Welcome to the A to Z challenge, a blog post everyday of April apart from Sundays, covering every letter of the alphabet. My theme is travel, that thing that we haven’t been able to do over the last 12 months, so it seemed appropriate to reminisce about past travels we’ve taken, looking forward to when we can travel freely again.
Today we’re visiting the largest county in England and home of the white rose in the war of the roses.
There is so much to explore in Yorkshire with lots of historic sites. Our favourite place to stay is Whitby, a fabulously quirky town that embraces its historic links to Dracula. It’s situated around a harbour and is really popular with tourists, which is why we tend to go in Autumn or Winter when it’s not quite so busy.
Originally, on the site where the abbey now stands, there was a monastery built in 657AD by St Hilda, with the abbey being built in the 13th century. To get to the abbey from the town you can climb the 199 steps and at the top there is a fabulous old graveyard.
We spent our 13th anniversary in Yorkshire, so treated ourselves to a cream tea at Betty’s Tearoom in York. Betty’s is a Yorkshire institution and the baked goods are fabulous.
There was also a Christmas market happening in York which was great to look around and soak up the atmosphere.
To get into York the easiest way is to take advantage of the Park & Ride scheme, where you park outside the city and get a bus in. This was fine, but when we got back to the car park we discovered that someone (my beloved) had left the car lights on and our battery was flat. This is a picture of the culprit calling roadside rescue.
You have to admit my beloved made sure to give me a memorable anniversary to celebrate our love.
It was quite cold in Yorkshire in December, but very pretty – the frost even made me slightly appreciate the cobweb.
A definite must to visit if you’re ever in Yorkshire is the ruins of Fountains Abbey which was founded in 1132 by a small group of Benedictine monks seeking a simpler life. The day that we went it was foggy so really atmospheric, so quiet, and we were the only ones there – it was beautiful to walk around.
The beautiful Bertie Boo was with us on our holiday and we discovered that nearly all the cafes in Whitby that we went into were dog friendly, and some even brought a treat out just for him.
One popular spot in the town is Fortunes Kippers – the business has been there since 1872, and the smell of the fish being smoked over burning oak is amazing.
I love this picture featuring the entrance to Arguments Yard, because the door looks like a slightly concerned face – very cute.
One year we were in Whitby the week before Halloween and as we left people were starting to arrive to celebrate all hallows eve. People were arriving in converted hearses, and we saw one family of four, including a toddler in a pram, who were all dressed up for the occasion – I’m sure it’s a really fun filled week.
Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit other bloggers who are crazy enough to be doing the challenge with me – Click Here to visit the master list of participants.
Stay safe and have a great day.
Previous A to Z posts:
2018 – Y is for Yuanfen
2017 – Y is for Yes
2016 – Y is for Young at Heart
Tasmanian Abroad 