weekend up north

Because leap year (not suprisingly) occurs only every 4 years, we took this as an opportunity to get away and celebrate a leap day birthday. I, too, welcomed the break, as data collection for my study is not going too well (a post in the future, I promise!) and also, to recover from our most recent shake up.

We made our way slowly to the north east of England. We skirted along the southern end of the North Yorkshire Moors and stopped in Hemsley, a historic market town along the way.




We eventually made it to Scarborough, a seaside resort, with the intent to visit the castle. But due to heavy winds, the castle, atop an exposed cliff, was closed to visitors. We had fun walking around the town, nonetheless.




Before reaching our destination for the night, we briefly visited the cute Robin Hood's Bay, a small fishing town.



We made it to Whitby in the late afternoon. And even though it was our second visit to this town, it was equally pretty in the winter, despite the winds we constantly walked into. We sampled Britain's best fish and chips, as claimed by our guidebook and the hostess at the guest house, and even ate cracked black pepper ice cream.







We re-traced our steps the next day and made a stop at Rievalux Abbey.




Despite the winds and predicted forecast, the weekend weather was definitely in our favour.