We were in no real hurry today so after a leisurely breakfast we headed off from York and traveled further North to our next destination, arriving in Pickering at about 9.30. Pickering is an historic market town and the official gateway to the North York Moors National Park. We found a car park with heaps of open space in which to par the van then headed off to explore. The weather was lovely this morning, the sun even shone for a while which was a pleasant change.
Being Monday it was Market Day which was in full swing when we arrived. The Market stalls were lined along the full length of the street with lots of people, prams, dogs etc all enjoying the moment of sunshine. We wondered along and found a small alleyway where there was a flea market located, so in we went to see what wonders we could find! We did find a couple of treasures to add to our collection of souvenirs from our holiday.
Back out to the main street and towards the top, we found a cafe where the a table and chair outside in the sun was the perfect location for a Latte.
From here we wandered up behind the cafe and found a lovely church which is located at the eastern end of Market Place and dominates views of Pickering from all directions.
We headed back down Market Place, past the market stalls and came across The North Yorkshire Moors Railway Station which is the longest steam railway in the UK. The railway and its rolling stock have been used in many movies and TV series - the most famous 'Harry Potter' and 'Heartbeat'. A steam train arrived into the station as we were there, which many of the people waiting there would have boarded and headed off to Goathland or Whitby!
We both thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Pickering today and we had our taxi driver to thank for the suggestion to stop here on our way through to Whitby!
By the time we got back into the Van it had clouded over and was looking like a very different day than it had an hour earlier.
We headed off on our journey to Whitby, which was the northern most destination of our UK road trip. The weather was very ordinary as we traveled through the North Yorkshire Moors to get to the seaside village and once we had parked the van, the rain had started!
It made wanting to get out and explore very difficult, but given that we are here, out we got and off we went. We headed over the swing bridge and made for a shop where we brought fish and chips for lunch and tried to shelter from the rain as we ate. This was followed by a milkshake to wash it down then onto wander through the small streets with a very similar feel to those in York.
As we walked, we came across 199 stairs which took us up to the Whitby Abbey and Church of St. Mary - the virgin, so up we went! It was worth the climb in the rain as the view of Whitby was simply amazing. Given that it was so wet, we decided not to go into the museum but had a quick look around the perimeter, then headed back down into the village.
We went back over the swing bridge and then walked along to the Pier as the rain had finally stopped. Being a huge Heartbeat fan it was interesting to see this area in real life having seen it many times in the series.
On our way back towards the van, we stopped to see the bridge open and through came the Whitby Endeavor along the harbor. It was quite interesting to see the swing bridge in action, rather than just seeing photos of how it worked.
It was getting on for 4pm by this time, so we made our way to the 'York House Caravan Park' where we booked in for tonight. Luckily we arrived when we did as the owners of the park were about to head home for the night. We were shown to our spot, hooked power up and quickly got the heating on as it was really cold, and yes, the rain had started up again. While we were in Pickering today we had brought a small quiche and cake which we had for dinner tonight, then settled in for an early night!
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