Whitby Abbey and the North Sea
A few months ago, we traveled to England to photograph a destination wedding in York. It was a trip of a lifetime, and we went non-stop for two weeks sightseeing, traveling, visiting with our friends in York, and photographing the wedding. We returned home to Tennessee in mid-October, which is THE busiest month of the year for weddings in Knoxville. Only until now have we been able to look back at our travel photos and remember all of the amazing places we visited and the gorgeous sights we captured! Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing our travel photos with you, and we hope that you enjoy these!
We will begin with one of our favorite parts of the trip — our day trip to the town of Whitby and Whitby Abbey. Before the wedding, we had a few days to explore the area, so we rented a car and drove through the North York Moors National Park to the east coast of North Yorkshire, England.
This was the only time during our trip that we rented a car, and, as you know, everyone in England drives on the left-hand side of the road. The steering wheel is on the right side of the car too. Kathleen drove, while Joe navigated. We thought this better for both our health! Driving in England was an adventure within itself. It didn’t take long for Kathleen to whack an orange cone and take Joe for a ride through the ditch. She didn’t realize that most of the car is now on the opposite side as well! Let’s get to the photos, shall we?
North York Moors National Park
While driving through the North York Moors National Park, we saw some of the most gorgeous English landscapes with sheep and a steam train traveling through the moors.
Whitby Abbey
We visited Whitby Abbey, one of the most gorgeous ruins we saw during our entire trip to England! Literary author Bram Stoker found inspiration for writing Dracula from his visit to Whitby Abbey and the town of Whitby in 1890. The abbey sits on top of cliffs overlooking the seaport town of Whitby and the North Sea. Established in 657 AD, it was a double monastery for monks and nuns. We spent an entire afternoon exploring Whitby Abbey!
Whitby
The town of Whitby is a fishing port and tourist destination, and there are 199 stair steps from Whitby Abbey down to the coast. We went about half-way down the stairs and took some great shots overlooking the port. One of our favorite photos from our trip is the first one shown below! Built in the 1500s, Whitby was where Captain Hook learned seamanship, and we saw a tourist pirate ship pulling into the port when we were there!
