Travel: Yorkshire Dales, England

During our holiday in England in May, not only did we visit the Yorkshire Coast but we also visited the heart of Yorkshire: the Yorkshire Dales. A visit to this beautiful county would not be complete without a drive through the rolling hills and valleys of the Dales and a visit to at least some of the traditional old villages.

We spent a day in Grassington; a tiny village with just 2 roads running up from the cobbled main square to the top of the hill on which the village is built. The stone cottages that make up the village have been there for well over a hundred years and there were flowers spilling out of window boxes and over garden walls everywhere we looked. As with the majority of these villages, most of the cottages are now tea rooms, souvenir shops or pubs / cafes. As the streets are so narrow, the cottages open directly onto the road but I presume they have back gardens. Luckily we were able to find a pub with outside seating for our lunch and we later got an ice-cream and sat on a bench under a tree in the main square. There's not a lot to do in the village except take a leisurely stroll, have lunch and admire the 'old-world' feel of the place. Grassington has an amazing Dickensian Christmas Fair which we hope to visit on our next winter trip to England. Sadly I just realised that I don't have any photos of Grassington to include here!

Nevertheless, on previous visits to Yorkshire we have visited Grassington's neighbouring village of Linton. Linton is quite a bit bigger but the style of buildings is similar (see above photo) and it has just as much character, although the fact that it has a small stream running through it makes it even more picturesque. From any of the villages in the Dales you can go on fantastic walks through the Dales themselves. There are walks to suit all levels of fitness so there's no excuse to avoid it! Walking rather than driving really gives you that connection with nature. Especially coming from Dubai, walking through green fields, being surrounded by huge ancient trees, crossing rushing brooks of ice-cold water, seeing sheep and lambs (depending on the time of year) gamboling along and breathing in pure fresh air...Bliss. Even if it's drizzling, that just adds to the charm.

There are bigger towns and cities to visit in the Dales as well. We spent a day in Leeds, but unless you want to shop (you'll find all the top brands in the city centre) I would advise you not to bother going. There are no major historic buildings of interest, no river to walk along and no real parks. I picked up a tourist information guide and all the places of interest listed required you to drive outside of Leeds. Outside Leeds city centre you'll find Roundhay Park which is a massive park housing the Tropical World butterfly house, cricket pitches, children's play areas and huge open spaces. On the day we visited, there were hundreds of people in the park with disposable BBQs having picnics and enjoying the sun. At certain times of the year you can be swarmed with butterflies inside Tropical World but luckily not in May (since I don't like things flapping around me) - we saw all sorts of tropical animals and plants but not a single butterfly.

We were staying in Bingley and whilst I wouldn't recommend you make a big detour to go there, if you're nearby there are some really interesting things to see. There is a river that passes through Bingley and the old part of town with cobbled streets and a huge old church, is built along the river. Bingely is also home to the Five Rise Locks which are one of the largest series of locks in the UK. As the area is so hilly, in order for boats to be able to get up the hills it was necessary to build what is quite simply an elevator. Click here for an explanation of how locks work. At the top of the locks is a canal with permanent houseboats moored up - it is a nice walk but isn't particularly scenic.

If you have a week to spare then 3 days or so in the Dales and 3 days or so on the Coast could be just what you need to feel completely refreshed and rejuvenated!

Travel: Yorkshire Coast, England

Since Simon and I like to travel as much as possible, I thought, "Why not include our trips with recommendations on what to do and what not to do on Bon Appetit?" It's not food-related, but the food article on our trip to England was quite a long one, without writing about what we did and saw as well! So here's the first Travel article, comments would be much appreciated!

The beautiful English east coast in Yorkshire

England is often overlooked by holiday-makers because of the uncertainty about the weather. Such a shame because there really are gorgeous places to visit. Emirates flies directly from Dubai to Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. There's no price difference if you fly into one city and out of another which gives fantastic flexibility. We flew into Manchester to visit my family living there. My family live south of Manchester, near the airport in the Stockport / Wilmslow-area. In all my years of visiting them I have still never actually been into the City of Manchester! Manchester is an easy airport to get through as it's not very big and it links to the train station so you can get quickly to wherever you need to be. As an entry port to the UK, I would recommend it. As a city to visit, unfortunately I can't comment.

View of the area near Leeds-Bradford Airport (at Christmas - not in May!)

