Beverley

Welcome to the East Riding of Yorkshire! This picture was taken on the banks of the River Hull, which is actually the river that the River Ouse near my flat empties into eventually, and we are looking at the Humber Suspension Bridge. For those of you interested in such things, here are some facts about the bridge: Construction began in 1973 and it took 8 years to complete the thing. The counties involved are still paying for it and it is a toll bridge! This bridge remained the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world for many years and it is apparently still the longest in Europe (3rd in the world). The distance between the towers is approximately 1,400 m and the bridge connects North Lincolnshire on the south bank with the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north (I'm on the north side). I was also informed that the distance between the towers was so great that the curvature of the earth was taken into consideration when designing and building it. So, there you are you bridge fans! As you can see from this next picture, I am standing underneath the bridge now. An interesting fact to point out are the clouds above. They came over in about three minutes from the time I took this picture and started chucking down rain (as they put it in the East Riding of Yorkshire) and we had to run for the car so we didn't get soaked. It was fun, actually, to try and keep ahead of the leading edge of the rain!
This next shot is taken inside St. Mary's church in the lovely little town of Beverley. Above my head is the carving of a rabbit.
Why should I care about a stone rabbit you ask? Well, this rabbit was the one that supposedly inspired the author of Alice in Wonderland to put a white rabbit into the story! So, this is an important rabbit and is worth a couple of pictures. Apparently Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll (pseudonym), traveled around a lot looking for inspiration and he found it in St. Mary's church in Beverley of all places! Fun stuff!