Whitby
I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. There are so many places to see in the United Kingdom. I’ve been here four times. Each time my hosts, Kat and Rick, not only provide homey accommodations but super touring services, including day trips and overnight stays.
Last Monday, we spent the day in Whitby, a coastal town reminding me of our Seaside. The original town is built at the mouth of the River Esk. Its history stretches back to the Iron Age. As a map of the town reads, “Celts and Romans . . . . left their mark here and their footprint is still very prominent.”
I purchased the map at the Captain Cook Memorial Museum. It shows me the many places we could have visited. From historic sites to restaurants, there is far more to see than a day trip allows.
So we went to familiar places that we have visited before like the candy shop and the fish store on Sandgate and the Cook Museum on Grape Lane.
This picture was taken at the museum, looking across the Esk River. Over my right shoulder, you see a replica of the Endeavor, Cook’s first ship to sail around the world.
You can also see that the day was overcast yet warm and dry. Actually it was quite perfect for walking all about.
Because I visited the James Cook Museum in the past, I wanted to reinforce the memories by visiting it again.
The museum is housed not in his childhood home but in the house of the ship builder to whom he was apprenticed, Captain John Walker, who was also a ship builder.
I could say much about Whitby because it is a show-and-tell place of history and attractions. But I will stick to writing a few brief but very significant facts about Captain Cook.
- He circumnavigated the world three times.
- On his voyages, he took scientists, cartographers, and artists to record all the new and different things to be found in the western hemisphere and the southern oceans.
- With his third voyage half completed, he was killed in Hawaii in 1779 by enraged natives.
