Manchester, United Kingdom
Monday, April 24, 2006
Heya just got back from visiting kate's other aunt, Jenny, who lives in Hebdon which is up north somewhere between Manchester and Leeds. We spent Easter up there which happened to coincide with the annual duck race in Hebdon. Pretty much the entire town, plus plenty from elsewhere, line up along the central river bank (and on 3 bridges) and then a bulldozer drives up and dumps thousands of yellow, numbered, plastic ducks into the river. The first three across the line win prizes for whoever bought them. Unfortunately my duck didn't win, in fact i think i spied him doing circles in the middle of the river and getting beaten by a coke can which floated past. We went to quite a few small towns around the area and the scenery was beautiful, hilly green fields, stone fences. It is a very hilly area and some of the houses are actually built on top of each other with both having driveways leading onto roads at different parts of the hill. Also checked out the biggest canal tunnel in Britain (second biggest in Europe, the tour operators were cursing the French), which is actually only as wide as the boat
. When it was first built 'leggers' walked the boats through the 3mile tunnel by laying on the boat and walking along the side of the tunnel. For 7p a trip (which took 3-4hours) I think they had a bad deal. We're actually heading back up there this weekend and will be checking out Manchester (Old Trafford tour here I come!) and hopefully Liverpool and then using it as a springboard for a trip to Edinburgh+Dublin. Hope everyone's well!!let me know what you're up to.
ciao for now
pics will be put up soon having a few problems at the moment
Ash&Kate
