Category: Driving All the Way – England

28/6/2013 can be said as another rest day. We only went out in late afternoon.

Left: A structure in Thornaby found along the road. Forgot what it was.

Right: Paint bucket structure built at one of the roundabouts.

Many roundabouts there and each of them have unique structure built on it.

The weather wasn’t sunny, no sun, rather cold. Drizzling along the way.

Up and down, winding road. Awesome views!

View of the sea from the mountainous road.

We’re finally in Whitby, a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Borough of Scarborough and English county of North Yorkshire. It was freezing due to the sea breeze and the rain. We wore so little -.-” At one point, the rain got a bit heavier and we took cover in a local hotel.

Left: Captain James Cook statue, seagulls love to perch on top of its head. This statue is facing the direction of Australia. He led a voyage to view the transit of Venus in 1769, mapped the coasts of New Zealand and Australia, and arguably introduced tattoos into the western world. Here’s an interesting fact, he was the one who named the eastern coast of Australia as New South Wales. WOW! Can imagine how far he sailed.

Right: Whalebone arch were donated by Alaska in April 2003. The original one was erected some time after 1853 and is now displayed in the Whitby Archives & Heritage Centre.

A view that is different from other places we’ve been to. Breathtaking.

We tried ginger ice cream from one of the shops there. Real ginger pieces in there. Yum! Thought it would taste rather odd but it was great! Warm you up from this cold, wet, and windy day.

The Magpie Cafe, where we had our dinner. Had to queue, the place was packed. One of the famous place to dine here.

Fresh Oyster! SLURP!!! No idea how much, can’t find it on the menu, it’s on the special of the day menu.

Fish and chips! A must to have when you are here.

Left: Cod & Chips (£9.95), this is small and it’s already big enough!

Right: Skate Wing & Chips (£12.95), this is standard size, 400g.

Left: Fresh Mussels (half kilo, £7.95), Steamed & served in a liquor of Wine, Cream and Garlic. Seems like we had lots of mussels this trip.

Right: You will end your meal with this mint to freshen up your fishy breath ;p

Overall, the portion and price were all good. Very friendly staff too. You are sure to get fresh seafood here! No wonder so many people queuing up to eat here. I’m sure other eateries here are as good. I guess it’s because it’s one of Yorkshire landmarks, that’s why it’s so popular.

After having our dinner, we continued to discover Whitby on foot. More to come…

Consider 27/6/2013 a rest day or shopping day!

We were at Thornaby. We took our time waking up and having breakfast before heading for a walk at the nearby shopping area. Bought quite a number of clothes there. Very happy with the purchase. Got myself 2 blouses, 2 skirts, and a dresses which total up to less than £60 from Debenhams and H&M.

We thought it would be a short walk but ended up it took us quite awhile there due to our shopping spree so we had our lunch at Marks & Spencer food court. We had wrap, carrot cake, some buns, and brunch set(chips, baked beans, sausages, ham, and egg). Don’t remember the total.

Around 4pm+, we drove to Newcastle for another shopping spree. Goodness! Never in my life shop like that, I just grabbed whatever fancied me in Primark and brought them all into the fitting room. The price was so cheap! Quality was great! What’s more, my size everywhere! Ended up only bought a dress, a blouse, and a pair of shoes ;p All these cost me less than £20, what a steal!?! Would want to buy more but spent quite a bit in the morning, if not because of that I would buy even more here. The shopping bags in the photo are the end result of our shopping spree for the day.

After shopping, we went to Palace Garden (45-51 Stowell St, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 4YB, United Kingdom) for dinner. It’s located at Newcastle Chinatown. They serve an array of Szechuan, Malaysian, Cantonese and Pekinese cuisine.

Left: The interior is rather grand, there’s even a pond in there. I wasn’t there when they made the order, was at the Chinatown’s arc, so I don’t really know what they ordered and even the price.
Right: Fried beef kueh tiaw.

Left: Kangkung belacan.
Right: A tofu dish served with rice.

Left: Salted fish bean curd soup. Very salty indeed, they didn’t skimp on the salted fish.

Overall, the food was good, portion and price were reasonable. Full! Satisfied!

That’s the end of our day. Gonna be another road trip the next day.

26/6/2013, off to Nottingham we went…




We visited University of Nottingham and had some ice cream there from Mr. Whippy ice cream van. The soft serve ice cream was not bad, smooth and milky. Don’t remember how much was it.

The signature tower of University of Nottingham.

Next, we went to see the statue of Robin Hood.

Then we went to have lunch at China House (154 Alfreton Road, Radford, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG7 3NS).

Left: Rice for 6 people with unlimited refill. No idea how much for per person.

Right: We were given with Chinese menu instead of English so I’ll try to translate the dish’s name into English *LOL* Stir Fry Green Bean with Dried Chili (£8.80).

Left: Steamed Pork Belly with Mustard Greens (£12).

Right: Gosh! I don’t remember what’s this. There’s century egg, white cabbage, and luncheon meat.

Left: Salted egg with tofu (£8.80). My favourite of all!

Overall the food was above average, portion was great and prices were reasonable, we ordered a bit too much for 6 people. Not a bad place to go.

Done with Nottingham, we drove to York.

Basically we walked around York.

Left:Since it’s already evening, shops are closing. However, the Haunted Walk of York would start soon. Interesting… Didn’t join, no time for it and not with the right travel partners.

Right: Pork! Lots of them! Didn’t try any because we had too much leftover from Cambridge to clear.

Bettys Café Tea Rooms (6-8 St Helens Square York YO1 8QP, United Kingdom) in York. So many people! Had to queue and we didn’t have the luxury of time for it as we need to go on another 1 1/2 hours drive to go to our final stop of the day, my sis’ place, before the sun went down.

Goodbye York! That’s the end of the trip for the day.

25/6/2013, Goodbye Paris! We went to the train station to take Eurostar to go back to London. Finally saw the train went into Euro Tunnel and then it was just pitch black out there *LOL* Nothing interesting.

We arrived London St. Pancras International and waited at the station for our rented car. While waiting, I took a peek at the desserts found at the station from Pattsserie Valerie.

Finally got our car after about 45 minutes delay. We drove straight to Cambridge. Many planes flying in and out of London. You’ll see one every few minutes, that’s how busy Heathrow is. Can even see them clearly. The photo was just taken with normal digital camera with 3x zoom from a moving car. You can imagine how low it flew.

Luck was with us. We initially booked the Travelodge near the highway but we got a call while on the way telling us that they had relocated us to another Travelodge in Cambridge at Newmarket Road. New one! Also, to compensate us, they threw in breakfast for us! Excited!

It was so new that we could still smell the smell of the paint. People were still putting finishing touch on the building. What’s more! It’s in the middle of Cambridge. Great location!

Left: Everything was new and clean. This is the best stay we had on our road trip.

Right: After checking in, we headed out again. To discover Cambridge.

I’ll just let the photo show you the views that I saw when I was there. As it was already evening, most places were closed. First came to mind was University of Cambridge. This is basically the highlight of this place. It’s really a place with many students and academicians. Visited the university. The university buildings are everywhere! Views were amazing too. At the same time, felt a bit haunted because of the architecture.










We basically discover Cambridge on foot. Our dinner was KFC from Cambridge. Then we called it a night.

We had to drive to Nottingham, York, and Thornaby the next day.