Darlington,County Durham, England - 03/16/17

Darlington: We arrive in Darlington, a large market town in Durham. Darlington is also involved with industry and railway, as are Liverpool and York, and the city also hosts a small railway museum inside it's railway station, but the Railway Museum we visited in York, has everything on this one.
The town became a center for railway manufacturing, and in particular for bridge building during the industrial revolution. Darlington made bridges are found as far the the Amazon river and the River Nile. Darlington is also responsible for the construction of Tyne Bridge, Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge (which we visited in Middlesbrough), Humber Bridge (where we arrived in Kingston Upon Hull) and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, all very important bridges.

• Interesting facts:  Darlington has a great intercity railway transport.
• Darlington was the first town in the UK to have an official twitter account, tweeting for and about the town.

Darlington is well known for it's tolerance of diverse lifestyles, being the first town in England to legalize same-sex ceremonies, in 2001. The town thus has a considerable presence of LGBT community, hosting weekly and yearly events, such as the weekly Gay night and the Gay Pride.
Darlington has a clock tower similar to that we saw in London, we learned that the bell used in this tower is actually a twin bell to the Big Ben in Elizabeth Tower. The tower is located in Darlington Market Hall.

We arrive in Darlington, a large market town in Durham. Darlington is also involved with industry and railway, as are Liverpool and York, and the city also hosts a small railway museum inside it's railway station. Darlington is known for bridge construction and railways.

We were interested to visit the Market Hall firstly because of the clock tower and secondly because there isn't much information about it where we searched. Market Hall has been active since 1863, with a variety of goods and services, such as Floriculture, Fresh meat, Hardware, Clothing, jewelry, cards and gifts. Many of the stores have been trading for over 50 years, being passed from generation to generation
The statue on the upper right corner is in honor of Joseph Pease (1799-1872), a pioneer in the railway system born in Darlington. He managed Stockton and Darlington Railway, after his father established it in 1825. They built the world's first public locomotive railway, where Locomotive n°1 first traveled. The railway connected Shildon and Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington

We were very excited to visit the Majestic cinema in Darlington, after being to The Electric cinema in Birmingham that was also restored and revitalized. The Majestic was opened in the 1930s and was for a time the cinema with the most seats in the world, with 1,580 seats, until it closed in 1975.

 The city and the people were very welcoming and we felt more relaxed being here, as we didn't need to worry too much about the "unmissable" stops. 

Middlesbrough, Durham borough, UK - 03/15/17

Middlesbrough Is a large industrial town in the Teeside (river Tee) region in North Yorkshire, it's the most populous of the region with 174.700 inhabitants in 2011. Today it is also a University town.
Middlesbrough is known for it's envolvment with steel production (as is Sheffield, our 8th stop) through the mining of Ironstone and the presence of foundries and industry, such as ship makers. Teeside set the world price for iron and steel for many years in the 19th century and had a very rapid development, achieving a population of over 180.000. Together with iron and steel production, the city also is dominated by engineering and chemical industry.
For the qualities mentioned, Middlesbrough was the first main British city to be bombarded during WW2, it was first attacked in 25 May 1940.
Captain James Cook, (cited in Whitby) was born in Mason, now MIddlesbrough

- Our research while heading here drowned us with football and Middlesbrough teams, that shouldn't be ignored, the city is a major sport center, we'll be heading to the football stadium to investigate.

"We reached this intriguing city, apparently it is a football city ?" - We are in Middlesbrough, a large industrial town in the Teeside (river Tee) region in North Yorkshire, it's the most populous of the region with 174.700 inhabitants as of 2011. Today it is also a University town.

Many habiticans have the habit of researching about the stops whenever possible, be it internet cafes or free WiFi, however, looking Middlesbrough up only resulted in countless football matches, as if Middlesbrough wasn't a city but solely the name of a soccer team. - "We gotta start visiting stadiums already, they are also pretty important, I guess we start here. This Riverside Stadium opened in 1995 and has been the home to Middlesbrough FC ever since" - "Now, I'm very curious, I've never heard of Middlesbrough FC before, but they exist since 1876!" - We sat down for the first time in 5 weeks, taking 25 seats out of the 33.746, and watched a national macht for 1:30 hours, the crowd was... wild.

