Last Updated on: November 1, 2021

Yorkshire was an interesting and pleasant experience. Much thanks to my friend Dave who guided me around on many cool roads.

A Yorkshire (& proper) English breakfast

Had it coming. Had to have it. I am sort of weak for a real English breakfast. But not necessarily the tomatoes. Because Dave had made a remark about my English breakfast in Harwich wasn’t properly British, we went to a breakfast place in Doncaster by the name Sandal Park Cafe. A go to place in town if you want to indulge yourself, if you’re up for a large, inexpensive breakfast.

Yorkshire version of English Breakfast

Seeing the plate, and consuming the massive meal it was, had me remember a song by some musicians I got acquainted with ages ago, back in the hay-day of Myspace. They wrote and recorded “Double Egg”,  a song that fits rather well to the picture above, don’t you think?

Time for a big service

After the rather massive breakfast we rode down to BMW dealer Allan Jeffries in South Yorkshire, where I had booked a 40.000 kilometers,  or 26k miles, service for the bike.  Every 20k km is a big service, this was one of them. In England such services costs half of what you’ll pay in Norway. Which meant that doing service in England the tune-up at Hilltop was, quite literally, for free.

Sadly there are no ferry services between Scandinavia and England these days.  They ceased to exist a decade or so ago, allegedly because they weren’t profitable.  I am positive many motorcyclists would choose to go to England for service if they could without having to ride down to Holland. It would certainly pay for the ferry ticket, and at least one night at a decent hotel.

The service was the first good opportunity to have someone other than my dealer check the bike, since its complete rebuild winter 2018-2019. I told the people at the workshop the story, and they looked over it very thoroughly. Never before have a technician made a video while inspecting it. Pretty cool!

The whole service took the better half of the afternoon. Once done there wasn’t time left for riding. As a result we returned to Doncaster and switched to beer drinking and getting our faces stuffed instead.

Dave’s Buell X1 Lightning parked outside Allan Jeffries.

Yorkshire about, day 6

The next morning we jumped on the bikes right after breakfast. Weather was, well quite British, overcast with some dark clouds, and a little rain in the beginning. The sort that barely wet the tarmac.  Or gravel for that matter. But it fizzled out not long after our departure.

Regardless, when you travel in England or Wales you can not allow yourself to be bothered by some dark clouds, or meager rain showers. They will come, it will happen. I’m not a stranger to far worse and, as long as one stays dry, it’s alright. What bothers me the most about riding in rain and wet is the reduced sight.

Stopped at Fimber cafe along B1248

Fortunately for us it stayed in the dry, and even cleared up as morning drifted into afternoon. After a short coffee  & tea stop at Fimber we set course for Kirkham Priory, an Augustinian priory founded in 1120. Now a English Heritage site.

The entrance to the Kirkham Priory

Kirkham Priory is a sight worth stopping by if you ever travel through this part of Yorkshire.  A really good example of English Gothic medieval architecture, with ruins scattered across the fields.

The Kirkham Priory ruins by one of them

The site is set beautifully in an arch-English landscape close to the river Derwent.

Howard Castle

From Kirkham we carried on till Howard Castle which, despite the name, isn’t really a castle, but more of a “sizable” English country house. Back in those days house, well for some people, meant something else. However, the parking lot is quite a distance from the building complex, so you really need to have time, and be prepared for a walkabout.

I love architecture, but like to enjoy it from a pedestrian perspective. It’s not so fun wandering off when you’re in full riding gear. Or put in another way, it might be a sweltering experience. Had one of those last year, while trotting down to Eltz Castle. In 32C and with full gear, I had no need nor desire for a repetition, thank you very much!

Approaching Howard castle along The Stray, the property is huge

The weather also kept on improving and the temperature was on the rise. Because of that we left Castle Howard behind.

Across the Moors to Whitby

We now steered towards North Yorkshire Moors National Parks, and rode Hutton-le-Hole in direction of Rosedale. Riding across you’ll find a beautiful landscape of rolling hills with shrubs.

Black goats & North Yorkshire Moors, scenic and pretty

The roads are nice to ride, slightly rough pavement  roads, winding up and across. At the end across the moors it slopes heavily down towards Rosedale & Rosedale Abbey. In fact the downhill is so steep there are warning signs. Had that been in Norway the road surely would have been closed from late fall to early spring.

Dave roadside in Rosedale where we stopped for a tea & coffee

We stopped briefly, before carrying on across the Yorkshire North Moor National Park in direction of Whitby. The weather steadily continued to improve with our northwards progress.

The North Yorkshire east coast town Whitby

Coming into town we were greeted with the above scene, not bad? Whitby is a cute little town with old history.  Down at the harbour we made stop for to have a meal. According to my friend one of the best fish & chips places in all of Yorkshire you find in Whitby.

Trenchers takeaway in Whitby serves acclaimed fish & chips

I’ll openly admit, it tasted bloody awesome. Even more so because I don’t normally eat a lot of this food at home. Since I was in the home country of the fish & chips  it was a no-brainer. What else is there to say? Well, it’s not your average health food for sure!

Turning south

From Whitby we took the A169 past Saltergate in direction of Pickering.  If you ever ride in this direction maybe you’ll see something like the below scenery.

View at Saltergate carpark

Late in the evening we arrived in Doncaster. Truly a great day and a great ride through various parts of Yorkshire!