Coastal Villages

(3rd day)

Every morning in England, the first thing to do was to turn on the TV and check the weather forecast for the day. Although summer time is said to be the best time to visit England, that literally doesn't guarantee anything.

We never know what the weather will be like from one day to the other. It can be sunny one day and rainy the next. As having such a variable climate changing from day to day, it is difficult to predict the weather. Just got to take a collapsible umbrella and sweater no matter when we go out.

On the 3rd day, weather forecast : Cloudy with periods of light rain in north Yorkshire area. Ok, at least it wasn't heavy rain for the whole day. So, we kept our original plan to go to Scarborough. After taking a simple breakfast, we took off at around 8 am. The down pour started half way and it got bigger and bigger by the time we were almost there. Sigh, our heart sink...

We arrived at Scarborough around 9 am. KS has absolutely no idea on what to do under such a bad weather condition. See, he planned to take us there for sight seeing, said the scenery over there is very gorgeous.

Poor him, I couldn't offer any better idea since I was more blurred than him. When we passed by the coastal road, we saw the waves were like 3m high. KS pulled the car over and walked towards the sea side. The boys wanted to follow, but I said they should wait and see what daddy got to say then. Seeing he walked so near to the barrier, I just had a feeling that I would see something very funny. So, I set my camera ready. Sure thing, look what I've got (see below picture). The boys and I laughed till we couldn't sit straight.

I still couldn't help but laughed at him when I see this picture. Wahahaha....

Scarborough is a town on the North Sea coast of North Yorkshire, England. It is the largest holiday resort on the Yorkshire coast. The modern town lies 3 to 70 metres (10 to 230 ft) above sea level, rising steeply from the harbour onto limestone cliffs. The older part of the town lies around the harbour and is protected by a rocky headland.

The town made famous by Simon and Garfunkel's song "Scarborough Fair" isn't generally considered a major destination for international tourists, but that's part of the charm. It's quiet and peaceful yet still features the beaches, the breathtaking views and the attractions of more well-known resort cities.

We drove up to the modern town, and stopped over at the entrance of Castle Scarborough. Looking around the town from the top, the scene is much more beautiful than this picture can show.

That is Scarborough Castle, a 12th Century fortress, situated on rocky headland overlooking the town of Scarborough. Its most recognisable feature is the ruined keep, built in the 1160s by Henry II, which is clearly visible from the bay below and offshore.

The castle was not opened by the time we stood there. Normally, the opening time of any castle is 10 am to 5 pm. Some will open from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm.

Anyway, Castle Scarborough was not in KS's master plan. He told the boy this castle is not that '超勁 ' . He promised he would take them to a more '超勁 ' castle later that afternoon.

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'超勁' is like a magic word to the boys. Every time they hear of this word, their eyes spark and they will hold fist, raise it up to the eye's level then pull it down while shouting "YES". It's just like some one won a gold metal in the Olympic games. Darn so lovely.

Anyway, we peeped inside. That's all we can see. They guarantee you won't see much if you don't want to pay them admission charge. The fact is, there are so many castles in England, we will be so broke if we enter every castle we met. Well, just got to pick the one we felt it's very special and interesting.

The rain didn't stop though we were sort of waiting for 30 min. We decided not to gamble our luck in Scarborough anymore. We cut lost, and LEFT !

We continued our journey to the northward, Whitby town (13 miles NW of Scarborough) would be the next stop.

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The countryside's road is nothing similar to a highway setting. Except traveling from one big city to the other big city, we drove on this kind of road for most of the time.

The scenery along the countryside road is more refreshing and interesting though.

As I've predicted in my previous entry, sheep is probably the 2nd largest population in England. At a small junction, we stopped our car to show our hospitality and to say 'hi' to them.

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I think sheep is pretty paranoid, the more you call them, the more they will walk away from you. It's not that easy to catch their very-close-up-look. Maybe next time we should bring them their favorite food, and what's that besides the grasses?

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Out of a sudden, KS was insane again. He jumped over the fence very quickly...

and he chased after the pathetic sheep like a mad cow himself. Boy, he truly scared the hell out of the sheep, and they were like running for their life. The boys and I laughed till we couldn't stand straight this time. At times, this man can be so mischievous and funny.