From Manchester, we drove to Yorkshire to see Simon's parents and family. You drive over the Pennines which are a mountain range that lie down the middle of Northern England in an almost vertical line up the country from Derbyshire to the Scottish Border. By mountains, I am not talking the Alps - the highest point of the Pennines is only 893m (2,930 ft) - but it is a beautiful drive past fields, sheep, huge farmhouses and reservoirs. You can do serious walking along The Pennine Way - 270 miles (434 kms) - but although we considered it (!) we chose to take the easy route and drive across. The drive is just over 2 hours, so not far at all.

The bleak Yorkshire Moors

We met up with Simon's sister, Louise at Leeds-Bradford Airport (where we returned our hire car) and she then drove us over to the the Yorkshire Coast where their Dad had rented a house in Sleights for a week. The drive from the airport to Sleights took about 2 hours and we saw more pretty country-side and passed over the bleak moor top before dropping back down to green pastures and yellow fields of rapeseed. The cottage was rented through a website called Owners Direct and it was perfect for a family holiday. With 6 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a large living room, kitchen and dining room it gave us all the flexibility of feeling like we were in our own house and enough space for us not to feel crowded. Over the course of the week John (Simon's Dad) and Sue (Simon's step-mother) were there, all the family came to visit for a few nights at a time. Great idea!

Stunning Robin Hood's Bay

We had been told by my aunt that Robin Hood's Bay was a must-see, so our first afternoon we headed straight there. As the name suggests, it is a bay although I don't know where the Robin Hood comes from. A picture-perfect fishing village, it also used to be a smugglers' haven in days gone by. The car park is at the top of the cliffs next to The Victoria Hotel and the flat part of the village. From the top you get magnificent views of the old fishing village built all the way down the hillside to the beach, the rocky headlands jutting out on either side of the bay into the North Sea, wild grasses growing down to the edge of the beach, old fishing boats, pebble and sand beaches and coves...Gorgeous. Walking through the old village down the hill you find almost all the shops are tea rooms, bed-and-breakfasts or souvenir shops. At the bottom of the hill we found an ice-cream van parked right on the beach selling the famous English 99s (soft Mr. Whippy ice-cream in a cone with a chocolate flake stuck in) and we had our first of what became a daily 99!!

The hill up from the beach at Robin Hood's Bay to The Victoria Hotel

In the rain I can't imagine that Robin Hood's Bay would have the magical feeling that it did in the blazing sun - and even in the sun there was quite a wind along the beach once you weren't protected by the houses any more. We returned to the top up the scenic path which was a small dirt track through the grass, passing some upturned fishing boats but no buildings and no other people. We didn't walk along the beach and could have spent a good few more hours there exploring the various walks around the bay...next time.

Whitby with the Abbey on the headland

Our way home from Robin Hood's Bay took us through Whitby where we stopped at the famous whalebone monument which is made of a whale's actual jawbone - enormous! Whitby used to be the centre of England's whaling industry and is also where Captain James Cook (who 'discovered' Australia) is from. We spent the whole of our second day in Whitby and could have easily spent a few more days exploring all the little alleys and shops and walking along the seafront. As I mentioned in my food article, Whitby has the widest, longest, most perfect looking beach I have ever seen. The main town lies around the harbour but houses and hotels then stretch from the harbour mouth all along the seafront to the village at the opposite end of the beach at Sands End. There is a very small area of flat land around the harbour so the houses climb the hillsides with graceful terraced gardens stepped down the hill.

Whitby's amazing beach

The north side of the village houses a large visitor centre, the arcades (slot machines, those impossible games where you try to pick up a stuffed toy with a claw etc), a pier to walk out to the harbour entrance (bring a warm hat to protect your head and ears from the wind blowing off the sea), the whalebone monument and the amazing beach. The south side of the harbour houses the old part of the village with narrow cobbled streets, souvenir shops and up high on the clifftop lies the famous 13th century ruins of Whitby Abbey. If you want to visit the Abbey, or the functioning Church, you have two choices: walk up a steep (but not too high) series of steps to the top of the cliff or drive round and up to the top to the car park. Not being entirely lazy, we walked up and drank in the spectacular views of Whitby, the harbour, the sea and the fields in the distance.

