How I discovered and fell in love with Whitby

I went to a NAPO (probation union) conference in Scarborough a few years ago, and really liked Scarborough - the conference centre was quite special having a terrace with black and white tiled floor and a grand piano with views out towards the wild sea. It also had a long sandy beach and various restaurants, a funfair and other attractions and thought this would be a good place to visit with family, sometime when we are next in York visiting my friend Donna and her family....
When I got back to London, phoned Donna to enthuse about Scarborough, and she said "well if you liked Scarborough, you'd love Whitby", and went on to describe it well enough that I decided to book a week's holiday there almost as soon as we finished talking about it. I liked the idea of a stony rock pool type beach and a sandy beach, the history and the views.
Started looking at ads for cottages and found Ingrid Flute agency through the Guardian travel section- booked our first week in Whitby; it was so exciting to discover somewhere new and far away, yet in this country. Started to plan how we would get there...with the help of someone at Ingrid Flute agency who told us about the Coastliner bus...
We would go to Kings Cross station, get a train to York, and then stay overnight with Donna and family..the next day, get the Coastliner bus from York to Whitby a two hour journey across the moors....
we spent the few months leading up to our holiday wondering what the bus journey would be like, and what Whitby itself would be like!
The months at work passed slowly...eventually the time came...this was the year I left probation as well, so momentous!
After the usual fun in York with Donna and family they took us to the station in the morning to see us off on the bus; when the bus arrived, it was already packed; hard to know where to put our cases, but we just added them to the aready overflowing heap at the front. and found somewhere to sit near the back of the bus...the first 40 minutes or so quite boring straight route, but after that - the moors, how spectacular - beautiful steep curving hills, many colours, diferent animals, tightly winding narrow roads, picturesque villages. The second part of the journey was quick and we were soon in Whitby, unceremoniousy deposited near the bottom of Baxtergate. A quick fumble for the map sent by Ingrid Flute; struggling to see the street names of all the tiny roads, a quick look at the harbour and off to Flowergate and our cottage in Waterloo Place. First thoughts of Whitby - scruffy, (the tiny bit we saw) smelling of fish and chips, a supermarket and some normal useful shops (a relief!) and THE SEA! Hooray!! We loved it!

Took our cases to the tiny dark cottage and went out to explore. First stop fish and chips at a cafe on the corner of a very steep hill going up into Flowergate; delicious and cheap to us southerners. Second stop a phone call to Donna telling her we were already in love with Whitby and how brilliant she was to suggest it. We went on a short boat ride out of the harbour and took in the two distinct characters of the East and West cliffs...those were the eraly stirrings of my love affair with Whitby.