Whitby is a very interesting place. I’ve been to several different seasides in England at this point- Brighton, Plymouth, Penzance, Newquay and now Whitby and just have one question. What is it about the sea that attracts such weird people?
That being said, Whitby is gorgeous if you overlook the fun zone area and all the dirty kids fishing off the side of the piers. The shore reminds me a lot of Plymouth, with a huge grassy sea wall that you have to hike down to get to the sand. There are memorials, like to Captain Cook and one of a giant whale bone, as well as pavilions, bandstands and of course, the fun zones. Because of this huge sea wall, you have to hike up and down stairs and paths in order to get to the city center. When getting to my B&B, I had to drive all the way around the other direction since to go by the sea is mainly for pedestrians. City centre has a ton of shops, mainly seafood places (fish ‘n chips included) and lots of ice cream stands. I couldn’t resist and bought myself one to eat before dinner. Hey, no one’s judging. The sea just seems to stretch out forever. The water wasn’t too cold and the waves, by the time they reached the shore, were pretty calm.
Looming over the town on the other side of this little bay (up 199 steps exactly) is Whitby Abbey where the Synod of Whitby took place. In a nutshell, the Synod of Whitby (which happened in 664) was a meeting to come to an agreement over the actual date of Easter. The Roman Catholic Church of St. Gregory and the Irish Catholic Church of St. Columba celebrated Easter at a different time so while one was partying and celebrating the resurrection of our Lord, the other was still enduring Lent and the Holy Week. So the Synod was meant to come to an agreement over when Easter would be celebrated so everybody could be happy together and there would be no jealousy. King Osywu, who presided, was Roman Catholic (while his Queen was Irish Catholic) and he decided that the official date for Easter would follow the Roman Catholic calendar. The Abbey is a beautiful, massive old building with so much history, as is St. Mary’s just down the road from it. St. Mary’s had some interesting exhibits inside, including this crazy Disney exhibit. Oh well, there were other churches that had more authentic insides. There was also a very interesting life boat rescue museum. When you have a huge sea to your right, it behooves you to have a top-notch life boat rescue team. And Whitby does. It certainly does.
From Whitby, it was supposed to be an easy drive to Lincoln. Which of course meant that it would take me much, much longer. It would have helped if I hadn’t driven about twenty minutes in the wrong direction but luckily I figured out what was going on and made it back to the right place. That meant driving through Scarborough pretty quickly, as well as not stopping on the Humber Bridge over to Lincoln. Once in Lincoln, I only had about half an hour but that was just enough time to pop into the Cathedral, take some pictures of the gorgeous architectures and look at all the interesting quirks that make each cathedral unique. I also stopped by the castle but didn’t go in, although I had a lovely chat with the girl working there about ice cream and Big Sky Country. Always an interesting day in my life.
Despite driving down a street that may not have actually been a street, divine providence pointed me into the right direction to get to Nottingham. Despite driving behind at one point a very impatient man with a van and a straw truck that left Gypsy Rose, my trusty bright red car, covered in hay, I made it to Nottingham in one piece and was greeted by the lovely Katie and Dan. We had a delicious Moroccan dinner, lots of wine and lots of laughing and story telling. It will be nice to only have a short drive tomorrow before the long drive back to Oxford on Saturday.
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