This week I had my last classes, and I also had my friend Molly visit me from the States. Molly is doing a little traveling abroad, and she was passing by on her way to Germany to visit with Taramin (the person I visited with in December) where they will be heading into Eastern Europe to do some sight-seeing. Molly came in on Wednesday, and I had a packed schedule until Saturday- so she pretty much visited sights around York while I finished classes. There is plenty to see here in York, so she was not bored. So I was planning to take her to Durham, but we ended up taking a bus up to Whitby instead (a place neither of us had been too before).
The first day out, we took the bus in the morning, and we stopped at a small sleepy town northeast of York called Pickering. I wanted to visit this town for a while, and this was a good opportunity since the bus goes right through it. When you get off the beaten track like Pickering and Whitby are, it is hard and/or expensive to take a train to see them because you need to make many out-of-the-way stops and whatnot. The bus was a much better way to travel and turned out to be immensely cheaper.
Pickering is a lazy little town in Yorkshire. It is actually a nice little place. Unfortunately, the castle I wanted to see was closed, so we walked around the perimeter of it and I took some pictures. Molly ended up getting some kind of rash from trying to climb the steep slope to take pictures over the wall of the castle and got caught up in some vines or something like that. This bothered her on and off the rest of the trip. After walking around the outside of the castle, we went to The Rose, a little pub, and ate. Once we got our fill, we headed out for the museum, which was closed as well. Both the castle, museum, and later we learned the old rail station were closed because it was off-season (in two weeks all those things are open). BUT, Pickering has a nice little church, which really made the visit worth while. St. Peter & St. Paul's Parish Church in Pickering has rare medieval wall murals dating from around 1450, which in other churches were destroyed during the reformation. It turns out they were plastered over at Pickering, and when they were doing restoration they found the murals under the plaster. In addition to the murals, while we were there the people involved with the church were practicing ringing the tower-bells- so it was very cool to watch and listen. I ended up having a brief conversation with this little old lady, and she was excited to hear I was from California. She wanted to know how Americans felt about the English- and I told her that we thought highly of them. She seemed very happy with that, and went on her way with a big smile.
Molly and I took a late train to Whitby, and we stayed in the Haveloc Guest House not far from the beach. Whitby is on the coast, and, let me tell you, it is one of the best places I have been too in my entire stay here in England. It is just stunning visually, and they have great fish and chips too. Whitby has a long history during the Anglo-Saxon times and after as a trade center. Two bluffs command either side of estuary where the River Esk meets the North Sea. It is awesome. On the southern bluff sits the ruins of Whitby Abby, which was enlarged by William the Conqueror and eventually came to ruin during the dissolution in the 16c. Whitby also takes advantage of its association with Captain Cook, and has a statue and museum fit out in his honor. You cannot go anywhere in Whitby without the cry of seagulls and other marine birds. Molly and I spent the next day exploring Whitby- first up 191 steps to the Abby, then a replica of the GrandTurk (AWESOME!), then the Cook Museum, and finally we just kicked back on the pier and watched the ocean crash into the land. We really ended up having great weather both days- great weather for England that is- so it made the trip enjoyable. We ended up coming home pretty late, and early this morning Molly took off for Germany. The following pages have some pictures from the two day trip- enjoy!