The Rowan Tree bed and breakfast was excellent beginning to end. The breakfast was lovely and we looked out over the garden as it started to rain.
The coffee served was in a french press and it definitely hit the spot. With our bellies full and ready to go, we checked out. We had a mission to complete before leaving the area of Whitby. Victoria’s mum wanted some Whitby jet. We searched in the jewellry shops (there is a Jet District) but we found some for free on the beach! And we bought a small polished piece.
This is the most important day of the trip for Victoria. Sunderland was her ancestor’s home so she wanted to really be present and see what Sunderland had to offer.
When we had set down the pin in Sunderland in Google Maps, it had landed on a vape shop. Everyone who knew anything about England told us that Sunderland was a hole.
That knowledge in tow, we set out for Sunderland from Sleights. We drove for quite a while and then reached the beaches of Sunderland which are, of course beautiful. The town itself feels a little more city-like and less pretty than many places in the UK, but still quite nice.
We picked up rocks and shells along the beach and soaked up the sea air. It was lovely on the beaches.
When it started to rain, we ducked into the Scullery Pier Point restaurant across from the beach.
The roast beef meal (with mushrooms, tomatoes, peas, chips and gravy) was substantial and somewhat tasty. We also ordered dessert and it was quite decadent.
While we were eating, Victoria figured out a route to take in all of the family name related places in Sunderland, and the Angel of the North finally to arrive at our AirBnB in Bamburgh.
The route figured out, we set about executing this plan as best we could. Let me tell you, Sunderland has streets like a dropped plate of spaghetti. There are endless round-abouts with streets unlabelled, labelled by the largest destination in that direction, or something else generally unhelpful.
So we took quite a while actually getting a 5 minute’s drive across Sunderland to each destination. Maybe that’s why people don’t like it very much.
The last destination was an important one for Victoria. She wanted to take a selfie under the “Davison” sign, but refused to because the middle two letters had been worn so faint as to be almost invisible. She was a bit upset about that.
Now that we had all of the important check marks on our list, we headed out of Sunderland around Newcastle and toward Bamburgh.
On the way the Angel of the North is a pit stop at the side of the road. Where we were told there is no parking lot, it appears one has been created. We parked and took a really terrible all-chins selfie looking up at the angel itself, and several other neat shots.
Yay! All of our important places were found! Well, some were a little tarnished, but we did what we came to do. So all that was left was to go onward to Bamburgh.
Bamburgh unveils itself before you as you descend hilly roads with a large castle on a peninsula of the beach.
The town is quite a sleepy little place and when we tried to park in the castle parking lot, it appears to have been closed. We wanted to figure out where we were going, so we stopped in the driveway there for a moment and realised we had only a little further to go.
Once we pulled up to the AirBnB, we met the owner who was already there. She’s a lovely lady and showed us our comfy room. This one had no TV, but that’s great for me getting this blog done!
Having stowed our things, we weren’t quite ready to pack it in for the day, and set out for a short walk… well it was supposed to be short.
We ended up walking straight out to the dunes, which are just stunning in the setting sun. A view I highly suggest taking in if you have the chance.
We took a lot of panoramas, and then packed it in so that I can write this blog and get a bit to eat. It’s 7:30PM our time when we came in.
Have a lovely day and I hope you like reading our adventures! We have a few more days here left!
