Off to: Whitby

Its been almost two years since we made our last trip to North Yorkshire and the winner of the 'Viking Which: Raping and Pillaging Destination of the Year 867' award - Whitby. Back in those heady days of 2004 we claimed a thoroughly deserved 2 -1 win in the FA Cup, though a quick look at the match preview on the Whitby forum shows that they're still whinging about it.

Thankfully our visit doesn't coincide with one of the twice yearly Weekend Festivals when the town is over run by Goths, named after the group of barbarians who overthrew the Roman Empire by shuffling moodily up the banks of the Tiber complaining that 'no one understood them.' As we all know the reason for this invasion is because Whitby is famous for someone who never existed fictionally being in the town for a bit.

Less well known is that Whitby was the port that Captain James Cook set sail from on his voyages of discovery, introducing a whole manner of exciting new and deadly diseases to the indiginous populations of the South Pacific along the way.

We're not going the place hailed by the New York Times 'as one of the best places in Great Britain for rural life' for a history tour though (if anywhere with a heavy industrial port can be classed as rural): there's a game of football to be won.

At the moment both sides sit in mid-table, seperated by four places and six points. In the form table Whitby sit ninth based on home games and Mossley ninth on away form which leads to only one possible conclusion...

Prediction: A draw. And I don't think there'd be anybody from this side of the Pennines disappointed with that (other than any Lancashire based branch of the Whitby Supporters Club).

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...
3:35 pm

We're not going the place hailed by the New York Times 'as one of the best places in Great Britain for rural life' for a history tour though (if anywhere with a heavy industrial port can be classed as rural): there's a game of football to be won.

Hmmmm.....not sure you could ever describe Whitby as a 'heavy industrial port', you're maybe mistaking us for Teeside there.

Whitby is a fishing town and has more history than you can shake a stick at!
Certainly the most picturesque Town on the east coast.

Nice blog however ;-)

SJNR said...
7:58 pm

I knew after I'd written it that 'heavy' was the wrong term. You have to agree though that it isn't the quaint little fishing port you normally associate with rural idylls.

And there's no denying the beauty of the place. A superb history too.

We just have the moors (stunning when the lights just right) and the legacy of giving fish and chips to the world. ;-)