Hull

On my second day in York I went and saw the National Railway Museum and the York Minster. The Railway Museum had loads of trains (as you might expect) from the really old locomotives to a Japanese Bullet Train. There was a huge section on the Flying Scotsman and one of the old trains had sections taken out of it so you could see how it worked. As I walked around I couldn't help feeling Id been there before so maybe I visited it when I was over here 12 or more years ago (*looks at mum and dad*). I didn't see much of the HUGE York Minster as you had to pay to get in and I was almost out of money but I did go up the tower to get a good view of the rest of York. I saw a bit of the inside which was pretty impressive, lots of high domed ceilings.

Later that evening Richard and I left York and we headed to Hull where Richard's family lives. On Sunday, Richard and Sandra took me to see the third longest suspension bridge in the world at about 1300m long which was pretty cool. I got a great photo of it at a place called The Deep, the worlds only submarium. A few days later I went in while looking around with James, my second cousin and its a really great place. They have a massive number of different types fish ranging from tiny jelly fish to poisenous tree frogs to a variety of sharks including small hammerheads. Earlier that day we went to look at the Hull Maritime Museum, Hull used to be a big fishing port and the museaum had many models and relics from back in the day when fishing of all kinds including whaling used to be big in Hull.
James also invited me to a party where, even though I was the eldest by around 4 or 5 years I had a good chat with people and even met a guy who had been to Adelaide a couple of times.

Later on in the week Richard and Sandra were kind enough to invite me on their family holiday up to the Yorkshire Moors for a few days. The moors looked very similar to Dartmoor and Exmoor moors that I visited earlier in my trip down in the south of England but were no less beautiful. During one of the days we took a long walk around and came across not only the village where they film the BBC show Heartbeat but also a small railway station that apparently featured in one of the Harry Potter movies.
On the last night there we cooked our evening meal (sausages) over the fire that we had spent a lot of time starting a few days before as a result of a total lack of matches or lighters. Luckily with an electric stove, some paper and some of my oh so very handy scout craft we EVENTUALLY managed to get it lit. We kept it going for three days and even built a small stove around it (and the sausages tasted awesome).
The next day we went to a coastal town called Whitby before heading home. Whitby is famous for a couple of reasons; for one it is the home, the inspiration and the setting behind the classic novel Dracula and secondly; it is the birthplace of a famous man called James Cook.
As we walked around town we noticed there was a large number of the dark and incredibly stylish goth community in town at the moment. As it turned out there was a Goth convention on as a run up to Halloween and Goths from everywhere were all flocking to Whitby and the apparent burial ground of Dracula himself.

Im back in Hull now and tomorrow Ill be setting off to Retford to visit Joy; a old friend of my mums. Then Im dropping by at Nottingham for a night to visit one very nerdy location then down the east coast to visit more relatives before I stop in london again and then back to Cheriton for a week or so before its off to Canada.
Only a month to go before much skiing and boarding commences, cant wait!

Have a good one.