We’ve started 2016 with a trip to the stunning Yorkshire Coast. The weather has reminded us of British Holidays We Have Had over the years, but we did get one sunny day.

It’s a very hilly town, so we’ve started to get fit after a long lull over the winter. There are lots of different places to walk to, shops, fish and chip shops, but we have realised it’s best to stay out of the town centre at the weekend, and probably August as well!

We didn’t let the dull weather keep us in…

After all, we have Photoshop and a good stock of nice blue skies.

That rainbow was shot off the ferry to the Isle of Lewis – that’s artistic licence!

Here’s our ration of sun for today:

Colin got that red fleece at Mont Saint Michel five years ago and it still looks like new, it’s just the thing for adding a splash of colour.

We knew there was a good shot to be had of the Three Bridges, what we didn’t know was that we would need waders, so we got this one instead!

Now for the exciting bit! As we were driving along we spotted a sign to say the the Flying Scotsman would be steaming into Grosmont Station – just up the road! There has been a lot of excitement in Yorkshire since the Scotsman arrived back in York recently, after 10 years of refurbishment. It was built at Doncaster in 1923, and had been out of service since 1963. It’s famous because it was the first steam locomotive to reach 100mph. We knew we were in the right place due to all the cars parked everywhere, and found ourselves a spot – £5! But they did give us a special 4X4 spot…

You’ll notice the trees are leaning, I don’t know why, I was careful to get the yellow lines straight(ish).

We made our way to the station, and found the train had broken down and we had two hours to wait. That seems a long time, but the time passed really quickly. We had a station tea room lunch, which reminded us of the great days of British Rail Buffets, which you youngsters may not have experienced. I thought you would like to see what we had…

The spotty things are Yorkshire Curd Tarts.

There were hundreds of people on the platform, and a sour faced man failing to spoil everyone’s day by marching up and down and getting everyone to stand away from the edge of the platform. Apparently someone had fallen on the line on Wednesday, requiring a lot of forms to be filled in. We cleverly found ourselves a good spot where we could get a good view and use our long lenses. Ha!

The train came in backwards, and the engine at the back is not the Flying Scotsman! All those people on platform two had got tickets. There were a lot of carriages, all full – someone came along to our side selling the last two seats, but we will take a trip when it is a sunny day!

This is the Flying Scotsman! We couldn’t get through the crowd, so we couldn’t get to the front.

Well, we got a picture of the number, and as you can see, the locomotive is green! Still, we really enjoyed ourselves. I don’t know what it is about trains, I almost welled up when it came into the station.

As usual, we would like to stay longer, but tomorrow we are off to York, where the Scotsman has its home, at the National Railway Museum, so maybe we will get a better view there.