Halfway to Whitby, we saw a signboard pointing to Robin Hood's Bay. The name is interesting. We wonder if it has any relation with the archetypal figure in English folklore, Robin Hood? Since the rain has stopped at that time, we made a detour to venture the place.

The small road off the countryside road is even narrower and very very quiet. We didn't see any cars almost the whole stretch of road. That did make us ponder should we turn back? Thank God we didn't. Otherwise, we would have missed such a picturesque fishing village in North Yorkshire.

Robin Hood’s Bay is a small fishing town (hardly more than a village) tucked into a deep ravine, 5 miles south of Whitby. The origin of the name is uncertain, and it is doubtful if Robin Hood was ever in the vicinity.

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Over the centuries, Robin Hood's Bay has been a notorious centre for smuggling. The illicit goods could literally be handed through doorways and windows from cottage to cottage. The main legitimate activity had always been fishing, but this started to decline in the late 19th century. These days most of its income comes from tourism.

Space is so limited that cars can't enter the village center. So, we had to park our car somewhere nearby this place and walked to the center.

All these are B&B (bed-and-breakfast). Not cheap though, around £32 to £36 per person. To me, they look so beautiful and worth a try to stay in there for at least 1 night.

Most of them have their own small garden in front yard, all decorated with colourful plants and flowers.





The biggest hotel in town perhaps is this Victorian Hotel. Facing the sea, it looks just gorgeous.

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KS asked if I would like to stay here for 1 night cause this would be the only hotel (amongst all the hotels that he'd booked) with magnificent sea view. That's a very tempted offer. I really thought for a long time before I said : no need lah. I'll just stick to you plan.

Slowly walking to the sea side...

Once in a while, William would ask me to specifically take a picture for him. I dare not to ask him why he likes this or that so often these days, cause he will say I'm too busy-body. So, I guess he like this place lah.

Robin Hood's houses were built along the edge of the steep-slope cliffside. The older houses of the village crowd the shoreline and the cliff-top and over the years many have been washed into the sea, though the village is still developing.

the cliff behind me...

We walked down from the cliff top and proceeded along this path that is above the sea level.

Looking up, we could see the old houses built along the steep slope, in close up.
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Such a peaceful neighbourhood...




That is the end of the path.

Instead of going back by using the same road, we took the stairway on the side. We didn't know where it would take us to, but it seems no harm trying.

It's a totally different scene after we walked out from the stairway. We just follow the narrow street and look forward to the place that it would lead us to.

aha...walking down the street would sure take one to the beach, now I've got it. Sure the boys ran straight to the beach soon when they see it. To them, beach is such a fun land that they can always find things to play with.

When KS took the boys to walk on the beach, I looked back the way we came down from, and noticed the sky had turn to a beautiful blue color. What a wonderful world it is.

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This big house is rather interesting. Under the sun light, it looks so beautiful.
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Emm...this is one of the kind my dream house gonna look like, but definitely with more bigger windows please.

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Me and my dream house.




See, told you they can always find things to play with on the beach. Unfortunately, its owner came to claim it back not long later.

Robin Hood's Bay is also famous for the large number of fossils which may be found on its beach. We are not the expert, so we would never know what we have missed?





After 20 min or so, we got to drag them away from the beach.




We walked up the cliff by following another narrow street.

Back in the village we see the contrast between today's cottage decor and that of an old shop.

The window decoration is simple and nice.
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Finally, we saw some visitors besides the local people. They looked as fascinated as we did about this place. Maybe they bumped into this town accidentally too, like we did?

It's difficult to give a visitor any directions for finding his way about a place like this. It's far better to let him explore the narrow streets and alleys at his own leisure. It's totally a fascinating experience.

A small stream runs beneath the overhead bridge.

There are shops that sell souvenirs and sand toys. The boys like this fish net so much that they had bugged us all along the way to buy it. If we could put this net into the luggage and carry it back to HK, maybe we would comply. (Sigh...)

Halfway up the steep main street, a welcome place for refreshment - The Laurel Inn. We were a bit behind the schedule by then, so we didn't make any stop further. Just continue to walk back to where we came from.

The brightly painted houses serve more to attract tourists from near and far.

I notice that although English house look fundamentally similar but they are not actually. In fact, their design can be so different from one town to the others.

There we were, back to the Victorian Hotel. We waited here for KS to drive the car to pick us. The time by then was around 12 noon.

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