Whitby, Rievaulx Abbey, York

We went to Gregg's bakery then drove onward to the lovely seaside town of Whitby - where Mom had been about 30 years previously. We toured the ruins of Whitby Abbey and walked along the river that met with the North Sea. There we had lunch at Humble Pies, a cute 50s pie cafe ran by a lady. We strolled to the waterfront and fed the seagulls and we saw Elizabeth the steam engine bus from Thomas the Tank Engine shows, only real life sized. We walked up to the lighthouse after I called my Mom so she could hear the sea and seagulls again and my Dad and her chatted a bit, they were both very happy. Bet she never thought that someday her future husband and kids would be seeing what she saw in England.

After leaving Whitby, we drove southwest to the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey. A huge 12th century abbey tucked away in the heart of some huge hills. It had a nice museum portraying monk-life as well as the destruction of king Henry VIII.

That evening we pulled into York and parked the car. We found a pub and had supper as we arranged our next 2 nights of sleep at the Travelodge in the city. The next morning, after a frustrating time getting around the city walls and finding the Avis rental place, we dropped off the little car and had some pasties and coffee to warm up. We toured the York Cathedral and its crypts. William Longshanks used the chapter room for his meetings against William Wallace back in the day. I found it to be one of my favorite cathedrals since it had the most original stained glass windows and gargoyles among statues on the outside walls. Though most of the saintly statues were smashed off during the reformation.

For lunch we went to a pub called the Golden Fleece, where I had lamb on a Yorkshire pudding as Dad and Matt had cottage pies. I had to have lamb since that is all you see in the English countryside and in York, why not have some good Yorkshire pudding? I'm gonna miss that stuff.

After picking up our jackets at the hotel we walked to The Shambles...(part of town where the olden butchers sold meat) and went to the shrine of St. Margaret Clitherow...who was martyred for housing priests and teaching Catholicism during the reformation. Then, to kill time we saw a tower and the garden parks where dad fed the pigeons. There were more abbey ruins and a low-budget movie was being filmed there, it was neat to see the actors and camera. We eventually warmed up by the fire in the Old Oak pub as Matt tried some traditional ale and Dad and I had Old Rosie's cider....the good tap stuff. For supper we had really Italian pizzas at a fancier restaurant, as we were sick of pub food then called it a day.