Earlier this November, me and my beautiful mum Debbie had a weekend break away to Hull to go see ‘Kinky Boots’, the musical, at Hull New Theatre. Please see below a description of our travels, with accompanying photography. Hope you enjoy 🙂 🙂

Friday 15th November

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the train station to travel to Hull, we soon realised that our train had been cancelled due to the flooding in South Yorkshire! 😦 Oh no, not a great start to our trip. My dad, who is a taxi driver, drove us instead. Nevertheless, when we finally arrived at our Ibis city centre Hotel, we were pleased to be in Hull and excited to go and explore the city.

We found a lovely quaint little fish and chip shop on Savile Street, and tucked into delicious grub and ice cream sundae, yum yum.

We took some nice photographs of Hull City Hall, the Maritime Museum, and Queen Victoria Statue in Queen Victoria Square, before visiting Ferens Art Gallery.

We very much (me especially) enjoyed viewing the various collections Ferens offers in different galleries, in particular we appreciated the ‘Renaissance’ and ‘Modern and Contemporary’ art.

On King Edward Street a gorgeous sparkly Christmas gingerbread house really put us in the festive spirit 🙂

Next, we walked to Queen’s Gardens. Unfortunately, it lacked impressive flower displays,  due to the time of year, however it was nice to see the water fountains. Nearby, fun fair attractions lit up the streets. Strolling leisurely around Princes Quay, we rested in a cafe, indulging in Rocky Road chocolate/marshmallows and frothy coffees, yummy. Later filling our bellies with toasties in Cafe Nero, we then set off on a slow walk towards Hull New Theatre, admiring the city in stunning twilight.

We unexpectedly came across rehearsals for a BBC Children in Need concert, so stayed a while and happily danced along to popular songs.

Kinky Boots is an incredible 2016 ‘Best New Musical’ Olivier winner, with songs by Tony and Grammy winning pop sensation Cyndi Lauper. It tells the story of Charlie Price, living in Northampton, who inherits his father’s drab and dull shoe shop. The business is struggling enormously with sales and orders until Charlie meets the glamorous drag queen Lola, and together they decide to re-brand and design sexy glittery knee-length stiletto heels! 🙂 It’s a very entertaining, funny, uplifting, yet moving story – belting out a powerful message; the importance to accept and love ourselves and others. As Kinky Boots has ended it’s dazzling 3 years in the West End, I was extremely keen to go see a performance on the UK/Ireland tour, and…  We absolutely loved it! Fabulous darling!

We got chatting to a great couple, massive fans of Kinky Boots, who have seen multiple performances of the show. At our Hull New Theatre performance they had front row tickets, were the first, we noticed, to stand up cheering during the (well deserved) standing ovation and, as you can see above, made a huge effort to dress up for the occasion, haha! Amazing! 🙂 🙂

Saturday 16th November

We started off Saturday morning with a scrumptious English breakfast at our Ibis city centre hotel, as part of our bed and breakfast deal. The first place on our itinerary for the day was Hull Minster, situated in Old Town. There was a craft fair on inside which was very enjoyable to walk around, I bought mum a pretty blue and turquoise brooch for her coat, as a souvenir.

The next port of call was the harbour of Humber Dock Marina, where we took some selfies with the plentiful pleasure boats.

The pier making our way to nearby The Deep was breezy and blustery, so we walked more briskly as the rain poured.

The Deep aquarium was brilliant fun. We loved exploring all the exhibits, such as ‘Awakening Seas’ – learning the four billion years history of the ocean, ‘Lagoon of Light’ – gazing upon colourful cute tropical fish; gaping at the turtles, rays and sharks in ‘Endless Ocean’, becoming mesmerised by jellyfish in ‘Cool Seas’, and my personal favourite, we were delighted to peep at the gorgeous Gentoo penguins as they played and swam in ‘Kingdom of Ice’. Another highlight was venturing through the underwater viewing tunnel! Slightly scary but stunning. I bought mum a teddy turtle as a gift also, awwww 🙂

Afterwards, we ate pizza and indulged in vanilla milkshakes with whipped cream at an Italian restaurant, close by to the aquarium. The Minster looked beautiful lit up as we journeyed back towards our Ibis hotel.

Saturday evening, we got cosy in our hotel room watching Saturday night television and drinking complimentary tea/coffee. Wild, haha! Another tasty full English / continental breakfast the next Sunday morning, and we were on our travels back home. Luckily, the train was running on our return journey, yey!

Summary

As mum is becoming more and more poorly with her Alzheimer’s dementia, I really do cherish these moments and trips away together. We had such an incredible time; discovering all Hull has to offer, eating out, being bedazzled by Kinky Boots the musical, and being in awe of and appreciating all the amazing diverse underwater sea creatures at The Deep. I personally have visited Hull once or twice before, but it was nice to have the opportunity to see more of the 2017 ‘City of Culture’. I would definitely go again, for sure.

Thank you so much, as always, for taking the time to read / view! 🙂 🙂

Keep a lookout for my next blog post, pencil portraits of two Springador dogs! Woof, woof, hehe! 🙂 🙂

Much love, Lauren xx

 

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© 2019 Lauren Parr / http://www.unicornpostbox.wordpress.com

 

Further information:

https://www.thedeep.co.uk [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://www.thedeep.co.uk/plan-your-visit/deep-tour [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://bwml.co.uk/hull-marina/ [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://www.hcandl.co.uk/museums-and-galleries/ferens [Accessed 24th November 2019]

https://www.hcandl.co.uk/museums-and-galleries/ferens/galleries-ferens-art-gallery [Accessed 24th November 2019]

http://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/research/research-guides/history-hull-docks.aspx [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://hullminster.org/ [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://www.hulltheatres.co.uk/whats-on/year [Accessed 24th November 2019]

http://www.kinkybootsthemusical.co.uk/ [Accessed 25th November 2019]

http://www.kinkybootsthemusical.co.uk/uk-tour/synopsis.php [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_upon_Hull [Accessed 25th November 2019]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinky_Boots_(musical) [Accessed 25th November 2019]