We more-or-less drove straight down to the beach and had a quick wander around. Not a lot to see but what we saw suited us and we wouldn’t rule out a stay in the area in the future as some of the clifftop places looked interesting and probably had lovely views.

The beach was sandy and barren, with a flat North Sea to look out on. It may look uninviting but these sorts of wide open views always appeal to me. As a bonus my wife’s eagle eyes spotted a starfish in the sand.

Away from the sands of Skegness beach we took a nose around some of the nearby amusement park and surroundings. Again, while it may look downbeat, barren, and grimy there was still none of that unwelcoming feel that only Blackpool has ever visited upon us when we hit our coastal towns and cities.

We ended up using a Park and Ride bus to get into the city from the outskirts and this set us up very close to Clifford’s Tower, the keep area of what was York Castle. We’re quite fond of a castle as any search through our travel photos from the United Kingdom especially will show you so we immediately headed for this one and headed inside as well as, of course, up.

We hit the Jorvik Viking Centre next as we’ve got an interest in history and my wife’s genealogy appears to include some viking heritage in it. It was interesting but very busy with schoolkids when we visited. From there we had more of a general walk around York taking in a nose around The Shambles where souvenirs of the trip were bought and taking photos of some of the more interesting-looking sights in the city; I particularly liked the city wall. We had intended to visit the cathedral but our general rule of thumb when it comes to cathedrals is to donate at or above the suggested donation level after visiting but we refuse to go in any that demand an entry fee especially when it’s marked as a donation for tax purposes and a suggestion for legal reasons but you don’t get the option to refuse.

We popped into the Leeds Gallery next, mainly because one of us needed to pee. This gave us the opportunity for a bit of a look around (no photos though) and a quick stop to hydrate and grab a snack in the café. We were quite impressed with the tilework and general decorations of it.

We followed that up with a visit to the very good Leeds Museum (in a separate post) and with our cultural quotient filled we proceeded to explore the Yorkshire city on foot. As with a lot of big, old cities up north, away from much of the flattening that took place during World War 2, the architecture was fabulous and on a grand scale. Leeds city centre looked to be a quite well-to-do place, full of interesting shops and plenty of indoor shopping arcades.

One section of the pedestrianised shopping precinct in Leeds seemed to be popular with street entertainers including a Morris dancing side. We’ve got a soft spot for the traditions of the Morris so we stayed and watched for a little while, enjoying the interactions with other people.

Religious buildings were dotted around the city, as you’d expect.

Our walk back to the car park after we’d finished with nosing around some of the shops and stopping for a drink took us through more rundown, more modern streets and styles of architecture. There were still some gems among the bland buildings and even a few pieces of sculpture to punctuate that there was still some pride in these more industrialised areas.

A highlight of the trip was getting spotted with my camera by a local guy who then proceeded to pose and asked me to take a photo of him showing off his muscles. A little bit of street portraiture is absolutely fine with me so I was happy to oblige with a shot of this Leeds chap, whoever he was.

As part of our short visit to Leeds in 2011 we visited the Leeds City Museum. When museums allow you to take photos then I generally do so and this was no exception. Expecting little more than a history of Yorkshire through the ages we were pleasantly surprised to find there was a significantly wider range of items on show covering a wide range of historical periods and cultural topics.

Many museums often run an exhibition, of course, and on the day we visited the exhibition at Leeds Museum was one dedicated to the Spice Girls. To be perfectly clear, we did not visit the museum specifically to see the Spice Girls exhibition. That said, it was very good, featuring shoes and clothes they’d worn, media coverage, dolls, etc.

In March of 2011 we drove from Wakefield to York for the morning, then carried on to Whitby to spend the afternoon. Our first action upon reaching the town was to head towards the imposing ruins of Whitby Abbey on the East Cliff overlooking the place.

A car park is located about 200 metres before the entrance to the abbey and approach on foot is along a narrow lane with views over the wall and across a small lake (or large pond) to the nearby historical site.

