After our wee afternoon tea in Beverley we took a quick tour of the town as our hosts Paula and John were not available until after 5pm. Beverley is an old town having been founded around 700 AD and was once a rich trading and wool centre but faded somewhat in the 19th & 20th C. No matter, it remains a delightful town with a lovely centre and two large churches - Beverley Minster and St Marys - both superb architecturally and historically. More on both later.
Our hosts lived just along from the Minster so were easy to find. John welcomed us warmly as did Paula despite not long being back themselves from a trip to Cornwall. We settled ourselves in, had a cuppa and a chat before heading out with P&J to a free floating-cinema event in Hull harbour. We were early so went for a wander around the renewed docks area, taking in the aquarium, the tidal barrier & inner harbour where the fruit & vege markets used to be, now being re-purposed as a bohemian cafe & bar area. We bought ciders & juices for the movies from one of the bars before finding our seats - whilst it was a warm evening, later we were pleased we had brought our duvet jackets along. The main feature was about an Irish female surfer determined to bring surfing to the women of Iran - really interesting culturally and geographically. Had never thought of Iran as having a coastline let alone one with decent surfing waves! Prior to the main film there were 3 vignettes about local people giving something back to their communities through the work they do - insightful but went on for too long making the rest of the evening quite late.
Back in Beverley we enjoyed a cuppa & snack with P&J, talking about the state of Britain today, left wing politics and gothic culture, of which they are a part. John is orginally from South Africa and had some fascinating stories to tell about his time growning up their and early working life. Not an easy place to be if you're white and fall in love with a black woman! Paula, originally from Leeds area loves pigs and, being vegetarian, works to save them - she has an extensive collection of pig paraphenalia.
Evenings like this is my favourite part of the Warmshowers network - the meeting of new and interesting people, people who are open to the concept of sharing, of reciprocity, and are (usually) respectful of people and the environment. I know some have abused the concept but mostly it is a caring network basd on good old fashioned principles where hospitality is freely shared and no money changes hands. Long may it continue.
We slept in their 3rd floor bedroom in their 300(?) year old home, part of a terraced complex that runs all the way from the Minster. It is a house full of interesting objects and books that reflect the history and interests of our hosts. We were able to do a load of washing in the morning as we breakfasted but weren't sure we'd get it dry in time seeing as we awoke to a downpour that really didn't end until late afternoon!!! Good to get our cycling gear clean though ......
After a leisurely breakfast we donned our raincoats to walk over to Laura and John's (Laura is my 2nd cousin, once removed) to finally meet Laura with whom I have corresponded with through Facebook apart from hearing about her, John and their children via her parents, David and Audrey when they were still alive. We were warmly welcomed by John who took our dripping coats and showed us into the kitchen where Laura was - so lovely to talk with her and John about their 3 lads & life in general. Their son, Elliot came down to meet us and chat a little about the house maintenance work he does for the family company before the four of us went out the Wolds Village restaurant for lunch, taking the car rather than walk to a Beverley cafe in the pouring rain. We had a lovely lunch of soup & cake before returning to town so John & Elliot could complete a work task in good time.
After fond farewells, Caroline & I put our on raincoats and headed back into Beverley town centre to explore, firstly St Mary's Church (Laura & John worship there) then the outdoor stores, The Treasure House and finally the Minster.
St Mary's really is a gem yet it is not as well maintained at the Minster because its status is less; it basically has to raise its own money (GBP5 million needed) to ensure the building remains safe & open. Founded in 1120 with many additions over time particularly in 14thC. The various ceilings are features of this parish church as are the numerous carvings, one shown here is of a rabbit dressed as pilgrim said to be an inspiration for Lewis Carroll's rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
By the time we had finished looking round there & chatting with the volunteer on duty, the rain had reduced so we went on into town to seek out shoes for me and trousers for Caroline. My cycling shoes had disintegrated in France & my sandals were not great for cool, wet weather while Caroline's NZ trou had been patched enough to call time on them! We both found what we were looking for and again escaped the worst of the resumed deluge by hanging around in the two outdoor shops!
We had thought of heading back to P&J's directly but spied an enticing advert for The Treasure House, one of the local museums & galleries. They had an exhibition on holiday camps, which I was particularly interested to see entitled 'Morning Campers!' & included quite a bit on the development of Butlins. Holiday camps are a peculiarly British phenomenon, with my perception of them probably skewed by the TV programme 'Hi de Hi'. Such camps certainly provided great family holidays for the working classes before cheap flights to Torremolinos etc came along. We also enjoyed the Red Earth-Blue Water art of Susan Beaulah which was in the art gallery - such an observer of human movement & detail.
On our returned to P&J's we stopped in at The Minster just before it closed and managed to get a few photos of it's lovely interior.
The route took us through a grotty council housing estate where we got a bit lost as route signs were either worn, grafittied or removed. There was a great deal of litter about and the pathways were broken/wonky - would hate be disabled living there. So much potential for councils to spend money tidying up such a place and engaging the locals in such improvements - all a bit desperate presently that it would hard to have any pride in it.
Once we arrived in the centre of Hull, UK's 2017 City of Culture we could see where money had been spent recently as the area around the Minster had been repaved and shops spruced up. It all looked very nice with an interesting mix of old and new architecture - possibly reflecting where Hull was bombed or not during WWII [see Hull Blitz]. We mooched around a bit, visited the Minster, which was having extensive renovations done, and then sat in an old quarter cafe writing our last UK p/cards. We then pivcked up some nibbles & fruit for the ferry before cycling back to the waterfront where we'd been to the Floating Movies so I could have my final Edinburgh gin & Caroline a juice...... a cool wind blowing so didn't hang around.
Cycling to the ferry along a designated, well signposted cycle way was a pleasure - we could see some of the harbourside industry and were particularly impressed by the many, many wind turbine blades stored in the Siemens yard. [What will Brexit mean for them?] Also enjoyed the numerous art works along the pathway; certainly makes for a pleasant, welcoming entrance or exit for visitors entering or leaving Hull.
Once at the P&O office we had to wait for AGES to be processed - a huge number of trucks, cars, vans and motorbikes ahead of us but at least we had a number of otehr cyclists to talk to. The closest to us was a young family of two boys who go cycling each summer in Holland - a delightful foursome with whom we chatted off & on during the trip. The waiting seemed interminable; we wondered what service they offer to cyclists when it's pouring with rain as it was yesterday! We had to cycle up two steel ramps & then tie our bikes to railings.
Once onboard we found our cabin (two bunks & private bathroom), dropped our bags off then went for a wander to check out what P&O offer on their overnight cruises. A number of people actually do a two day cruise with a full day sight-seeing by bus in Amsterdam before returning for overnight journey back to Hull.
Anyway, we ate soup & bread for our meal as there were no veg pizzas left! ["Didn't get the delivery on time"], and the shop onboard did not sell magazines or newspapers so, from my perspective, P&O's services are not as good at Britany Ferries!!
No matter, the bed was comfy and the throb of the ship's engines soothing so I was soon asleep. We both slept well until awoken by the "Good morning, it's 6am Dutch time and breakfast service has begun". We finally dragged ourselves up, ate our fruit breakfast and packed up in readiness for disembarcation, which was a little later than expected due to tides and winds. Passport control was easy - a stamp in the NZ passport for Caroline - and then we were away cycling into Rotterdam, 30km from where the ferry berthed! The day was overcast but decidely warmer than Britain. The next leg of our European adventure had begun.
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