Whitby, in Yorkshire, has sea, seagulls, kippers, and steam trains. You really can't go wrong with that combination...

We stayed at the Captain's Cottage, right at the end of Henrietta Street. The location and the sea views were excellent.





What to do (in no particular order):

1. Walk the little town, which is terribly pretty. Tramp the steep, cobbled, narrow streets, where tidy brick houses huddle together quaintly; window-shop (or really shop) for Whitby jet, or Dracula memorabilia, or traditional confectionery; do a round of the twin jetties in the teeth of a brisk easterly, crossing the old swing bridge over the river; do this lots more times, because it will all look different at different times of the day and in different weather; climb up to Cook's statue, and survey the sweep of the bay; and climb up to the Church of St Mary, either by way of the famed 199 steps or by the much quieter Caedmon's Trod, admire the three-decker pulpit, and imagine what services must be like for the boxed-in parishioners.















2. Relish the sea. Listen for its swoosh at night; watch it hurl itself against the jetties or the beach; and let the cry of the seagulls -- now whooping, now keening -- take you right back to childhood...





3. Take in the history. Visit the ruined abbey, which is especially impressive under moody, leaden skies; learn about Captain Cook from his Memorial Museum; and admire the (possibly) oldest pier in the world.









4. Enjoy the seafood. Sample a couple of versions of fish, chips, and mushy peas (I really liked the one where they give you bread and butter to make chip butties with; dine at Sara's Mister Chips (I loved the cod in a parmesan crust, served with a light cheese sauce and mussels); and try some of Fortune's kipper pate.







5. Enjoy all the other kinds of Yorkshire food available. The chips are hand-cut and chunky up there; mushy peas, which I adore, pop up everywhere, as does gravy; the Yorkshire puddings come in giant size; the ice-cream is rich and creamy. It's wonderful, homely fare.

6. Ride the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to Pickering and back. If you study the timetable carefully, you can get steam each way. The scenery is glorious, mixing dingly dells, gentle farmland, and wild moorland. The little stations are beautifully kept. And the whole steam-train experience is, to me, inimitably nostalgic: the ghostly swirl of the steam in the tunnel; the gossamer veil that it oh-so-transiently trails through the trees; the panting of the engine; the smell of the clinker...











7. Explore Pickering's Beck Isle Museum of Rural Life. This does what it does extremely well. It is very focused, concentrating very much on local life and personages. And it is rigorously thematic, exploring printing (with a wonderfully decorated "Columbian" press), photography, miniature-making, and other crafts and skills in some detail. There were many moving tales, but I have to single out Phyllis and Feather... Phyllis is a battered but alert-looking teddy-bear, who appeared at the museum, Paddington-like, with a written request to be taken care of now that her "mother" had died. Feather is a humble rag-doll, and her note just expressed the desire to stay with Phyllis...





8. Walk the Cleveland Way from Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay. To the left, crashing blue sea, a variety of cliff constructions, and hundreds of seagulls; to the right, lush green fields, plump farm animals, squat little churches, and the sound of larks and blackbirds. At Robin Hood's Bay you can have pulled pork at the Victoria Hotel at the top of the headland, accompanied by a nice glass of cider; walk along the promenade-topped sea-wall to the lower village (which regularly lost houses to the ravening ocean until the advent of said sea-wall); explore the National Trust's Old Coastguard Station; and climb back up the stonking big hill to the bus-stop, whence you can return, on the top deck, to Whitby.















9. Visit Scarborough. This is a Victorian seaside town, beautifully strung out along two big bays, separated from each other by a headland and a ruined castle. Mine was a whistle-stop tour only, as we needed to head home. But earlier in the week, Nigel and his parents spent a very pleasant day here.











10. Make the most of the scones and wifi at the Whistlestop Cafe, by Whitby station. As we had endless trouble with our mobile Internet, and I still had a couple of days' work to do, this friendly place turned into a real godsend. You can have scones with raisins or scones with cherries, and if you're there at lunchtime, they'll do you a big fat shepherd's pie.

Of course, a week doesn't remotely do justice to Whitby and environs. Leaving plenty to do next time.