Transporter Bridge, Moors and Trains

Ragamuffin

So we had a relatively good night's sleep considering we were in a double bed and had had quite a lot of alcohol last night.  It is James' and Amy's half term too this week, so we didn't have to get up early (apart from Kae who had a full week ahead of her).  We let Kae get herself ready and out the door and then made ourselves some breakfast whilst Malcolm was on a business call.  We then went down to the local park for a good game of cricket (Amy plays cricket for her local team).  It was very wet and muddy but the cricket was good and the sun was out so we enjoyed it under blue skies.

We went back to the house, said our goodbyes and headed into Middlesbrough.  Our aim was to do a strategic strike on Primark: Tom has out grown all his trousers recently and his home trainers refuse to stay done up (Velcro has stopped working) so he is looking like a tramp at the moment with trousers either too short or too long (only other ones we have are from Owen who is 13!), a winter jacket that is too big and trainers that don't do up.  Poor kid.  So we found Primark and got him two pairs of jeans and a pair of trainers, in and out quickly.  Back to the car, out of the shopping centre, took a wrong turn, back into the shopping centre, then out again in search of the Transporter Bridge.

From the south bank

We got horribly held up in traffic trying to get to the Transporter Bridge, but it was just as well as it was closed from 12 till 1, we arrived at 12.55!  Dead on 1pm some men appeared and opened the bridge.  It was built in 1911 to ship workers across the Tees to the factories.  It has a span of 590 feet and it has a height of 160 ft, the longest transporter bridge in the world.  It only fits 9 cars, but 200 people and only takes 90 seconds to make the crossing (if you were to go by car it would take 45 minutes to drive across the nearest bridge).  It was very smooth, no jiggling, clonking etc.   It was a  beautiful bright blue colour.  We went across to the other side, didn't unload and headed back again.  A little silly some might say but we didn't see a car park and wanted to experience it.  Nice friendly people working on it.

Once we reversed off it we headed out of Middlesbrough to the moors towards Pickering where our holiday let is.  First job though was lunch - we were on the look out for signs on the road for garden centres / cafes etc and didn't have to wait too long before we found one.  It was in a small garden centre, very much the destination for old ladies, the menu was very much full of corned beef, pickled onions, piccalilli etc.  Mainly on the menu were potato cakes with toppings - which sounded fun, but they had sold out. Never mind - toastie for Tom, welsh rarebit for Matt and an open grilled sandwich for me.  Mainly though the place had a working model railway and lots of very reasonably priced Christmas decorations (we may have bought a couple...)

From the north bank

Refuelled we headed up across the moors in the bright sunshine to drive to Pickering.  It was a beautiful drive, very bleak landscape, more rolling hills than the Dales but very beautiful.  We got to Pickering and found our holiday let without too much problem.  A very lovely cottage, proper cottage with beams, which has been very tastefully decorated.  We settled in and headed out before it got too dark to get a feel for Pickering.  It's a very lovely country town: lots of cafes and tea rooms, olde worlde buildings etc etc as well as a Lidl which seems a bit out of place, but is very handy.  We did a quick circuit of the town and popped into the station - what would you know, a train was due in 5 mins so we hung around to see it.

It is a fine classic old station, which has been beautifully done up - loads of vintage items to enjoy, lots of photos, a good shop, a tea room a bridge and mainly a big steam engine bellowing steam and smoke heading into the station.  Tom in true Tom fashion managed to get invited on to the footplate for a photo opportunity.  Don't know how he does it - there were plenty of kids there, but he was the one who got asked.  (Mind you he also got told off by the Station Master for running on the platform!)  Anyhow, both boys were happy as Matt got some good photos.

Pickering station

We headed home via Lidl where we managed to buy lots of alcohol (cheap Whisky, cheap rhubarb and ginger gin, cheap mulled win) and not much else.  Then showers and a couple of episodes of The Famous Five - we found a DVD set in the cottage which has 26 episodes of the Famous Five TV series from the 1970s (I had vague recollections when I saw it, Matt didn't) Tom was glued to it, even though the acting was awful.  Wondering if it will help him get back into the books - he gave up with them in September as they didn't have enough pictures for him??!!!!!!  Anyway it has a very annoying and mediocre theme tune which we are all now humming!  We then had showers before heading out to the local chippie which was recommended in our holiday let.  It was good - service was a bit muddled, but the food was good - I had homemade herby fish cakes which were very good.

Then home, a game of rummikub and bed.