We had the opportunity to see the Tess Transporter Bridge in action, one of the few transporter bridges in the world, two are in here in Middlesbrough, one in London, another two in Germany, Vizcaya Bridge in Spain and Puente Transbordador in Argentina. The idea of the transporter bridge is to carry vehicles and passengers in a 'gondola', to cross bodies of water. It was only relevant before the popularity of cars, today there are only twelve transporter bridges left. Tees bridge was built in 1911 and crosses a section of river Tess in 90 seconds. The gondola can carry 200 people, 9 cars, or 6 cars and one minibus

We were told that one of the attractions here in Middlesbrough is the Town Hall, which is actually a concert hall, with a bar beneath it. We arrived just in time for Classical Cafe music event. The hall was built with the same material as the walls in Machu Picchu, sandstone ashtar, in the late 19th century, being one of the last Gothic style town halls built in England.

We visited two of the three cultural institutions in town, the Dorman Memorial Museum and the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Stewart Park, the third one is Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art First we stop by Dorman Museum, a social history museum founded in honor of George Loockwood Dorman, who died in the Second Boer War, which we only learned about today. It opened in 1904 and within it's collection are stuffed animals, such as a mounted eagle owl, a rampant lion and insects, a large archive with many documents about the city, botanical collections, coins and medals, costumes and textiles, decoration, Fossils, Rocks and Minerals in the Geological Collection, over 1.500 objects from different world cultures, the fore mentioned Social History collection and more than 150.000 specimens in the Zoological Collection. There are also 8 permanent display galleries; in short, they tell the social history of women in Middlesbrough and the evolution of the town with time including it's original planning, a look at planet earth and it's resources, a gallery based on the work 'Birds of Yorkshire' by Thomas Hudson Nelson. It was a very productive time, we learned quite a lot with the museum's immense collection. Then we took a slight break from it all and visited Steward Park

Steward Park, a place full of nature and life, with only 120 acres (0.5 km²) of extension, still it has all you would expect, including lakes and playgrounds. - "a public possession, open and accessible to all the people for all time" - Councillor Thomas Dormand Stewart in 1924.
Stewart Park was officially opened to the public on 23 May 1928. The site of the cottage where Captain Cook was born is within the park, it is marked with a pink granite urn.

From here we go to Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, it is not a coincidence that it is located here in Stewart Park

Opened in 1978 on the 250th anniversary of Naval explorer and Circumnavigator James Cook, Cook Birthplace Museum is a biographical museum which surveys his life and journeys, with a personal collection including household items. It also includes a series of interactive displays and temporary travelling exhibitions as well as a cafe, gift shop, education suite and resources and archive room.

We heard that Darlington was responsible for the construction of Transporter Bridge, we are heading to another industrial town

Whitby, North Yorkshire England - 03/13/17

 Whitby is a seaside civil parish in Scaraborough, England. East of York, our last stop. It got it's name in 1078, meaning "white settlement"(Witebi) in Old Norse.
Whitby is a city of historical importance, being the birthplace to the earliest of the 11 recognized medieval English poets, Caedmon(Cædmon), also being the adopted home of explorer Captain Cook. In the 18th century Whitby was also popular for it's Jet and Alum mining, apart from being a port.
The city is most popular for it's coastline, for the national park North York Moors, with 554² miles/1.436 km² and a population of over 24.000, and for being the setting for the book Dracula from Bram Stoker, (which we read at Birmingham Library, were very exited for and then became afraid to walk at night because of it. One of the reasons why we were visiting parks so often was to collect garlic flowers to defend ourselves, the stakes were the easy part).
The natal rate in Whitby is negative, there was a decrease of 13.213 people from 2001 to 2011
Since 1974 Whitby has been administered by Scarborough Borough Council, one of the seven district councils in North Yorkshire.

