so we say goodbye and we head off for our day trip.

We have decided to drive out to the coast to an old seaport called Whitby. Whitby is the home town of Captain James Cook and it is very historic. It is also the town where Brahms Stoker lived and where the novel "Dracula" was first written. During the drive we pass through English countryside, we pass lots of double decker buses which are whizzing between villages and towns carrying locals to and fro. We pass a funny site with one of the old smokey, polluting power generation plants smoking away in the background with more modern windmill power generators in the front = the old and the new together.

HAlf way to Whitby we stop at a small market town called Pickering. It is really pretty here with cobbled streets and very old buildings. We take a walk up and down the main street and visit some of the shops here. Rhonda finds a shop selling royal wedding memorobilia and she spends a bunch of time and money in here grrrrr.

We go into one of the ancient pubs to sample some north yorkshire beer then we carry on over the moors to Whitby.

Whitby is a great old sea town with an ancient harbour where Captains Cooks ship used to dock and also there are stories that this was a very bad town for pirates. Lots of pirate memorobilia in the shops here. Whitby is still a working fishing port to this day and the harbour is crammed with fishing boats docked. WE park the car at the harbour and start walking into the old town centre. We pass an HSBC bank which is housed in a grand building which has a date of 1652 over the doorway - wow.

We stop at the harbour wall and watch dozens of little kids dangling fishing lines into the water. They are having a blast catching little fish and crabs. Rhonda heads into a swet shop to buy us a selection of candy to have in the car with us. The doorways here are  from the 1500 and 1600's so they are very low, even we have to bend down to get through some of them. Then we stop at a postoffice to buy stamps and mail some postcards home.

The streets are narrow ans lined with ancient adn quaint old buildings and we have a blast exploring the old streets.There are tiny streets only 4 ft wide all with proper street name signs. GLen finda one called arguments yard which leads down to the harbour.

We can smell smoked fish and we walk up a street and find an old kipper smoking shop - Glen wants a kipper but when we get there it is closed and a sign syas they have sold out. A local tells us that they pull the kippers out of the smoke house at 11am every day and there is always a long queue and within one hour they always sell out.

We go into an old inn which is reputedly where CAptain Cook used to drink and we have our lunch there. We have a large baked steak and ale pie with spuds and it is yummy mmmm. For desert we stop at a local fish and chip shop where Glen orders a snickers bar fried in fish batter. wierd but he like the taste.

Every seaside town has amusement arcades so we head into one and play the slots and the shove penny machines for an hour, this is lots of fun and its really loud in here with all the machines ringing.Its already 7pm by now so we head back to the car and start the drive home.

We stop at an old village where they film the brit TV show heartbeat and take some pics of the old railroad station where steam trains still come in during the summer. WE dont get back to the hotel until 10pm and we are bushed. TOmorrow is the Royal Wedding and Rhonda has plans to watch the whole thing.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Arividerchi Italy - 'Ello England and good 'ole Yorkshire

So up early again and at 5.30am we leave for the Milan MAlpensa airport. We drop off the rental car and poor Rhonda who is still hobbling on her broken foot helps with the luggage into check in. LAst night we bought some fresh bread, a block of cheese and a length of salami and this will be our breakfast on the flight back to England. As we board the aircraft the skies open and monsoon rains fall - teehee we had brilliant sunshine for the past 4 days ! We fly over the alps and the sun is blinding as it reflects off the snow covered peaks.

At 0830am we land at London Gatwick airport where we grab our luggage and pick up a rental car - another Fiat but a posh version this time. Rhonda loves it as she can plug her iphone right into a socket on the dash and her music and phone is then controlled by voice command and the cars computer - kewl !! We drive north out of London and soon we are on the M1 motorway for a 3 hour drive up to Yorkshire. We are now driving on the left hand side of the road and Glen has to change gear with his left hand - a bit confusing at first but he soon gets used to it.

 The traffic goes so fast - we are doing 130kmh in the SLOW lane and cars in the fast lane are whizzing past - bloody hell says Glen. At noon we stop for lunch at a small village just off the motorway and we have fish and chips and Glen has a steak and ale pie with mash and peas and gravy. After lunch we have to fill the car as it is near empty - petrol is $2.45 a liter!!! the small car we have takes $95 to fill the small tank - grrrrr!

 An hour and a half later we arrive in YOrkshire and we leave the motorway to drive through the country villages to Doncaster. Every second field in England is planted with mustard and the fields are a brilliant yellow - looks amazing in the sunshine. We drive through industrial villages which used to be where people working in the coal mines lived. All the mines are now closed and the villages are really run down. Rows and rows of terraced houses.

 Then we drive through old, old villages with lovely 700 year old churches in every village and nice old stone houses. We stop by the River Don and look at the riverboats that chug up and down the river carrying goods and tourists. We arrive in DOncaster which is an industrial town in YOrkshire where Glen grew up - he cant beleive how much it has changed since his childhood.

GLens DAd lives here and his two sisters, Heather and Sue and we will be visiting them tomorrow. We find our hotel and check in. Then we go for a drive around the town and have supper at a nice pub sat next to an ancient fireplace. TOmorrow we will visit family then head off somewhere to explore.