FULL ENGLISH; Ales, Dales and Blackpool rock! BLACKPOOL, WHITBY, SCARBOROUGH AND THE SEAHOUSES

Oh how I love to be beside the seaside!

Blackpool, Whitby, Scarborough and the Seahouses

 

 

We were lucky to have some amazing weather for our two days in the seaside city of Blackpool!! We wandered along the promenade and up and down the piers, taking in the sights and sounds of the exciting place.

 

 The North Pier

 

The South Pier

 

 

The beach looked lovely on the warm day we had!

 

 
 

 

The Blackpool Tower stands at 500 feet high and really stands out from anywhere you are in the city.

 

Fish and Chips at the beach just had to be done! It was a perfect night for it too!

 

 

We just had to have Blackpool Rock while we were in Blackpool!!

 

 

 

We had a day at the seaside when we visited Whitby and Scarborough. The sun came out and made for a lovely day at the two popular tourist towns.

We wandered around the Marina and down the pier at Whitby.

 

 

 The Marina

 A Scampi shack, selling local seafood

The old, historical town of Whitby

A view up to the pier

 

 

The big stretch of beach at Whitby went on forever and had a lovely backdrop of rolling hills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a 30 minute boat ride out to sea, and heard all about Captain Cook and his venture from Whitby around the world including Australia! Our boat was a replica of the boat Captain Cook used, however was half the size.

 

 
 

 
 

Next was the seaside town of Scarborough. We wandered down the promenade, which was bustling with families enjoying the weekend.

 

 
 

 
 

We stopped by the fair and the Ferris wheel looked lovely against the bright blue sunny sky!

 

We wandered back through the main town, full of lovely shops. We even spotted a chocolate kebab!

 

 Scarborough's main shopping street

Chocolate Shwarma!

 

 

 

The Seahouses is a great place to take a boat trip to the Farne Islands.  Unfortunately we just missed the last boat trip, however still had a nice wander around and an ice cream!

 

 

 

 The Seahouses main street

 The Boat Harbour

 The Pier

 

 

 

 

 

FULL ENGLISH; Ales, Dales and Blackpool rock! THE LAKE DISTRICT

The Lake District

We stayed in the beautiful Keswick while visiting the Lake District. This lovely little town was filled with traditional pubs, shops selling souvenirs and hiking gear and classy restaurants. The gardens here were very peaceful and filled with lovely plants.

 The boat landing at Lake Derwent



The Gardens in Keswick

 

 

While in Keswick, we took a day trip out to Buttermere, a lovely little town with the Buttermere lake, which you walk around in about 2 hours. The scenery here was beautiful and it made for a lovely day out.

 

 

We had to climb at least one Fell or Crag while visiting the Lake District, so we chose Walla Crag. At 1243 feet high, this crag was quite tough and took about 1.5 hours up hill. The climb was completely worth it once we saw the view!! (We also had a lovely Cornish pasty to look forward to at the top...)

 A panoramic view from the top of Walla Crag

 

Thanks a million for the Guinness and gift of the gab Ireland!

Dublin - (20^th - 21^st May)

We arrived into Dublin and explored the city the best we could, in the one day we had in the city. We started at the River Liffey and visited the famous Ha'penny bridge.

We made our way through Temple Bar, passing many traditional looking pubs on the way.

 Temple Bar

 

We obviously had to stop and try a Guinness while we were in Dublin...

A pint of Guinness

 

Inside the pub

 

 

We wandered around the beautiful Trinity College in Dublin. The gardens were lush and the buildings very impressive.

 
 

 
 

We visited a crypt which was underground an old church. We were told interesting stories and even got to shake hands with one of the crusaders!

 Walking through the Crypts

 Looking inside, at the coffins

The three mummies and one crusader at the back

 

The spear definitely stands out in this beautiful city and was very impressive.

We loved Dublin and the very friendly people here.

Cork (22^nd - 23^rd May)

 

We began our visit in Cork with a wander around the beautiful University College Cork. Once again, this university had beautiful lush gardens and the buildings were very traditional.

 

We obviously needed to stop for a pint of Murphy's in Cork – being the traditional drink here.

 

Visiting the Blarney Castle was a must while in Cork!  We made our way here by bus.

 

 

 

 The river running through the entrance garden of the castle

Our first glimpse of the castle was very impressive!

 

 

 

The castle itself was very impressive and interesting and we had to kiss the stone!!

 Looking down into the castle, from the top

 

 People waiting for their turn to kiss the stone!

 

Andrew kissing the stone!

 

Me kissing the stone!

 

 

We wandered around the rock close , taking in the eerie feel this garden had. The mystic stories dotted around about the witch made this walk very interesting.

 The Witches cave...

The Witches Stone, which creepily looks like a witch on the right hand side of the rock...

 

There are various walks you can take throughout the Blarney Castle grounds. We took a lovely walk around a river which was very nice, especially on the lovely day we had! We even spotted a horse and her new baby!  We found the Castle and it's gardens to be very impressive.