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Saturday, March 11, 2017

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

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