Whitby

On Saturday, the University organized a bus trip for international students (which they let us tag along on) to a picturesque seaside fishing village called Whitby. After a beautiful 75-minute ride through the Yorkshire moors and dales we arrived at the picture-postcard Whitby.  (On the ride back my students also admitted to filling up their cameras with pictures so I didn't feel quite as silly for taking so many.)  We were dropped off high on a hill overlooking the town, which is split in two by the River Esk and hugs a large sand beach on the North Sea. 

On the hill are the ruins of the Whitby Abbey (the focal point of at least half of my pictures...I'll try not to bore you with too many).  The 13th-century ruins are apparently still used as a landmark by mariners - I don't know what it looks like from the sea, but everywhere we went in the town, you would look up and see the Abbey (which is one of the reasons I have so many pictures of it from various viewpoints). 

On the grounds of the Abbey is the old Manor House that has recently been restored and is now a youth hostel (10 pounds/night for a private single room or a family room for a mere 20 pounds - you don't have to be a "youth" to stay here). They also had a tea room, which we took advantage of.  Very near the Abbey on the hill is St. Mary's Church, an 18th-century parish church with a wood interior reputedly fitted by ships' carpenters.  It still has the original box pews, but I found the cemetery outside the most interesting.

Eventually we walked down the hill into town.  Whitby is a fishing village and reportedly has the best fish & chips in England, so that's what we had for lunch.  (Well, what John had.  I made the mistake of ordering fish cakes, which I thought would be like crab cakes.  Instead they were mashed potato cakes with tiny flecks of fish in them, deep fried and served with French fries!  A little too much potato and oil for my taste. The fish & chips were good....but still fried fish & fries.)

Fish and chips traditionally come with "mushy peas" (mashed peas), but John opted for the garden peas.  They were quite good, as was the fish.

We walked narrow, medieval streets lined with shops, restaurants and pubs...it was very crowded for September, so I can't imagine what it would be like in the summer.  And everyone seemed to be walking dogs.  Following are some pictures from our walk around town:

And of course, there is the beach....

and the Whalebone Arch, to commemorate Whitby's days as a whaling center.

In the Victorian era, Whitby was filled with workshops crafting jet into jewelry. We found the Whitby Jet Heritage Center, set up in an old jet workshop they found when excavating for another building.  Turns out jet is fossilized monkey puzzle tree and the English coast around Whitby was a major source for it. We watched a gentleman polishing jet and making it into jewelry, so of course I had to buy a pair of earrings.  Jet is surprising light-weight (which is one reason the Victorians used it for very large pieces of jewelry).

A unique feature of the Whitby cobblestone streets: they were lined on either side with blue glazed tiles.  Quite pretty (even more so when wet, I would imagine).

A beautiful trip...

And one more picture of the Abbey....

The only bad part of the day was that I missed my nephew's wedding (and TenHaken reunion) back in Green Bay.  Will have to settle for reports from Alison and Nick, but do wish I could have been there. Congratulations Matt and Vanessa!