After breakfast at the Little Chef (or Little Chief as Jess calls it) we headed to Whitby. We saw the bridge at the mouth of the inner harbour open to let a trawler through, then we drove up to the Abbey on the south cliff and watched a ship come in to the harbour through the narrow channel. We drove back over to the north cliff and saw the statue of Captain Cook and some whale bones. The Captain Cook museum was closed. We had lunch at Cook's Galley - a little cafe.

We then drove toward Pickering and took a turnoff to a village (looking for Heartbeat locations) - down a very steep and winding hill. On our way back up we had to stop for a car )it was a single track of course) and then we couldn't go forward - the road was too steep and slippery. We had to back down the hill and start again.

Pickering Castle was very impressive - the motte and bailey well preserved.

Rievaulx Abbey was absolutely amazing. King Henry VIII has a lot to answer for. The abbey even had a sanitation system (of sorts). it was very extensive in its day, supporting 140 monks. The church was HUGE!

Helmsley Castle was interesting, and it was in a really quaint village (so was Pickering).

After that we drove on lots of motorways down to Holyhead, arriving at about 9.30pm, having left Helmsley at 4pm and stopping off for petrol and a burger on the motorway. We then parked in the ferry lineup..... and slept in the car ......