Whitby is not the easiest place to get to by train however the long journey is well worth the effort, whether for a fish and chip lunch, the attractive town itself or the scenery that you can admire en-route. This was also the first time that we have arrived into Whitby by train. Our journey from Derby started on the 07.13 CrossCountry service to Darlington, where we then changed for a Northern service to Middlesbrough before taking the 10.28 departure to Whitby...

I am not sure where the River Thames finishes and the North Sea really starts, but I think it may actually be slightly beyond Southend. The map on the world famous pleasure pier even shows the water as being the River Thames so I guess that 'on-Sea' is a little bit of poetic licence and from a marketing point of view it sounds much better than Southend-on-Thames Estuary. Southend is about an hour's train journey from central London and you have a couple of optio...

Having whizzed past St Albans many times on the train and looked across to see the massive cathedral on the hill it was a welcome visit to somewhere new that we did with our good friends John and Rita. We arrived at St Albans City railway station which is about a half a mile walk from the centre and conveniently provides good connections for trains from Derby. Our Wednesday visit coincided with market day so the centre was busy with people, but a walk around t...

Cumulative miles driven: 5,660 We have not seen a "winter's day" in California since we arrived, by the sound of it this sunny and hot weather is very unusual and even though everyone is out enjoying the sun and surf what they really need here is rain. The reservoirs are dry and California is under drought conditions. The rain can hold off until at least Saturday afternoon though once we are on the aeroplane headed back towards the UK as far as I am concerned. ...

Cumulative miles driven: 5,200 Driving into San Luis Obispo was, too be honest, a little disappointing but not for where we were but for what we had likely missed. We had left Bakersfield after a coffee stop with the sun setting and heading for US-58, a fairly plain and straightish road according to the road atlas, which actually ended up as one of the most curvaceous and steep drives I have done recently. It was like driving the UK's Hardknott and Wrynose Pass...