So bracing

Better large.

After a thoroughly wet and miserable day yesterday, this morning was bright and sunny. We quickly headed off to Redcar, solely because as soon as I was told about the controversial vertical pier, I thought "Blip!". We got there just in time for the wind to start blowing sleet horizontally into our faces. In the cafe at the bottom, all of the staff apologised personally to me for the fact that the viewing platform at the top was closed, and invited us to come back on Boxing Day. So we warmed up with a cup of coffee instead. I took a couple of photos, but the weather was so bad they were far from satisfactory. You could say the same about the building, which is basically an office block with a few metal spirals wrapped round it, a rather sorry attempt to make Redcar's seafront interesting.

We decided we'd done Redcar, and headed off to much more picturesque and prosperous Saltburn up the coast. Even the weather in Saltburn is a cut above Redcar's. It was brilliantly sunny, with the wind swirling picturesque clouds across the sky. S asked a woman in the street to recommend a fish and chip shop, having first established that she was a local, and she directed us to the aptly named Sea View, at the bottom of the cable car between town and beach, and a few steps from the famous pier. It was very popular, and while S queued for a table, I took about thirty photos on the beach. The fish and chips were excellent, a real treat. Even if the weather leaves something to be desired, I do like being in God's own country from time to time.

My spare blip is some boats in Redcar, each with its own vintage tractor attached.