Whitby Abbey is run by English Heritage and you can see the opening times and admission prices here: Whitby Abbey Prices and Opening Times. After paying you’re free to explore the grounds of the abbey and get up close to the ruins of the building.

Originally a Christian monastery and then a Benedictine abbey the stone structure was stripped of its religious title in 1540 by King Henry VIII and fell into ruin. Despite taking further damage during shelling by German battlecruisers near the start of the First World War what remains of Whitby Abbey is still an impressive sight on the wild, North Sea headland.

In truth, though, there isn’t an awful lot to actually do at the abbey. Some of the building’s remaining architecture does have an appeal but other than providing some views over the Yorkshire coastline there isn’t a huge amount to see. This, though, might be one of those places where the weather can play an important role. As you can tell, it was very overcast when we visited and also windy with occasional spitting rain, and while this did lend the location an air of imposing menace it also removed any opportunity to simply sit and enjoy the place or take a picnic if you were so inclined.

Anyway, sometimes I’d go for a drive, sometimes I’d go for a walk, but if the weather wasn’t particularly good then I’d often just head towards Chichester Cross with camera in hand and I’d take photos of the people going about their business in the city. I wouldn’t necessarily call the photography I did street photography, but I suppose it was of a sort.

The following pictures were all taken on various days in February and March of 2011, on rainy days, on days when all the varied umbrellas came out on display. Umbrellas with stars, with swirls, patterned, plain, striped, dotted, and tartan.

Now, Chichester has a college and a university and a vibrant art student scene, so that’s one possibility: that this was an art show of some description.

But Chichester is also a hotbed of cults. You won’t find much mention of Chichester’s cult scene on the web because that’s how good they are at covering up cult activity. But every cult needs a publicity drive of some sort; something to say to the young people “Come, look how great everything is! We want to be your friends! Join us!” You might be thinking, “Well, yeah, Mark, I can buy that, but if this was not a real wedding but a ceremony designed to pull in people to the cult then why weren’t you approached?” and to that I’d like to draw your attention once more to that fact that everyone here looks happy and young and pretty.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a wedding photographer in and around Chichester in West Sussex then clearly you’ll need to find someone who’s not me unless you’re going for that back-of-the-head vibe I favour.

It was cloudy and threatening to rain when we first reached Whitby so we had a very short stroll before finding a pub and treating ourselves to some fish and chips, which was lovely, and a pint each of Old Peculier, which was not. I don’t know if they still do it up in Yorkshire, but at the time we visited they used a widget to create a “creamflow” feel to literally every single drink they poured. This had the effect of making everything taste silky smooth and all very similar, while also maintaining a head on the beer all the way to the bottom of the glass. Old Peculier should never have a head on it. It was an abomination.

The late afternoon weather was far better after we’d finished our lunch and we wandered around Whitby, more-or-less aimlessly.

One of the attractions at Whitby is the Whalebone Arch. Before the arrival of gas and electric lighting, whale oil was a prized commodity and a large whaling fleet operated out of Whitby. Fortunately for the whales the practice died out once humanity realised it could endanger an entire planet with its search for resources rather than just limit itself to one species.

Many years after this visit to Whitby we would take a cruise down to the Falkland Islands where a whalebone arch with four jaw bones was on display in Stanley, so there.

Whitby also has an association with Captain James Cook, hence the statue of him there too. Cook’s first experience of sailing came after moving to Whitby in his late teens and becoming involved in the coal transportation business. When he later in life explored the world on HMS Endeavour, the ship had formerly been a collier’s vessel built in Whitby as well.

While we didn’t do a lot in Whitby itself other than moan about the state of the beer we’d had, we’d enjoyed the abbey and seen a few museums around that on a day with some more time to explore we’d have liked to have visited. We’re always going to like seaside towns anyway (no, not you, Blackpool) so this is a place worthy of a return trip at some point.