Number Seventy News

The Portland Street Pedallers set out in search of the original pickled egg once again !  A modest start, taking in the Deramore at Heslington, which I missed, but then I found the intrepid foursome sitting outside the Blacksmiths at Naburn, discouraging the ducks and glimpsing the first bats of the season. The beer was good enough, although I can’t remember what it was.

Then off to the Selby-York cycle path, the traditional stop on Naburn (former) swing bridge where the trellised fisherman had got his catch tangled round his rod, and a leisurely spin back to the homely comforts of the Golden Ball, where a pint of well-kept Deuchars, a comfy chair, and the sound of live blues from the public bar were about all a chap could wish for out on a Thursday night.  If the Golden Ball were the only pub around one would never feel the need to go anywhere else.

Italian magicians !   Enrico Rava on trumpet and Stephano Bollani on piano. Hammering some driving rhythms out of a Steinway, using not just the pedals and the keyboard, but walloping the case for percussion, and leaning inside and plucking the strings too.  The rapport between the two players is wonderful to see, all done with such humour, and almost cheek from the younger Bollani to the older Rava.  Rava really gives Bollani free rein to develop his piano solos.  It’s great live jazz - I wondered whether it would work on disk, and didn’t buy one in the end.  But I’d go and see them again, without a doubt

The Hayburn Wyke pub sits just below the former Whitby-Scarborough railway line (now a walking/cycling route) a mile or so north of Cloughton. It apparently dates from the 18th century as a pub, although what route it was on for passing trade at that time, and what local community it served is not clear. Its brochure implies that smuggling may have had something to do with it but as the anchorage at Hayburn Wyke is hardly sheltered (though certainly remote and inaccessible) I have my doubts. Anyway, it now seems to have a good weekend trade of families wanting a pub lunch (looked fairly average pub food) and walkers / cyclists on the former railway line or the nearby Cleveland Way. We had some Black Sheep or coffee and set off into the delightful woods which cover the steep sides of the valley which carves its way down from the moors to the West towards the sea. When it reaches the beach, the stream falls over a 20ft waterfall. The tide was right in and because of the strong easterly breeze over the last few days there were some respectable waves. On previous visits the sea has always been calmer, and the tide further out - it’s a favourite place for piling rocks into towers a la Andy Goldsworthy. The rocks are from tennis ball to bigger than football size, smooth and round, grey streaked with brown.

We returned towards the pub by a different route, at the bottom of the valley. Very lush and wet and green under the trees, before they come into full leaf. Lots of wood anemone, dog’s mercury, wild garlic, bluebells (neither yet in flower) and large clumps of primroses. A few shy plants of wood sorrel. Not many birds, though a wren did break cover from under my feet. (Much smaller and much noisier than the four deer that we flushed out in a wood near Heilbronn a few weeks ago). Delightful as this was, it struck me that a visit in 3 or 4 weeks time, on a sunny day, could be quite spectacular.

To Scarborough for the ever-satisfying Northern Broadsides Theatre Co doing “Romeo and Juliet” at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. First time for me to this very smart conversion of a former cinema where the main auditorium is arranged in the round. The play had been put into contemporary clothing - more or less - and effortlessly appeared to be about contemporary people. Juliet in particular was played as a very young teenager of today - with lots of the mannerisms - emphasising how young she is and inexperienced and naive. Tybalt was interesting too - extremely aggressive and constantly spoiling for a fight but actually an incompetent fighter, easily outclassed by Mercutio who could have killed him straightaway but doesn’t. So Romeo’s impetuous intervention is completely unnecessary. Typical of this callow youth of instant passions and swift, unthinking decisions and rash acts. The clog-dancing is done at the Capulet’s ball - a great evocation of a family thoroughly enjoying itself (and a theatre company doing so too).

All in all, one of the best R&Js I’ve seen - though not perfect - I could have wished Mercutio less down-to-earth and the fathers more stricken at the end.

Well, can’t really fault York-Exeter return on the same day by Cross Country. No more than 2 minutes late in either case, though helped of course by the generous amounts of recovery time / station stop that are now allowed. Train clean, staff polite, not much more to say. Did notice the extra platform at Bristol Parkway. And the return train was the one that does Sheffield to York direct via Pontefract and Sherburn in Elmet (not stopping at either, of course).

York to Southern Germany. Leave York 08.12, arrive Ravensburg, nearly at the Bodensee, at the other side of which is Switzerland, at 21.07 same day. Everything on time, too, at least until we got to Stuttgart, where everything was running a few minutes late, so our 6 minute change of trains was maintained (cross-platform, nice and easy)but then the Hannover-Munich ICE we were on as far as Ulm was further delayed and resulted in a frantic scamper around Ulm station where a 6 minute connection had turned into a minus 3 min connection - but they held the local train for us (and about 20 others). The Paris-Stuttgart TGV was impressively fast on the new line in France and again in Germany, and wound reasonably fast through the mountains to the West of Stuttgart. But not that impressed by the TGV on board catering - not much choice and malfunctioning microwave and grill. The Deutsche Bahn Bord-Bistro is usually better

Stuttgart to York. Leave Stuttgart 12.54, arrive York 23.12. And time enough in Paris to nip across to the Brasserie du Terminus Gare du Nord for a splendid meal - bouillabaise and Grimberger beer in my case. Even Kings X to York was on time - things may be looking up. I’ll let you all know after I’ve done York to Exeter return in a day in the near future.