On the road to Whitby we stopped and meditated, gathering our memories of the places we visited, creating some sort of metaphysical travel diary, which took the form of this blog

First things first, we came here looking for beaches and we got it! Most interestingly, we all found the setting familiar, as if we had read about it somewhere. - This is Robin Hood's bay, we learned that is was the setting to some Bramblewick novels, bur we have never heard of them before, that's not why they are so familiar. We will need to research more.

We were told by the natives back in York that many fossils, including dinosaur bones and footprints, can be found at the bays in Whitby, so we came prepared to do some fossil hunting. Once here we learned that there is a stretch of coast called the Fossil Coast (or Dinosaur/Jurassic Coast) where the presence of fossils is abundant, it covers over 35 miles/56 km of the coast and many important fossils such as a Sauropod backbone have been found here. We came here expecting to make big discoveries but in the end all we found were some corals and petrified eggs, next time we bring the power tools. For now we will try to uncover the mystery behind the familiarity of the place.

Walking around the bay we sighted an interesting structure on the background in Bay Town and started walking towards it.

The trail led us to some steps, we counted 199, St Mary's Church is right ahead, we were told, an Anglican church founded in 1110. When we realized where we were a collective fear engulfed us and sent shivers down our spines. -"Where have we brought ourselves to ?!!" - "OH MY SHOES!"

Being in this place and seeing this scenery made us instantly remember a description we read in a book back in Birmingham Library: "For a moment or two I could see nothing, as the shadow of a cloud obscured St. Mary's Church. Then as the cloud passed I could see the ruins of the Abbey coming into view; and as the edge of a narrow band of light as sharp as a sword-cut moved along, the church and churchyard became gradually visible... It seemed to me as though something dark stood behind the seat where the white figure shone, and bent over it. What it was, whether man or beast, I could not tell." We then knew where we actually where, the setting for the novel Dracula by 'Bram Stoker.

We got over the scare and the mages casted a blessing spell to heal the guild, only now did we open our eyes and notice how strange some people are dressed. Turns out they are getting ready for Whitby Goth Weekend, a townwide music festival which happens every April and October

The town is famous for being an inspiration for the writing of Dracula, being place to a Dracula experience building, which we will pass for now. Our last experience was scary enough.

Lastly we visit the North York Moors to appreciate the unique views and vegetation, making our way to Middlesbrough. North York Moors is a National Park with one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the UK, with a total area of 554² miles/1.436 km². It sustains three main types of landscape; The North York Moors, with acid soil, The limestone belt, with fertile alkaline soils and, The coast landscape, with shore vegetation. It is populated by farmers and cattle, with over 24.000 individuals.

Next stop, Ironland! We guess that's what the taste of blood resembles the most.

York, Yorkshire, England - 03/10/17

York is the county town of Yorkshire, like Chester (one of our previous stops) it is a walled city, at the meeting of rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. In 2011 the population of York was 198,051.
York grew with chocolate industries and railways as the main contractors, being the birthplace to brands such as KitKat and Yorkie bars, and having factories such as Nestle, which also grew here, being current contractors. Also, for it's location, it grew as a river port, receiving great traffic and transporting products.
York hosts the biggest Food and Drink Festival in the UK, attracting over 150.000 people over the course of 10 days

We arrive in York, the city of ghosts and KitKat (according to our online sources), and the birth place of notorious Guy Fawkes. York is most famous for being a major chocolate manufacturer, place to many chocolate brands now acquired by Nestlé, one of the most important manufacturers is Rowntree, which created the KitKat, along with many other brands.

Presumably, one of the most important stops here in York is Minster Cathedral, the largest Gothic Cathedral in North England. We learned that the Cathedral was built over 3 other churches and was severely damaged and recovered at least five times (a common occurrence with European cathedrals); once in a fire in 741, damaged by William the Conqueror in 1069, destroyed by the Danes (a Germanic tribe) in 1075 and again by fire in 1137 and 1984. It was also expanded and remodeled numerous times.

