We're lucky nobody was hurt!

We took a rare blogging day off yesterday! But we're back on track now, and so I'll combine Thursday and Friday together in this post.

On Thursday, we spent the day running some errands with friends Glen and Steve.

This started off with lunch out at a nearby Wetherspoons Pub. Wetherspoons is a chain of pubs throughout UK and Ireland that is known for it's daily and afternoon specials and reasonable pricing.

Ruth and I each had the curry. It was really good!

Cleckheaton Town Hall.

Ruth and Glen at Dewsbury

Dewsbury Town Hall.

We played some cards in the evening and had a couple of glasses of single malt!

On Friday morning we said goodbye to Glen and Steve, They are off on a river cruise in Europe for a couple of weeks, then heading back to their American motorhome which is stored in Texas waiting for their return.

Ruth and I drove over to the town of Beverley, just north of Hull. Glen had suggested it as a nice place to stop on our way to Hull, and it was. They have a huge minster (church) located there.

St. Mary's in Beverley is the largest parish church in England.

It is actually larger than some of the cathedrals in England.

Fancy stone statues.

The organ pipes.

Fancy gothic decorations.

Grave from the year 1655.

The church has been here for over 900 years.

Fancy wood doors.

We went and wandered around the shopping area. We're specifically looking for rain ponchos for our upcoming Albania hike. We don't want the really cheap ones, but also we don't want to spend £35 each on the really good ones.

We ended up in a Trespass outdoors store, and that particular location had a big 60% off sale. The expensive £35 ponchos were included, and actually marked down to £12 each! Unfortunately, they didn't have the size we wanted, but they said they could order them in, and at the cheap price, but we would have to return there to pick them up. (There are other Trespass store locations, but apparently they weren't included in this sale). So it will mean for another drive up to this area later in the week, but it's worth it to us to get the good ones that we thought were going to be too expensive.

Walking through Beverley.

The central area is all pedestrian streets.

We then drove to the city of Hull where we went to visit a distant relative. It's was actually my mother's cousin's birthday. Her son is about our age, and he is my second cousin. 

The birthday girl, Beryl turned 84 yesterday.

Beryl has always been very active. She hiked the Inca Trail in Peru when she was 70, and only last week went on a camping trip.

They made fresh pizza for everyone.

The outdoor pizza oven.

We've never see one of these.

It's just a log, but it is cut through so that air can pass through the cuts. You light the top with a small piece of wood, and it burns really well. You don't even need to add any more to it.

Good for roasting marshmallows!

Cousin Shirley with Ruth.

The garden is beautiful, but a lot of work.

Beautiful roses.

The log, two hours later.

A few minutes after I took that photo of the log burning, there was a loud explosion. Ruth, Shirley, and I had been sitting very close to it, just chatting. Then a loud bang like a shotgun went off! It turns out the rock base that the log was on had somehow exploded, and sent hot coals everywhere. Ruth ended up with a burn hole in her sweater, and I have one in my jacket. And a few big holes in the outdoor sofa we were sitting on. We're really lucky that it wasn't worse. Someone could easily have been hurt.

Aerial view of the party.

Simon runs Airbnb rooms out of his big house, and he had one of those ready for us to stay the night. The house is a huge old constant restoration project. You can read more about it here.

Today, we are going to walk around Hull for a bit, then meet up with cousin Beryl again, then we are off to the village of Kirk Smeaton about 50 kms (30 miles) SE of here.

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