ROBIN HOOD’S BAY AND WHITBY
Today we visited the beautiful seaside towns of Robin Hood’s Bay and then Whitby. These towns were in contrast to the working class towns of Scarborough and Bridlington we visited yesterday. Here were narrow cobblestone streets and elegant shops.
On our way to Robin Hood’s Bay we stopped in a national park for a breakfast of Ravenscar, with a sweeping view of the white breakers coming into Robin Hood’s Bay. On the back of a stone chair overlooking the bay was a tribute to a woman named Ingrid. Volker, Kathe’s brother, had often visited Robin Hood’s Bay and Martin attributed this sign to Volker. It was a nostalgic moment.
We parked at the top of Robin Hood’s Bay and then walked the very steep hill down to the seaside, past quaint cottages, all with lovely names, and beautiful little shops. And then we toiled the very steep hill back to our car and drove on to Whitby where we walked around the harbor and down the narrow tourist filled streets looking for just the right fish and chips restaurant, which we found and where we had the most authentic and fresh fish and chips possible, one of the goals of our trip. Along the harbor parents and children were letting down little buckets on strings with bait inside and catching crabs on the sea floor.
There was a pirate ship coming in and out of the harbor. Finally we pulled ourselves away and having located a hotel on the outskirts of Whitby with two small vacant rooms (costing almost as much as our palatial palace of the night before) we sat in the pub in the evening and met local inhabitants who stopped in for a drink.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 