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Bridlington Holiday
Oct. 23rd, 2023 01:41 pm I try to take my mother away for a week in October: overpayment to my energy company usually results in a surplus big enough to pay for a caravan for a week. She's bad with heat and cold and crowds so October is a good bet for some pleasant autumnal weather. Two of my children (the third lives in Japan ) like to come along to Mum's random holidays in towns they've never heard of so it's a three generation outing.
My inability to get a doctor's appointment to establish my fitness to drive meant that middle daughter had to do all the driving so we set off in my ex-husband's car- loaned so we could all fit into one vehicle with luggage-to collect my mother before driving to the opposite coast. Middle daughter insists on using a sat nav voiced by Snoop Dog for even short journeys I think she really ought to know without help. so as usual our outing started with me disagreeing with the sat nav: we don't want to go south. We want to go north to Harrowgate. Snoop Dog insisted on the M62, though and did get us there.
We've explored around Whitby and Hornsea/Hull previous holidays so I chose a place near Bridlington this time so we could tick off the places in the middle of Yorkshire's East coast.
Bridlington had a promenade about two miles long and a land train which went from one end to the other which was great fun. It had lots of booths selling coffee and ice creams, shells and seafood. It was definitely an up market seaside town as coffee from the booth we selected came in a large china mug. We liked it very much.
Our first visit was to Sewersby Hall, now council owned so it concentrated on how the servants' lived with an Amy Johnson exhibit upstairs. Some of the grounds were given over to a small 'zoo': mainly aviaries including penguins, they had the oldest Humboldt penguin in captivity and farm animals. We obediently stood in front of each information board and spotted what was in each enclosure then explored the gardens which I loved. The walled garden was full of topiary and they had planted the old kitchen beds with single colour, single species which gave a very dramatic effect. It was full of butterflies too. The paving was rough so the kids allowed me out of my wheelchair to walk as there were plenty of benches to rest on. A smaller walled garden was an old-fashioned rose garden, past its best in October but still full of colour and scent. One of the nicest gardens I've ever visited. The woodland walk was good, too, with lots of carved wooden things to spot
Flamborough Head was next. Nice light house but no signposted walks. Son borrowed my camera and made it down the steep paths to the beach to photograph the seals. I sat on a bench with Mum and watched the waves. An excellent café with above average cakes.
Burton Agnes, a stately home dating from the Elizabethan era. Lots of large intricately carved wooden mantelpieces and panelling and the obligatory Chinese room. It was less accessible than Sewersby, but I ditched the wheelchair and made it up the grand wooden (polished ) staircase, although coming down was fun(not). I did it backwards, clinging to the ornate spindles- the hand rail was too wide for my hand to grip- as I have no shame. There were great gardens here, too. The walled garden was still a working kitchen garden, presumably supplying the cafe and gourds for Halloween decorations. Halloween was obviously going to be a big thing as they already had large furry spiders placed in trees. Behind the kitchen garden were a series of small courtyard gardens, each containing a different outdoor game. We played draughts (badly as I couldn't remember the moves allowed), quoits, skipped the chess, noughts and crosses then - my favourite- snakes and ladders with the board painted onto flags and the players the pieces. I span the moves and took great pleasure in watching son and daughter climb the ladders and move down the snakes. They were really well laid out and I can imagine they would be a great attraction for geeky kids like mine were and a good way of getting the year round visitors and repeat visitors these places need to survive.
Back to Bridlington for the last couple of days to look at the old town, the jail in the gatehouse to the Priory and the Priory itself as we wanted to compare it to the Priory in my village which was almost exactly the same age. The windows were much more impressive but it was about the same size and similar architecture- although ours has fewer memorials and a greater Norse influence. There was also a small museum concentrating on sailing and the local lifeboats which inexplicably fascinated daughter. I think her new boss might be in my village lifeboat crew and she will discuss East vs West coast with him.
A great holiday. I am very lucky that everyone in my family likes to be busy and to visit new places so the discussions are more in which order we will visit things and how far we will walk before we stop at a cafe for Mum: she was probably walking a couple of miles a day with us which is good for her but we didn't want her to over do it. The offspring liked me safely contained in a wheelchair although they would usually let me out if I wanted to do something, the exception being to go down the harbour steps to get aboard the pirate ship offering short sails up and down the bay.
Our last night was enlivened by Storm Babette but the weather was much better outside than it sounded inside. Snoop Dog took us home the way I thought he should apart from taking every ratrun short cut available. We had no problems until we were nearly at Mum's when the main road was closed and he refused to calculate a new route avoiding it. We followed the diversion signs until we reached the triumphant ' diversion ends' notice at a small crossroads reached through flooded roads, signposted only to small villages with Snoop Dog shouting at us to turn round and go back to the closed road. We consulted Google Maps and worked out how to get to a place I knew the way to Mum's from. We had to drive through more flooded roads but reached it and Snoop Dog finally reset himself when no longer needed. We dropped Mum off, preventing her from rummaging through boxes to find and give us things we didn't want and fled up the road to Cumbria..
