A people mover from a small local tour business was an ideal way to explore Yorkshire, ignoring the big burghs of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and their like to explore the countryside instead on the way to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, England's northernmost town to catch a train to Edinburgh.
Murder victims in shallow graves, strewn copies of Bronte sisters' novels, Kate Bush background music? We found none of those but we did see wild and windy moors through drifting mist - so, all good for the atmospherics. There's 1,400 square kilometres of austere heather within which any number of people can rip their bodices or fill grouse and pheasants with lead shot. Apparently quite a few do so.
This picturesque village is so quintessentially English that it starred in the Heartbeat TV series as 1960s Aidensfield and as the Hogwarts Express stop at Hogsmeade in the Harry Potter movies. We jumped onto an historic steam train ride to Pickering though leafy glades and beside burbling streams. I wouldn't have been too surprised had i spotted a few lost but merry men in green tights.
Bleak and drizzly on our visit - on the plus side the crappy weather perfectly complemented the ruins of Whitby Abbey silhouetted against the grey sky high on the headland above the mossy headstones of St Marys churchyard - inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula and for the Whitby Goth Weekend.
However the weather did nothing to enhance the craptacular stretch of amusement arcades along the waterfront. It was so awful we took to the drink in a nearby pub. That said, on a sunny day Whitby is probably quite appealing, being a centre for tourism since Georgian times. James Cook became a trainee with a local shipping company here and as an historic ship-building and fishing port it has a salty, seafaring albeit damp charm.
The historic market town of Alnwick is dominated by Alnwick Castle, the second largest inhabited castle in England. If you're an English castle you need a statistic or two to help you stand out.
Once the royal seat of the Kings of Northumbria, Bamburgh Castle has guarded its coastline for over 1,400 years from its rocky plateau above the dunes. Now privately owned and maintained it doubles as a conference and function centre.
Across the bay from Bamburgh Castle the Holy Island of Lindisfarne is a 4 square kilometre tidal island that becomes isolated from the mainland at high tide. That keeps the tourists on their toes, tide tables are prominently displayed at both ends of the causeway.
A 793AD Viking raid on Lindisfarne is taken as the beginning of the Viking Age. Lindisfarne Castle was built in 1550, very small by the usual standards and more of a fort. The castle sits on the highest point of the island, Beblowe Hill.
Hadrians Wall is to the north of Yorkshire - photos are included here as it was a part of the same leg of our trip. 117 kilometres of north-west frontier of the Roman empire for nearly 300 years. At each mile a gate was protected by a small guard post called a milecastle, between each pair of milecastles lay two towers creating a pattern of observation points every third of a mile. The entire route across the country is followed by a pathway; the Brits love a robust ramble.