Sherlock's Coffee House

It's a rainy, cloudy day in Paris, fitting for finishing up The Hound of the Baskervilles (which I just did) and sharing some photos of the cutest little place we discovered in Whitby.

I caught a glimpse of that familiar Sherlockian profile on a sign while walking up the street, and I knew it was a place we needed to visit.  The atmosphere was all you could hope for, and the food was so delicious that at the time we visited, they only accepted cash.  K.J. said  you a knew a place had good food if they deny you the convenience of a debit card.  It's probably worth walking to the ATM.  

I was sold when I saw the violin. 

There was hot chocolate with marshmallows and milk for the kids, and the pancakes and bacon got the Ella seal of approval.  I had a delicious coffee and egg...I was going to say McMuffin, but of course it wasn't that exactly.

I highly recommend going for breakfast or brunch like we did.

It felt every inch a Victorian-era boarding house.

"...the only safe plotter

was he who plotted alone."

- The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 

Whitby

I always love remembering "what we were doing this time last year," and this year that means remembering a lovely get-a-way we had on the North Yorkshire coast during the Easter holidays.  You might notice that beach attire in North Yorkshire is a little different from your typical American spring break.

We met a lovely couple last year who own a bed and breakfast in Whitby, and they invited us to visit for a few days.  The Birdhouse was so peaceful and relaxing, and we enjoyed getting to know Doug and Hillary so much.  This was my first week dealing with the now infamous "glass in the foot" episode, so the first day we arrived I wasn't able to go walking with K.J. and the kids.  I was really disappointed, but I had a good book and a cup of tea and a view of Whitby Abbey in the distance, so who could ask for anything more?  Besides not experiencing stabbing pains when walking, of course. 

Let's just take a moment to marvel at how the sun changes everything.  Our first full day in Whitby was brilliant in every way.  Walking on the sand ended up being really hard on my foot, but we had so much fun looking for sea glass and pottery washed up from the North Sea.  All the rocks were so unique and colorful, too.

 

The biggest gamble in any British holiday is the weather, but apart from one very wet excursion into Northumberland we usually had at least one magnificent day on our trips.  Maybe they were just normal sunny days, but when scattered amidst cloudy days, the sunny days always felt special.

As someone who grew up with Alabama and Florida beaches, I'm always struck by green fields running up to the sea, the ocean to one side and cows grazing on the other side of the street.  The gorse was blooming beautifully.

This was my first chance to explore the streets of Whitby, which I did until my foot couldn't take it anymore, and I called K.J. to pick me up.  It was such a delight.  Take this punny name:

There are many charming shops in Whitby, but any exploring I do is always going to be of the book-browsing variety.  The Whitby Bookshop is your place for beautiful new books, items of local interest, bookish gifts, and lots of charm.  There's nothing so charming as a spiral staircase in a bookstore.

This shop had the most amazing prices on Usborne Illustrated Classics.  A book I'd spent 20 pounds on at Christmas was in here for 8 pounds.  Funny story, I accidentally shoplifted at this shop.  I was holding a book I was debating on buying.  I decided against it but forgot to put it back on the shelf and made it all the way to the bottom of the 199 Steps before looking down and realizing I was holding a book I hadn't paid for.  I walked as quickly as I could back to the shop, nonchalantly strolled inside and put it back on the shelf before exiting quietly.

This was the place to find second-hand treasures, my favorite kind.

Books I Didn't Buy

Whitby really became a place we loved on this trip.  I highly recommend it.

"Every young man's story should have a bookshop."

- Matthew Pearl, The Last Bookaneer -

Seaside

We are at the tail-end of the Easter Holidays here in North Yorkshire.  Since early words and associations hold so much meaning in your life it wasn't until I switched over to calling it Spring Break that I felt that thrill of freedom and fun.  Spring Break!  And thanks to some new friends who opened their home to us, we even got to do the quintessential spring break thing and go to the beach, or as they say here, the seaside.

I've been really aware lately of what a difference the sun makes, turning a very grey world into one of such vivid color.  For example...

It's still beautiful, of course, just a lot more grey and brown, though all the better for seeing James's bright orange bucket.  I was also thinking this week about how in the heat of a sunny, Alabama summer, I longed for the rainy days.  I longed to see the clouds darken the sky and hear the thunder in the distance because it meant relief from the relentless heat and a sense of coziness in our home.  There's an opposite mindset here:  The sun is out!  Hurry! Get outside now!  

We had such a good time hunting for sea glass and walking on the beach.  The three days we had away were only marred by my getting a killer case of plantar fasciitis in my left foot, which I had back in the fall but returned with a vengeance after I wore flat shoes with no support for a week.  I hobbled along on the inside of my foot because when my arch hit the ground a stabbing pain would go shooting through my foot.  Ugh.  I'm trying to stay off it as much as possible, do lots of calf stretches, ice it, and take ibuprofen, and I think it's improving.  But hey, forced rest and all of that.

On Wednesday we drove to another coastal town we last visited with Parker Windle two years ago, Robin Hood's Bay.  There was some beautiful scenery along the way, as you can see.

I love those patches of bright yellow in the midst of the green this time of year.  Farewell, Whitby!  You were a good place for some spring break fun.