All in all an excellent break.
My inability to get a doctor's appointment to establish my fitness to drive meant that middle daughter had to do all the driving so we set off in my ex-husband's car- loaned so we could all fit into one vehicle with luggage-to collect my mother before driving to the opposite coast. Middle daughter insists on using a sat nav voiced by Snoop Dog for even short journeys I think she really ought to know without help. so as usual our outing started with me disagreeing with the sat nav: we don't want to go south. We want to go north to Harrowgate. Snoop Dog insisted on the M62, though and did get us there.
We've explored around Whitby and Hornsea/Hull previous holidays so I chose a place near Bridlington this time so we could tick off the places in the middle of Yorkshire's East coast.
Bridlington had a promenade about two miles long and a land train which went from one end to the other which was great fun. It had lots of booths selling coffee and ice creams, shells and seafood. It was definitely an up market seaside town as coffee from the booth we selected came in a large china mug. We liked it very much.
Our first visit was to Sewersby Hall, now council owned so it concentrated on how the servants' lived with an Amy Johnson exhibit upstairs. Some of the grounds were given over to a small 'zoo': mainly aviaries including penguins, they had the oldest Humboldt penguin in captivity and farm animals. We obediently stood in front of each information board and spotted what was in each enclosure then explored the gardens which I loved. The walled garden was full of topiary and they had planted the old kitchen beds with single colour, single species which gave a very dramatic effect. It was full of butterflies too. The paving was rough so the kids allowed me out of my wheelchair to walk as there were plenty of benches to rest on. A smaller walled garden was an old-fashioned rose garden, past its best in October but still full of colour and scent. One of the nicest gardens I've ever visited. The woodland walk was good, too, with lots of carved wooden things to spot
Flamborough Head was next. Nice light house but no signposted walks. Son borrowed my camera and made it down the steep paths to the beach to photograph the seals. I sat on a bench with Mum and watched the waves. An excellent café with above average cakes.
Burton Agnes, a stately home dating from the Elizabethan era. Lots of large intricately carved wooden mantelpieces and panelling and the obligatory Chinese room. It was less accessible than Sewersby, but I ditched the wheelchair and made it up the grand wooden (polished ) staircase, although coming down was fun(not). I did it backwards, clinging to the ornate spindles- the hand rail was too wide for my hand to grip- as I have no shame. There were great gardens here, too. The walled garden was still a working kitchen garden, presumably supplying the cafe and gourds for Halloween decorations. Halloween was obviously going to be a big thing as they already had large furry spiders placed in trees. Behind the kitchen garden were a series of small courtyard gardens, each containing a different outdoor game. We played draughts (badly as I couldn't remember the moves allowed), quoits, skipped the chess, noughts and crosses then - my favourite- snakes and ladders with the board painted onto flags and the players the pieces. I span the moves and took great pleasure in watching son and daughter climb the ladders and move down the snakes. They were really well laid out and I can imagine they would be a great attraction for geeky kids like mine were and a good way of getting the year round visitors and repeat visitors these places need to survive.
Back to Bridlington for the last couple of days to look at the old town, the jail in the gatehouse to the Priory and the Priory itself as we wanted to compare it to the Priory in my village which was almost exactly the same age. The windows were much more impressive but it was about the same size and similar architecture- although ours has fewer memorials and a greater Norse influence. There was also a small museum concentrating on sailing and the local lifeboats which inexplicably fascinated daughter. I think her new boss might be in my village lifeboat crew and she will discuss East vs West coast with him.
A great holiday. I am very lucky that everyone in my family likes to be busy and to visit new places so the discussions are more in which order we will visit things and how far we will walk before we stop at a cafe for Mum: she was probably walking a couple of miles a day with us which is good for her but we didn't want her to over do it. The offspring liked me safely contained in a wheelchair although they would usually let me out if I wanted to do something, the exception being to go down the harbour steps to get aboard the pirate ship offering short sails up and down the bay.
Our last night was enlivened by Storm Babette but the weather was much better outside than it sounded inside. Snoop Dog took us home the way I thought he should apart from taking every ratrun short cut available. We had no problems until we were nearly at Mum's when the main road was closed and he refused to calculate a new route avoiding it. We followed the diversion signs until we reached the triumphant ' diversion ends' notice at a small crossroads reached through flooded roads, signposted only to small villages with Snoop Dog shouting at us to turn round and go back to the closed road. We consulted Google Maps and worked out how to get to a place I knew the way to Mum's from. We had to drive through more flooded roads but reached it and Snoop Dog finally reset himself when no longer needed. We dropped Mum off, preventing her from rummaging through boxes to find and give us things we didn't want and fled up the road to Cumbria..
All in all an excellent break.
