Visiting Whitby Abbey a few weekends ago, worth the famous 200 steps to get there for the wonderful if not dull sunshine desperately peeking from the clouds!

February 2018

Down to the Sea, Whitby, England

The March Violets
Partly Faithful
Luxury Stranger
Sunday 3rd November 2013
The Coliseum, Whitby
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The Missal (1902), by J.W. Waterhouse 

This painting of a virgin reading a missal in a domestic setting resembles the painting “Mariana in the South” from five years earlier. The kneeling woman, her outfit and the tiles on the floor are all similar.  In the background, a courtyard is seen with fruit trees that symbolize the fertility of the girl.  Unlike in “Mariana”, any references to literature or history are missing.

The present location of this painting is unknown and even the dimensions are undetermined.  The last-known owner was shipping magnate Frederick Haigh Pyman, who bought it in 1909 for his holiday resort Dunsley Hall, now a hotel near Whitby.

Whitby Abbey

The impressive and ruinous abbey looms over Whitby, and it is not hard to see how it inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. These are the remains of the thirteenth century Benedictine abbey. However, the history of the site stretches much further back than this, including evidence of late Bronze Age settlement. 

My own interest is on its Anglian history, of course. The name for the site at that time was Streaneshalch and it is referenced in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People as the home of Cædmon, our earliest English poet.

Cædmon’s Hymn was one of the first poems I translated when learning Old English. Living in Yorkshire and exploring the north east of England, I’ve had the opportunity to better contextualise some of what I’ve learned of Anglo-Saxon history.

Today we visited Whitby Abbey along the coast in North Yorkshire! Additional photos and a wee bit of history to follow.

Went to Whitby today, except the horrible rain after which I had to buy new jeans it was beautiful @the_buffy__ .
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#whitby #whitbyabbey #whitbyharbour #whitbybeach #whitbypier #trip #travel #weather #sunny #rain #drenched #wet #uk #sunny (at Whitby Bay)
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Seagull // Whitby 

Harbour // Whitby UK

Lamps // Whitby, UK

Breakfast // Runswick Bay

A little Kitten in Downton-Abbey-Land

ENTRY NR 3 - DAYTRIP TO WHITBY

It’s been slightly more than week since I arrived in England and it took me until now to settle so far that I can write another entry to this blog.

Upon arriving in Manchester, my most wonderful friend Chealse granted me a few days of rest in her apartment in the city. After having lunch on Saturday with my Russian friend Anasatasia, who will study in Manchester from this month on, we drove to York on Sunday where we quickly unpacked my belongings before we went out for a delicious Sunday roast and some sightseeing.

I will not lie, the first two days weren’t easy. I felt quite alone and although there was much to see and visit, I felt a little bit overwhelmed with the new circumstances and environment. Nobody was there yet, but somehow I managed to find a few Asian girls who had spent their summer here, brushing up their English and now and then we met to stroll through the city and run some errands.

I have by now seen most of York’s city center, including the Minster, which can only be described as absolutely brilliant. I have walked the city walls (yes, you can indeed walk on top of them) and painted my own pottery, had delicious cupcakes and cream tea more than it could ever be healthy.

To make a long story short, I have settled just in time for the introduction weeks. Today almost all of my fellow students will arrive and tonight they have organized a Karaoke party I am looking most forward to attend.

Yesterday although, my new friend Joanne and me took a bus to Whitby, a small fisher town even further north than York. It takes more than two hours to get there by bus, but our journey through the foggy moorlands was at least as enjoyable as our time in Whitby itself. For those that have never heard of Whitby, Bran Stoker sojourned there for a summer and let himself be inspired by Whitby Abbey, an old monastery that Joanne and me visited towards the end of our day, to write his famous “Dracula”.

There is not much but ruins left on the cliff above Whitby, ruins that overlook the city like the spooky ghost of long forgotten times and almost disappear in the fog in the afternoon. One who has read Stoker’s Dracula will surely understand where the author found his inspiration, but for me the remains of the cathedral looked just like the decayed ruins of the Red Keep. I wonder whether Mister Martin has ever visited Whitby, or maybe one of the producers of the show, because Daenery’s stroll through the snowy and destroyed Throne room.

I slept through most of our drive back, but I still remember the sheep running free in the moor, grazing and looking at our bus with curiosity in their eyes. You couldn’t even see past a hundredth meters due to all the fog. It was brilliant.

147/365

Whitby, North Yorkshire, England.

146/365

199 steps, Whitby, North Yorkshire, England.

Whitby Abbey [taken 11/06/2016]