The steam train and Yorkshire countryside

Prior to visiting Whitby that morning, we drove across to Grosmont as it is renowned as a picturesque village. As we entered it, we saw the famous Yorkshire steam train was on the station platform ready to leave so we forgot about the idea of visiting Grosmont and jumped on board the train instead! The train interior is made of wood and stepping inside you feel like you've been transported back in time. Ignoring the signs telling you not to put your head out of the window and not thinking about the fact that the steam to drive the train is produced by burning coal, I stuck my head out of the window to take photos and promptly received a small spark of coal dust in my eye. Saved from blindness (!) by Louise and not wanting to miss my photo opportunity, I put my head straight back out and lasted quite a while before the next piece of coal dust attacked me! The price you pay to feel the wind in your hair! On arriving into Goathland, John was there to meet us. An English TV series, Heartbeat, was filmed in Goathland and there were various memorabilia pieces from the series placed around the village. Apart from a small strip of souvenir shops and a lovely tea room where we sat in the garden and basked in the sun, there wasn't much to see there though - unless you're a Heartbeat fan.

A fishing boat stranded at low tide

Our last day on the Yorkshire Coast, we drove down to Scarborough. This was the biggest town we saw but it still maintains that old-world charm. Scarborough is split into two separate bays by a large headland with the ruins of Scarborough Castle on top. North Bay is the less touristy side and South Bay houses the harbour and all the arcades that Scarborough is famous for. In North Bay we visited the 100-year old Peasholm Park which was designed to resemble an oriental garden and therefore has pagodas, Japanese bridges and weeping willows as well as ducks and geese in abundance. Very peaceful in May although in the summer there are apparently concerts played in the bandstand in the middle of the lake. Both bays have fabulous wide beaches, although the North beach is longer than the South one. The East Coast has huge tides and, as we also saw in Whitby, at low tide all the boats are literally grounded on the muddy bottom of the harbour - an amazing thing to see.

The Yorkshire Coast is a DEFINITE in terms of places to visit. Our three days there were so relaxing that we felt like we'd had a full week's holiday! Basing yourself near Whitby means that nowhere is too much of a drive to get to - it's also not far from the City of York which is an amazing medieval city and well worth a day trip. Renting a cottage is also a very economical way to do a family holiday and staying just outside of Whitby (rather than in the town itself) will give you considerable savings. We will certainly be going back there in the future.

English Food – WOW!

In a nutshell: Fresh, fabulous and amazing value!
Score: 5/5

England has a worldwide reputation for poor, stodgy, unappetising food. Maybe at some point this was true, but it is definitely not the case any more. There seems to be a real focus on fresh, non-GM foods in the UK and this can really be tasted in what you eat. Apart from a few notable exceptions (and these happen everywhere in the world), we had really friendly, genuine service and couldn’t complain about any of our meals. One of the biggest ‘wows’ was the prices, helped by the low exchange rate (5.3 Dhs to the £) it was possible to have an amazing meal with alcohol for less than Dhs 100 per person!

We spent a weekend on the Yorkshire Coast and were incredibly lucky to have glorious weather – sunny blue skies with the sort of fresh breeze that we never get in Dubai. Our first meal was at The Red Lion, near York on a small country lane where we had simple baked potatoes with fillings (prawn cocktail in my case) and 3 of us ate for less than £20 (Dhs 100) including drinks. A baked potato is such a satisfying lunch and it’s a real shame more places in Dubai don’t offer ‘spuds’ on their menus – where they do they’ve usually been in the oven for hours and are blackened to a crisp. Much healthier than a sandwich and just as filling.

Whitby is famous for its seafood and it didn’t disappoint. We ate at 3 of its well-known restaurants and each one was as fantastic as the last. Trencher’s is right opposite the Whitby Visitor Centre and I had an amazing fish pie full of fresh fish, seafood and a creamy but not sickly sauce. They are famous for their fish & chips and as well as having a choice of fish (haddock, cod and many others) you also have a choice of having it fried or grilled – a healthy fish supper. At £15 a head including drinks coupled with friendly and efficient service…we were stunned.

Half way up the hill from the harbour, Hudson’s has panoramic views out over the widest beach I had ever seen. If only the sea was Caribbean-warm and you could be sure of having the sort of weather we had, this would be a sun-worshipper’s paradise (the beach that is, not Hudson’s!) Wanting to try something local, I ordered the Whitby crab salad. The crab is caught off the Whitby coast and was amazingly fresh – no surimi-crab in sight – and the salad itself was varied and included new potatoes to make that little bit more filling. £10 a head…another example of unbelievable value.

