A COLLEAGUE at work had highly recommended we visit Whitby on the east coast of England, near the North Yorkshire Moors.
Have fish and chips at The Magpie, he said.
Take a load off at Scarborough to the south and you can't miss Robin Hood’s Bay, he said.
I already knew that Whitby's main claim to fame in Australian history was that Captain James Cook began his seafaring career there and it remains one of the UK’s main fishing ports.
Its other claim to fame is that the writer Bram Stoker first had the idea for his legendary novel Dracula there, inspired by the 7th century Whitby Abbey and the steps built into the cliff face leading to the churchyard.
But at the last minute, we took a detour, deciding that while we were in the neighbourhood, we should learn more about our heritage.
So we planned two new stops south of Edinburgh: Rosslyn Chapel, of Da Vinci Code fame, and a little-known town called Galashiels.
Intrigue surrounding ancestors on both sides of our family made the decision easy for us in the end.
The Sinclair name will forever be associated with the town of Rosslyn's most famous place of worship, which the First Earl of Caithness Sir William Sinclair built in the 1400s for his brood.
The chapel was previously the Catholic Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, and was built on a small hill above Roslin Glen.
From floor to ceiling, every surface is covered with carvings of figures, objects, faces and scenes (unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside)
With a family motto on our crest that reads: "Commit thy work to God", it remains uncertain whether Sir William was spending the kids' inheritance with a Christian masterpiece or trying to buy his place in heaven.
The result, however, is as beautiful as it is undeniably thought-provoking and mysterious
We joined a guided tour and sat in on a lecture identifying various images in the stonework, their meanings, as well as myths and legends including the murder of an apprentice mason by his jealous master over the completion of the most celebrated column in the chapel.
Thanks to Hollywood annual visitor numbers jumped from about 33,000 to more than five-fold the year after The Da Vinci Code starring Tom Hanks hit the big screen.
Stories surrounding the ancient Knights Templar order, secrets buried deep in the chapel, and the intricate stonework and its supposed messages weren't the only reasons for our detour just south of Edinburgh, however.
My husband's grandfather was only two when his family migrated to Australia from Galashiels in Scotland - first settling in South Australia before moving to Queensland.
He wondered what had prompted the Lowrie family to move across to the other side of the world in 1891.
The neat and tidy little town seems to love its pubs as much as its parks and gardens, and it was in one of the pubs that we learnt the 1890s was a boom time for the area with plenty of work in the mills and good farming returns. The mystery deepened.
One of the locals steered us in the direction of Old Gala House up the road where a blushing young bride and her proud kilted father were walking up the stairs for her traditional Scottish wedding.
While the photos on the walls of the teahouse and reception rooms held no joy for us, hubbie now has some homework of his own to do in contacting the local Scottish Borders Historical Society and researching more of his family tree.
Lesson of the day: The time you gain with the European twilight in summer is directly proportional to the amount of time you need to sleep in or use as siesta time, given all the running around you are likely to do as a tourist.
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