A much shorter post to mop up the things that I forgot to put in my 1st!
- In East Sussex in April we found that the birds sang all through the night – bizarre!
- There are numerous red kites – we saw them everywhere 🙂
- Most beaches along the East Coast (once you’re in East Anglia and beyond) are sandy.
- And most of them are absolutely spectacular
- Some people are incredibly – shall we say daft? Watching parents standing right on the edge of cliffs with their young children…. just so they can get a selfie, was quite distressing
- We learned more about the civil war of the 17th Century, and Oliver Cromwell; mainly through our visit to Ely where we found a house that Cromwell and his family had lived in for some time.
Oliver Cromwell’s House, Ely
Ely Cathedral- We learned that Hull is definitely worth a visit; as is Newcastle
- We found numerous cliff railways and funiculars, including one that is still powered by water at Saltburn by the Sea. Scarborough had 5, 2 of which are still in operation
Filling the water, Saltburn by the Sea funicular
Saltburn by the Sea Funicular station
- There are so many heritage railways in operation – mostly operated by volunteers. Even the prices don’t put people off riding them… The North Yorks Moors steam railway is really rather expensive, but all the trains we saw were packed. This may have something to do with the fact that Goathland, the 2nd stop on the line, is otherwise known as Hogwarts Station, or even Aidensfield 🙂
- Attractions are well visited. People are definitely getting out and about enjoying what this country has to offer
- It seems that it’s never too early to get your kids starting to trek up mountains; when we went up to Roseberry Topping we encountered a couple with a 1 year old in a back pack!
- If you look up when encountering sheer hills or mountainsides it’s possible you’ll see a few specks up there – climbers!
- The Angel of the North is huge. And really rather impressive
- There were very few towns that we were disappointed to have wasted our time visiting, but there were dozens that we absolutely loved and several that we will definitely return to. I will deal with all of this in a separate ‘favourites’ post.
- There are some amazing unsung heroes from recent history who saved much of interest for the public, or simply created areas, buildings or follies that are still of interest today – John Clayton who ensured that Hadrian’s Wall was not dismantled any further; William Armstrong who was an prolific inventor, who built Cragside in Northumberland, the 1st house in the country to be powered by hydro-electricity; ‘Mad Jack’ Fuller who built the Brightling Follies and also bought Bodiam Castle to save it from destruction.
- Seals bark like dogs – we discovered this when visiting Lindisfarne. We could hear the noise and found out it was a colony of seals on the other side of an offshore islet
- The weather at home (on the South Coast) is generally better than what is being experienced further north…
- However, this doesn’t actually mean that the weather further north is unpleasant. We had some really lovely days. It was just generally at least 5 degrees (centigrade) warmer at home!!
- It is possible to camp at a reasonable price just a short train ride from the centre of London (Kelseys, Sidcup)
- The coastline is constantly changing. Various towns are disappearing at varying rates and Spurn Head changes yearly – the road here has been pretty much given up on!
The disappearing coastline in the East of England (Yorkshire)
Cycling across the sandy causeway to Spurn Head at low tide- And finally, we discovered how much we love travelling and that we will, at some point, pick up where we left off in the UK – with everything else we want to do though this trip may be a few years away 🙂
turnrightoutofportsmouth 