It was time to pack my trusty backpack once again. This was the trip that we had planned while we waited for our train at Norwich back in February. It ended up being a week later than we had planned and it had evolved a little from its original plan. However, I was good with both of it. We had been incredibly lucky last year that we had travelled every other month. This year was not looking to pan out that way. However, after we really enjoyed our weekend in Norwich, we figured that we could break up the year with little weekend trips. The most obvious destinations were Hull and Beverley. I have always loved both places ever since I first visited in 1994. I returned every chance I could, and we had stayed there for part of the first holiday we had after I moved to the UK. We even lived in Beverley for two years between 2004 and 2006. To this day, I still feel homesick for Beverley and Hull. When I had some leave to take in the autumn following my arthritis diagnosis, we decided to visit Hull and Beverley. Even though that trip was not necessarily easy, it rekindled my love for those two places. This was only the second visit after we moved. However, we made a promise that in future, we would visit a bit more regularly. I think 18 months later is not bad.
Graham was at home that day. I had to work, but with an early shift, I was able to get into town easily for a 16:30 departure. They mixed the train routes up since we were last in Hull, which meant that the trains to Hull no longer leave from our local station, but from Manchester Victoria. This worked just fine as the tram line that serves Manchester airport goes to Manchester Victoria. I had arranged to meet Graham there. This time round, we had arranged a meeting point. Back in 2018, we had a bee art trail in Manchester. At the end of this, most bees were auctioned off for charity, but a few are still around. One of those bees is at Manchester Victoria. We agreed to meet by the bee. I could see Graham as my tram pulled into the station.
We still had plenty of time when we met up to make our train. Graham knows this station a lot better than I do. We arrived our platform very quickly. Our train was on time. I read and Graham watched the world go by. We had a smooth run until about halfway through the journey when the train made an emergency stop. We were stopped for quite a while until the conductor made an announcement that we had to stop as there was somebody standing on the adjacent track. We were still stopped for a while after this announcement. Once we were able to get going, we had a smooth run again. We were on a direct train and were on no timetable. Still, we made good progress and arrived in Hull only about 10 minutes late.
When we had originally started to plan this, I had intended to stay at a Premier Inn in Beverley. However, when I checked if I could get a better rate on one of the hotel broker websites, I spotted that there was Holiday Inn Express right by the station in Hull. This was £20 a night cheaper and included breakfast. As we were planning to spend time in both Hull and Beverley anyway, this was a no brainer. This meant that when we got to Hull, we just had to walk out of the station, past the shopping centre and we were at our hotel. It really could not have been any more convenient.
The reception was on the first floor. They had two lifts, but only one was working. We had a short wait for the lift to arrive. Once we got to reception, we had to wait some more. The same person was covering reception and the bar. The bar was heaving. Eventually we were checked in and headed to our room on the 5th floor. There was a viewing point on the landing. I was impressed with the view. I was even more pleased with the view from our room. We actually had a view of the Humber Bridge.
Once we had dropped off our stuff in the room and I had taken some photos, we went out to get some dinner. We had found a quirky restaurant in the city centre when we were last in Hull and had originally planned to go there. However, I checked out the menu on the way to Hull, and this had completely changed. There was nothing really on the new menu that appealed to me. We decided to go to a Chinese buffet in the shopping centre next to the hotel instead.
It took a little while until we were seated. Once it was our turn, we ordered a Chinese beer each and then we explored the buffet. Graham started with ribs, crispy chicken, prawn toast, prawn crackers and some kind of seafood dish. I had crispy chicken, prawn toast, spring rolls, prawn crackers and some sweetcorn soup. Graham had some rice, stir fried vegetables and some sweet and sour chicken for his main course. I had crispy pork in a pancake with cucumber and hoisin sauce as well as Singapore noodles, spicy chicken, shredded crispy beef and chicken, salt and pepper chicken and some char sui pork. For his dessert, Graham had some kind of trifle and fruit cocktail. I had some chocolate mousse, a brownie and a profiterole and a mini chocolate eclair that were both filled with ice cream. The food was not about to win any awards, but it was tasty and filling.
There is a large Tesco in the same shopping centre. Graham asked if I wanted to get a soft drink to take back to the hotel. I was all for it. Graham got some kind of still fruit drink and a bottle of water. I got a bottle of orange Fanta and a bottle of Orangina. Then we headed back to the hotel. I checked if they had Netflix on the TV, but we were out of luck. I had a look if there was anything else of interest, but there was not. Graham decided to get an early night. I read for about an hour and then I went to sleep as well.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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