On my jollydays

We just got back from our summer holidays [or “jollydays”, as a friend likes to call them]. Although we have other trips planned in the coming weeks, this was the longest break; we were away from home for a clear 9 days and we cannot remember last time that we were away for so long.

We booked a holiday for summer last year in Greece - the island of Kefalonia, to be precise. This was booked in early March, just before the pandemic became visible. For some time we thought that it would be all over by June and we could go. Of course, it was not and we cancelled or, actually, postponed until this year, when we were quite sure we would be able to go. As travel is still essentially impossible, we cancelled again and looked for something else. We decided to visit Yorkshire - an obvious alternative to Greece!

We visited Crosby, near Liverpool, for one night on the way, as we wanted to see the Gormley sculptures in the bay. Then we spent a few nights in each of two places: Whitby and Malton. Each we used as a base for traveling around and, hence, sampled quite a few other places.

All holidays - like life in general - are punctuated by highs and lows …

Some highs first. We did visit a lot of interesting places. We mostly had acceptable weather. I particularly enjoyed the walk from Whitby to Robin Hood’s Bay. I got a fair number of photographs that I am happy with. Malton was a place we warmed to, as we had no preconceptions. [We have even booked another visit in a few weeks.] Going to York by train was interesting.

Some lows - though not too many. We got stuck in the mud on Crosby beach; no real harm done [except to our dignity], just a lot of mess. This led to a minor high: spotting an outside tap back at the hotel. Whitby was nice enough, but somewhat over-sold IMHO; the parking was terrible. Although the weather was OK, the forecast was a pain; more than once we acted upon the prediction of wet weather, only to find that it was dry.

I have not spent so long in Yorkshire or anywhere in Northern England before and clearly there is much more on offer. We have a trip to Liverpool and a return to Malton to look forward to.