1 October – Yorkshire

After a hospital appointment on Monday 29 September, we realised that we were free until the Friday evening.  So early Tuesday morning we set off for 3 nights in Yorkshire staying at a very smart and upmarket bed and breakfast in Pickering.  En route we visited Helmsley and Pickering Castles.  Helmsley was the more interesting but Pickering was still worth the visit.

Wednesday saw us board the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for a ride from Pickering to Whitby.  It was a lovely journey across the moors pulled first by diesel and then steam. At Whitby we enjoyed a walk along the sea front and a ride on the oldest working bus in the UK – it was built in 1929 and was noisy and slow but still a marvel of engineering given that the engine was original.

After a gorgeous lunch in the famous (so I am told) Magpie Cafe we caught the train back to Goatland and had a walk around the village.  Many will remember it as the setting for the television series Heartbeat.  It was nostalgic and great fun.  We then boarded another train for our final journey back to Pickering.  Fittingly for Gerry, the train was hauled by an old Great Western Railway engine!

A really great day out enjoyed by Annie as much as Gerry! The next day we visited the Ryedale Folk Museum and enjoyed a wonderfully gentle morning wandering around in relative solitude, the 2 groups of school children did not impinge on us at all.  After the museum we walked around Ryedale village which was really quite beautiful.

A gentle drive across the moors to the Terraces at Rievaulx Abbey followed.  We were able to walk through the woods and then return back along the terraces catching glimpses of the Abbey ruins down in the valley.  We had been there before but we enjoyed it as much as ever.

That evening we did something we rarely do we returned to a restaurant we had eaten in on our first night in Pickering. Spice4U is an Indian restaurant that enjoys a reputation for being one of the best-loved and most popular Indian restaurants in Ryedale. Our conclusion was that the reputation was certainly justified.  The flavours, service and ambience were all first class.

We returned to Fairford on Friday in time to attend the Harvest Supper  – another great break.