Scarborough in the mist

Early this morning mist rolled in from the North Sea and enveloped Scarborough for much of the day.

Fortunately the air temperature was fairly mild, making it good for walking. First we visited the cliffside gardens directly below the road where Andrea lives. There's an Italian design garden which is celebrating its centenary this year, having been finished for the holiday season just before the First World War broke out.

It's been restored to former glory after years of municipal neglect by local enthusiastic garden loving volunteers, and its history properly researched. On this weekend several of them turned out early and stayed all day with a history exhibition, welcoming visitors.

We then walked along through the gardens into the town centre, and had lunch in the town's covered market cafe. The building itself is a huge unappealing rectangular barn of a place, but boasts vaulted cellars underneath, which have been transformed into small retail spaces, almost all of which are full, offering a variety of specialised services, crafts, toys, picture framing,  IT, hairdressing etc, dozens of them, a haven for dozens of small businesses.

The town itself has many small shops and independent retailers in addition to the major retail chains. It has preserved a high level of diversity, often absent from towns and cities further south.

We then walked on up on to the peninsular ridge that divides Scarborough's south bay from the north. The ancient castle and the twelfth century Parish church are on top of this, with Anna Bronte's grave in the adjacent churchyard.

Some of the oldest streets in Scarborough run down its south slope to the harbour. There was a wedding going on in the church, so we weren't able to look around. The castle higher up was completely enveloped in cloud, and unable to offer any interesting views in any direction, so we walked down to the harbour through almost deserted streets, and were surprised to see bustling crowds of holidaymakers filling the promenade and sitting on the beach despite being enveloped in a blanket of sea fog. Quite a surreal picture.

It being the first weekend of family summer holidays for many would, I imagine, strengthen determination to get on the beach and stay there no matter what the weather conditions. If this were the Costa del Sol, the beach would be deserted!