Whitby and Staithes

..I left the magic of La Rosa after long chats with Amanda and braved the driveway to get on the road to Whitby. Here I discovered the Magpie Cafe and dived in for some fish and chips. Delicious. Scores of day trippers stood around outside pushing great succulent white battered flakes of cod and haddock into their traps. I more or less picked up the whole piece of fish with both hands and just sort of launched it at my face, Louis Winthorpe style.

I waddled off to see what I else I could discover and was amazed at how many people were rocking the rocker look. I'd always heard that this was Goth central but was still surprised to see really old men with flat caps donning Cradle of Filth t-shirts...well, I like to think it said Cradle of Filth but, on reflection, maybe it was AC/DC.

Caffs are everywhere in Whitby and. Teas n Tarts was full of really solid rock buns and tired Battenberg. A dejected looking cherry cake with a dull square of cling-film resting on top might very well have been sitting there for some years. How would anyone know? But there are also lots of great looking restaurants and shops. Justin's chocolate shop is a Rocky Horror of a place - all dark and gilded, bursting with obscenely large truffles and strawberry fondant 'coffins' and Green's has a delicious sounding menu.

The wind was pretty chilly and I had plenty more uppy downy in Jimmy to overcome before supper so I got back on the road. Not the most direct way of going about things but down I went to Robin Hood's Bay, then back up to Staithes - birthplace of Captain Cook. A couple of kids came banging on the van wanting an ice cream and I couldn't resist getting out the camera...