Whitby weekend

This weekend I'd arrange to meet my friend Sylvia and her husband in Whitby.  The four of us have lunch together every couple of months but this time we decided to take in the Queen Bee Quilt Show inWhitby with lunch.   On Friday Keith announced that he thought it would be a good idea to go down a day early and have some relaxation time before the show.  I quickly booked us accommodation in a pub in the old town of Whitby and shoved some overnight stuff in a bag and we left.   It was a glorious ride over the moors, the weather had been beautiful for some time now but it looked as though we could have rain soon.   In case of rain we packed waterproofs, sweaters and boots.   Naturally it was a heat wave...

We had to park the car down near the harbour as there isn't any parking in the old part of Whitby.  The old part is typical fishing village type with narrow winding, cobbled streets with alleyways (snickles) leading off to other narrow, winding, cobbled streets.  When we found the pub I was delighted to see that it was the one photographed to use in my 'Green Door' journal page for the Contemporary Quilters challenge in 2008.

We were at the top of the pub, some three storeys high again fairly typical burgerage type properties with narrow fronts leading to long narrow buildings behind.  We looked down on Church Street and across to the Butter Market whose bell rang every hour!!  We decided to walk down to the pier before finding some food but we left things a bit late as all the restaurants, cafes and pubs stopped serving food around 9pm.  It had been such a lovely evening we'd lost track of time.  Even though it was getting late there was still a queue of people waiting to be served at the famous Magpie cafe.  Unfortunately they had bookings, we didn't so we settled for fish and chips from the local chippie, which were delicious.  A stray cat also enjoyed some of our 

fish as did the seagulls. 

We checked the car in the morning to see how many parcels the seagulls had left us and found none, much to Keith's relief.   The small fishing boats were just heading out with customers for some fishing.

We had a couple of hours to spare before meeting and pottered round Whitby looking at the shops and up the winding alleyways to our hearts content.

Naturally you can't come to Whitby and not see the 199 steps up to St Mary's Church and Whitby abbey or the whalebone arch

at the top of the West Cliff. 

By now the temperature was rising and we were really feeling the heat.  Some people had the right idea and were swimming in the river.

It always amazes me that flowers can grow in some of the most unrewarding surfaces.  We saw these blooming on the sides of the steps leading down to the beach near the pier in the photo above.

We headed off to the pier for an ice cream and a drink before going to the quilt show.  Now I like piers but have the parts that are planked as I'm always afraid they'll move and I'll fall through.  Seeing the sea below always makes me feel a bit dizzy so I avoid them. They do however give me ideas for designs.

The quilt show was small but really interesting and all the quilts and wallhangings were really beautiful and very well made.  There were a few traders so naturally I had to buy more fabric.  I bought three Jelly Rolls, I know I wasn't going to buy any more but I just love the colours when they are altogether like that.  I have absolutely zero resistance.  Wendy and I spent a couple of lovely hours browsing, purchasing and talking to old friends.  However the heat in the hall became unbearable to us and two hours was as much as we could cope with.  We met up with the boys and set off to walk down the cliff side to enjoy a lovely lunch of, yep you've guessed - fish and chips.  Nowhere does fish and chips as good as Whitby.