Entering the cathedral we are welcomed by original statues, faces and gargoyles, each with a different expression, going from silly to macabre. We are also very surprised by the height of the place, it's like there is no ceiling at all! Next we see the Great Window, the largest medieval age tempered glass window in existence. We also appreciate the misericords and the naves of the cathedral. Unfortunately the access to the crypts was closed at the time we arrived, but the beauty of York's main cathedral is satisfying enough.

We heard about the involvement of George Hudson's York and North Midland Railway with the development of the city and decided to visit the award winning Nation Railway Museum and use this opportunity to also visit the Air Museum in York. Railway Museum, as the name suggests, is a museum which tells the story of rail transport in England, it holds the national collection of significant railway vehicles, pictures and written records as well as a few imported locomotives (mostly asian). It houses over 400 items, circa 100 of them being locomotives, (including the "Flying Scotsman" the fastest locomotive in the world) and over 300 items of rolling stock, although there are many hundreds of thousands of other objects and records. It was established in 1975 and it is believed that it is the largest museum of it's type in England and the second in the world. it has won many awards including European Museum of the Year in 2001. It's collection is vast. In Elvington, York, we visited Yorkshire Air Museum, the only memorial to allied air forces in Europe. It is an independent museum opened in 1980, it's main focus is in education and the history of flight. We discovered that it houses over 60 aircraft, 20 historic vehicles and 250.000 artifacts and most of the staff are volunteers. On the museum's walls we notice many awards, we see that it has won: Top Specialist Attraction in UK - 2011 & 2015; Top Attraction in Yorkshire, Press Top Tourism Business; York Top Marketing Award and Winalot Top Dog Friendly Museum in UK. http://yorkshireairmuseum.org/exhibits/

We heard rumors about York's Central Library and went there to investigate. We couldn't find any evidence proving that it was indeed the first public library in the world, nor did it's establishment amuse us, we got a quick read from it's collection anyway, 1984 by George Orwell, and quickly left.

Our visit to York is almost over, we spend our last day getting to know the city''s nature, walking around the 6 Stray parks in York: Bootham Stray, Micklegate Stray, Knavesmire,Hob Moor) Monk Stray and Walmgate Stray. Together these parks contain over 800 acres (3.2 km2) of land, York Racecourse, animal population such as cows and cradle, statues, university buildings, a sight to Yorks Cemetery and a plaque to Joseph Rowntree, who as we already know, founded Rowntrees chocolate factory.

We are are expecting to spend some time at England's beaches, something we haven't done yet. Hopefully Whitby has beaches!

Kingston Upon Hull - 03/08/17

Usually abbreviated to Hull, Kingston Upon Hull is a city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The cities Sheffield and Leeds, previous stops, are also from Yorkshire.

Hull was founded in the late 12th century by Meaux Abbey monks who needed somewhere to stock their wool. A land was then selected in 1193 by the river Hull as the place where the wool would be exported to.

Kingston Upon Hull is the current UK's city of culture, a designation given to a city in the United Kingdom for a period of one year every four years. It's aim is to improve the city's social and economic development, Hull was chosen based on the theme "city coming out of the shadows". Hull is only the second city to receive this title, the first was Derry, Northern Ireland, in 2013. The City of Culture designation makes the city a spotlight and a host for main events.

• Interesting facts: The city is unique in the UK for having had cream telephone boxes, instead of red. As it is the only city in the UK with its own independent telephone network company, KCOM (Kingston Communications)
• The first public hydraulic power network, supplying many companies, was constructed in Hull. The Hull Hydraulic Power Company, starting in 1877. This system trasmits mechanical power through pressurized liquids in pipes

This is our entire journey in Europe currently. - From Maine, US, across the Atlantic, and finally reaching England. This is our second week on land.

