The Thirty Nine Steps.

(Plus a few.)

The patchwork part of the holiday over, we went to Whitby to look at Dracula’s abbey. We were told that there were ninety nine steps to get up there, the information was wrong, the notices said a hundred and ninety nine. Once there, we joined the several hundred other tourists trying to find a way in, including many people who had already paid the parking fee. The sign on the cafe door said that it was open even though it was locked and, after walking halfway round the perimeter wall, I found a sign that said, in small letters, that it was only open at week-ends between October and April. There were a lot of very annoyed visitors (particularly those who had paid the parking fee, and the owners will have turned their backs on a tidy profit through not having a presence there; it is not a good idea to upset potential clients.

I did get a few pictures taken over the wall, and even considered jumping over it since there were no notices forbidding the strategy. However, the day was not completely wasted; Mrs TD managed to buy fat quarters from three different shops and then had sole use of the sewing room in the evening as she was the only member of the stitching group remaining.