Two Flew Over: The moors and the dales

Long day's drive from Whitby across the Pennines and up through the Lake District again to our night's guest house on the banks of the River Eden near Penrith. Sitting out on the balcony watching the river flow past, glass of vino in hand and a RAF tornado tore overhead at what seemed like rooftop height and almost gave me a cardiac arrest. Nice place to watch the sun go down and compare and contrast the array of conservatories belonging to the houses on the other side of the river. One place seems to be flouting the local building by laws with a conservatory attached to a conservatory attached to a conservatory like Russian dolls.

An hour ago I fell heavily for a wee place on the shore of Ullswater with the sartorial sounding name of Watermillock. I decided then and there to return to live there for a year when I retire in a cottage with two dogs...and Nell too of course. (She has just seen an otter in the river but on more rigorous examination it turned out to be a Labrador!...myopia must make life so much more surprising.

Our Whitby home was the Youth Hostel which was the old cliff top abbey house of the now ruined, but still spectacular, Whitby Abbey. Those monks lived in style! 199 steps below (I almost inadvertently drove the car down them) the narrow alleys of old Whitby town seemed unchanged from Captain Cook's time. The pub we holed up in for supper was right on harbour edge and dated from 1569. We were served a very ave breakfast by two women who looked like old nuns and behaved like boarding house matrons. Any sneaky attempts to take more than the prescribed allocation would bring one or other of them scurrying from the kitchen glaring malevolently. But the morning was cloudless and warm and the town looked a picture spread out below us. the locals kept saying summer had finally arrived. Perhaps we have been lucky as we have had mostly sunny days.

On Friday we caught up with Matthew and Molly who are cycling the Way of the Roses from one coast to the other. We had a great dinner at No. 8 restaurant and swapped tales of our adventures so far. We will see them again in a few days in London. We checked out the cathedral the next day and I spent a few hours at the National Railway Museum (trains being one of my 'things') which was superb....some great engines on display from Stephenson's Rocket to the current day. Nell disappointed the York City Gallery is closed til 2014.

On our way to Whitby, we made a foray deep into the Yorkshire Moors by steam train. With great scenery and restored old trains of various types which you could hop on and off at will at carefully preserved stations in quaint little villages. It was heaven on earth for me. At one place we walked through the 'Hole of Horcom', a ravine cutting though an ancient volcanic crater. We came close to missing the train as for a while we were lost after attempting a shortcut across country and floundering about in the heather like Heathcliff and Cathy. Fortunately it was not a misty day or we might still be out there.

In the morning it's back to Carlisle to return our trusty VW Golf then the train to London!