We are currently in Hull, the 2017 UK's City of Culture. - Check out this video to feel the citys atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J9MCEq0zTQ [Hull in 2015] -

In our previous stop we heard some rumors about a 'high quality walkway'called Viking Way, and went to investigate. We couldn't help but to use it and see where it took us. Turns out we arrived in 2017 UK's City of Culture, Kingston Upon Hull! right at Humber Bridge

The Viking way led us to Humber Bridge in Kingston Upon Hull, a suspension bridge opened in 1981 and once the longest of it's type, now being placed 8th, with 2.2 km (7.28 ft) extension, connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. It also has a walking/cycling path, what else could we ask for ?

First we stop at St Stephen's Mall to eat and buy some new clothes, since we are already walking for 2 weeks and have only gotten ourselves new running shoes at Trinity mall in Leeds. Hull Truck Theater is right next to it, a purple flag quality, Best Visiting Production 2013 theater, founded in 1971. St Stephens is part of a very anticipated rejuvenation plan in Hull, other six major areas in the city are being rejuvenated in a 15 years masterplan.

How could we visit the city of culture without getting to know one of it's museums ? We stop by Hull and East Riding Museum, one of the eight museums in Hull, because we discovered that It contains Britain's largest surviving prehistoric boat, the Hasholme boat, but we learned much more. The museum exhibits objects from different historic times, making a timeline of the development of human culture and life itself. Here is the video we saw of it before getting in (many Habiticans have the habit of using internet cafés or using free wifi whenever possible to research about the stops): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU8kyKRRyXI [Hull and East Riding Museum in Hull]

UK's city of culture is a designation given to a city in the United Kingdom for a period of one year every four years. It's aim is to improve the city's social and economic development, Hull was chosen based on the theme "city coming out of the shadows". Hull is only the second city to recieve this title, the first was Derry, Northern Ireland, in 2013. The City of Culture designation makes the city a spotlight and a host for main events. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nhmS2fe5mA      [Welcome to Hull - City of Culture 2017 BBC Documentary 2017]

It was great taking our chances and following along the Viking Way, we never expected to arrive at a so important and so interesting place. Our next stop is expected to be very interesting too, we chose it thinking of a city in the United States. We are listening to Hull bands as we walk> https://goo . gl/OvEM8N Most of the time singing parts of Independent Love Song by Scarlet > https://www . youtube . com/watch?v=ElkqPNvMj6w

Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England - 03/05/17

Lincoln is a city in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the county town. The city had a population of 94.600 in 2012. Interesting fact: Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world for 238 years until one of it's spires fell during a storm (1311–1549), then it was second, behind only of the Pyramid of Giza in this period. Today it is also only the third largest cathedral in the world.

Lincoln is a very old human accommodation that has been preserved with it's original structure; original street structure, original archways and original building styles. Lincoln is one of those cities that allow for a contrast of modern technology with the way of life from the past. With ATM's and Telephone booths as red boxes on the street, cobblestone pavement, tight alleys and antique construction, we see modern cars going through archways that exist for millennia as if the whole city is a museum, a historic city so to speak.

Lincoln’s contribution to modern warfare was the invention of the tank. Built by William Foster & Co during World War One, the very first tanks were tested on the area now occupied by Tritton Road. The city was deeply involved in the Bomber Command during WW2, the first Memorial dedicated to the bombers was placed in Lincoln Cathedral in 2006, the next one would be in London in 2012.

From Boston to Lincoln we walked more 32 miles, reaching the city within 2 days.

Lincoln is a very old human accommodation that has been preserved with it's original structure; original street structure, original archways and original building styles. Lincoln is one of those cities that allow for a contrast of modern technology with the way of life from the past. With ATM's and Telephone booths as red boxes on the street, cobblestone pavement, tight alleys and antique construction, we see modern cars going through archways that exist for millennia (Newport Arch) as if the whole city is a museum, a historic city so to speak.

To get to know the city better we decided to visit the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, the largest and most diverse community museum in the county with over 250.000 objects, containing early machinery, such as tractors and excavators, and one of the first tanks used in war, it's collection dates from 1750 to today.

