It all started when Mrs. Manley purchased a couple of seaside prints which to my eye were based on Staithes. On this occasion Mrs. Manley was unable to argue as she had never heard of Staithes, let alone been there. I thought that it was important to fill this glaring gap in her geographical knowledge so booked us in to the Premier Inn on Scarborough's North Bay, a stones throw away from where I had spent a week on holiday in (approximately) 1983!
The route to Scarborough was carefully planned with a breakfast stop at the Greggs at Donnington Services; two sausage baps and a coffee for me and a sausage, bacon and omelette baguette with tea for Mrs. Manley.
Next stop was Barton upon Humber for some views of the Humber Bridge followed by a quick visit to Tesco for essential supplies (wine, crisps and chocolate) and sandwiches for lunch.
We then crossed the Humber Bridge and made our way to Bridlington but this turned out to be uninspiring so we moved on to Flamborough Head. On a previous visit there had been a large herd of seals on the beach and they were once again in attendance and presented the opportunity for a few decent images. Unfortunately my planning had not extended to packing my 100mm-400mm (effectively 200mm-800mm) lens so I had to make do with my trusty 75mm-300mm lens but managed some reasonable images; there are a couple in the Yorkshire Gallery.
Next stop was Filey and then on to Scarborough, arriving just after the 3pm check in time.
Having checked in we set off in search of a pub; this shouldn't have been difficult, there was a Martson's Inn, The Tunny Catch, about 50 yards from the hotel. However things took a strange turn when a woman dashed out in front of us and engaged us in conversation about "the large black animal" which had just spooked her dog. To change the subject Mrs. Manley asked her about local pubs and we duly set off heading out of town to the highly recommended newly reopened hostelry which, it turned out, wasn't yet doing food. It did do an average pint of Old Peculier and the very friendly landlord and locals directed us even further out of town for a nice pub which did do food. We set off but chickened out after about 400 yards and retraced our steps to The Tunny Catch where, contrary to local opinion, we had a perfectly respectable dinner which I accompanied with a pint (or two) of Courage Directors.
Day two started with a free Premier Inn breakfast which was pretty average. We the headed north and through Whitby to Staithes. It was definitely a wet weather gear day although there was bonus in that car parking was free as we were "out of season". We made our way down the hill, passing a woman who had collected some driftwood, crossed the river and then went back up the hill to the viewpoint which I have visited on several occasions. This confirmed my suspicion of the location in the aforementioned prints and I took a few images, but as seems customary when I visit, the tide was out. We then retraced out steps back across the river and down to the harbour where the Cod and Lobster beckoned for a coffee but the electricity had gone off...and the it was back on so we had an americano each...and then it was back off; luckily we were able to pay by cash. We then went out to the beach where I took a few images but Mrs. Manley, unsurprisingly to me, had other ideas, and we ended up carrying some driftwood back to the car.
We then set off for Whitby and at the last minute Mrs. Manley entered "Whitby Whalebone" into the satnav; I'd never actually seen it but within a couple of minutes I was digging out my North Yorkshire Parking Disc and we were parked up overlooking the beach and, as it turned out, about 300 yards from the whalebones where, typically, there was plenty of free "out of season" parking.
We took a few images and then made our way through a tunnel and down a series if steps to the harbour. We were headed for the Abbey but before we could climb the 199 steps Mrs. Manley decided that she needed some Whitby Jet and a few other "bits and pieces". We climbed the steps but decided against paying to go into the Abbey grounds, I had been in a short while ago and, anyway, Mrs Manley was hungry! I had long wanted to visit the famous Magpie Cafe for fish and chips but there is normally a queue to get in. On this occasion another bonus of being "out of season" was that there was no queue so in we went; it's a bit like a tardis inside and we were seated at a table overlooking the harbour. Mrs. Manley had a Fish Medley which got a five star rating (I have to say it looked amazing and the leftovers which I tasted were very good). I had Cod, Chips and Mushy Peas (well, you have to), good but probably not quite as good as Gravelly's in Harrogate and definitely not a match for the Snakecatcher in Brockenhurst, my undisputed number one location for fish and chips. We returned to Scarborough and parked up near to the South Bay for a quick look round and a pint but Mrs. Manley was not impressed although a return visit to Whitby is definitely on the cards.
After another average breakfast we set off for home but made a short detour to Goathland, more famous as Aidensfield in the tv series Heartbeat. Next stop was Shepshed, ostensibly for food shopping but as we didn't pass any shops we headed for the Aldi in Ashby de la Zouch but I had to do a u-turn as we had driven past a potential lunch stop, The Horse Inn. This turned out to be an inspired move as we both enjoyed the superb Sea Bass. On then to Aldi and then home, a very good couple of days.