The Magpie Café is, I was told, Whitby’s most famous restaurant and at weekends people queue down the road to get in there. After a fabulous meal, I would agree that standing out in the cold would be worth it – luckily we’d booked so went straight past the queue and in the door. My scallops were the freshest I’ve had in years and came with the coral (roe) attached, as it should be. They were accompanied by English asparagus (in season for only 6 weeks of the year) which had so much more flavour than the thin air-freighted Thai asparagus that I’m used to. I followed that with a seafood chowder which was more a creamy sauce with mussels, prawns, scallops and a white fish (not sure which!) in it rather than a chunky, thick soup. Regardless, it tasted amazing. Healthy eating seems to be well-ingrained in the UK now and the batter on the fish in the fish & chips was like a tempura batter, not a heavy stodgy one – and you could have poached or grilled fish instead of fried. For a 3 course meal with drinks you’re looking at £30-35 but that is still great value for the quality of food you get.

Our last day on the East Coast, we ate a restaurant called ASK! on the Scarborough harbour front near the amusement arcades. They had outside seating but with all the crab pots near by and it being low tide (low tide here means the boats are sitting on the mud), there were a lot of little flies so we stayed indoors. It has an Italian theme with pizzas and pastas, but of course offers the ubiquitous seafood and that is what I had…a salmon, asparagus and avocado salad. In a word…fabulous. I can’t stand salads that are 90% lettuce and this was on a small bed of mixed salad leaves with loads of the actual ingredients of asparagus and avocado with a generous salmon steak on top. Yum.

Even after we left the coast, I still couldn’t get enough of the fresh fish and fresh asparagus – or those great old country pubs. In the Yorkshire Dales at The Forester’s Arms in Grassington and The Dog and Gun in Oxenhope, I ate grilled trout with asparagus. Many people think trout is a fiddly, bony fish when it is actually delicate and meaty with bones only down the middle. Simon’s Gran tried trout for the first time in her life and couldn’t believe she’d been missing out on it all these years! It’s so hard to find trout in a supermarket in Dubai so I wanted to take full advantage…I’m missing it already now I’m back home. We also ate at Napoleon’s Casino in Bradford. You wouldn’t expect very fine dining in Bradford, in all honesty, but the food here was really good and at £15 for a 4 course meal you really had to take your hat off to them – especially when we trebled our money in the casino afterwards and our winnings paid for the meal!

We also spent a few days in London and had dinner at The Forge in Covent Garden the first night and The Princess of Shoreditch on Old Street in the East End the second night. At The Forge we had a 3 course menu (each course had a choice of about 4 dishes – all of which I wanted to try!) and a glass of kir for just £27 per person. The centre of London’s tourist district, fantastic food and such a good price! The only problem with London restaurants (and a practice that is growing more in Dubai too) is to cram as many tables in as they can possibly squeeze. Getting around all the diners to get to the toilet without knocking anyone’s elbow becomes a bit of an obstacle course. At The Princess of Shoreditch I ordered a chocolate fondant for my dessert having had a delicious asparagus with hollandaise sauce to start and wild boar sausages with mashed potato (bangers and mash in other words) for my main. Chocolate fondant is always a test and 9 times out of 10 I cut into the middle waiting for the chocolate to ooze out only to find it’s been overcooked and is solid in the middle. The Princess passed the test though – divine molten chocolate crept across my plate, success!

In terms of service, almost everywhere had really friendly, helpful staff. Genuine friendliness as well, not fine dining it’s-my-job-to-be-polite type service. One notable exception was at the Waggon & Horses pub in Handforth, Manchester where our meals took over 1 hour to arrive and when they did my Gran’s had been forgotten. When we called for the manager we expected profuse apologies – big mistake. He came over with a real attitude problem and was immediately on the defensive and extremely rude, basically telling us that we must not have ordered Gran’s meal and it was our own fault. Not a single word of apology – will we go there next time we visit my grandparents? No chance! At only £5 for a meal, you do get what you pay for sometimes I suppose.

So for all those people who write England off as a gastronomic destination: think again. If you want to go somewhere you can get amazing, fresh food, friendly service and that won’t break your bank then England could be just the place for you. Give it a go.