To get to Lincoln Catedral we walk up the Steep Hill street, an alley like street with many shops and pubs, once named Britain's best place by the Academy of Urbanism. The hill has 14% gradient and it's central part is so steep that it is unsuited for any form of vehicle, being only accessible on foot. The entrance to Lincoln Cathedral is at the top of the hill.

Lincoln Cathedral or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, was the tallest building in the world for 238 years until one of it's spires fell during a storm (1311–1549), then it was second, behind only of the Pyramid of Giza in this period. Today it is also only the third largest cathedral in the world. It's construction begun in 1088 and continued in stages during the medieval era. The cathedral has been severely damaged at least three times, the roof was destroyed in a fire in 1121, in 1185 it collapsed due to an earthquake and in 1237 the main tower collapsed, probably due to changes from the rebuilding done after the earthquake (some residents ironically say that it can fall at any time; due to crumbling of stonework and the discovery that only a 5mm (0.20 in) shift would make an entire window collapse). But until 1549 it was still the tallest man made structure in the world, with 525 feet (160 m). Lincoln Cathedral is one of the few English cathedrals built from the rock it is standing on. The cathedral's stonemasons use more than 100 tonnes of stone per year for maintenance and repairs and it's said that the quarry which provides these stones will run out in 2021.

Boston, Lincolnshire

Intrigued by the name, we deviated our original route and decided to go through Boston, Lincolnshire, UK.
Most of us are only familiar to the Boston in Massachusetts, USA, though we know that many American cities are named after European ones. The European Boston is indeed the inspiration for the name of the american city, as it was named by Boston emigrants, after sanctified Botwulf of Thorney, meaning 'Botwulf's town'. Boston citizens are known as Bostonians. though nowadays the city is not doing very well, Boston is currently in the middle of a "migration crisis", it has just been named the worst integrated town in England. with and increase of 467% of foreign population from 2001 to 2011.
As we go by we hear many languages being spoken, some are the native language of fellow Habiticans, we hear; some Russian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, and occasionaly, English. On top of that, Boston is also taxed as UK's 'murder capital' being first in a rank created with a crime map of England and Wales.
We understand that migration is not the actual problem, but the rate at which it happened. There was a drastic change in very little time.
Enough with the bad things. As one would think, Boston also has great things on it's name, being place for the church with the largest tower in the world, St' Botolph church, known as *The Stump*, which is thereby place for the statue of Herbert Ingram, a very important Bostonian character for England. Herbert Ingram is the founder of The Illustrated London News (in his words; *the concern of the magazine would be "with the English poor" and the "three essential elements of discussion with us will be the poor laws, the factory laws, and the working of the mining system"*) and was the representative of Boston, helping to bring the first railway to the city and also fresh piped water. Another very important Bostonian was Botwulf of Thorney, * "a man of remarkable life and learning, full of the grace of the Holy Spirit"*, over 71 ancient churches in England were dedicated to him also a few bridges and streets.
Interesting facts: The Pilgrim Fathers were judged at Boston Guildhall.
Boston was the Dutch town in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing [imdb]

Intrigued by the name, we deviated our original route and decided to go through Boston, Lincolnshire. Arriving within 21 hours

As we passed by we had the chance to see one of the largest operating windmills in England, the Maud Foster windmill (80 feet tall)/ (24.38 m tall), built in 1819 and located in Skirbeck, Boston

As we go by we hear many languages being spoken, some are the native language of fellow Habiticans, we hear; some Russian, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, and occasionaly, English

We went to one of the most important Boston places, St Botolphs church, which has the tallest parish church tower in England, approximately 272 feet (83 m high). The current church was begun in 1309, though it is believed that it was built over an existing smaller church, built by Botolph. The church also has a library, which is one of the top ten biggest in England.

We couldn't find more interesting places to visit, but it was still worth it. Being in Boston made us think better about our own immigration problems, and to get to know a place that gave name to a city in the Us, Boston in Massachusetts, as well to visit UK's biggest parish towers.