Sunday, 15^th June                          BLYTH  -  BAMBURGH CASTLE  -  COCKENZIE

Robyn writes: Another travel day, and a very nice one. We were up around 7 in our Blyth apartment, chatted to Cait and Danny (Cait and Mikeal are still both sick; Danny is pretty good now, but suffering from cabin fever!) It didn’t take us long to gather up all our belongings, as we’d packed the big bags last night. A system is emerging which is working pretty well – unpack at the start of the stay, then you’re not living out of a bag all the time.

We got away about 8.30, and headed north up the coast to the seaside town of Amble, just to have a look. Here on the bayside we discovered a market, so stopped and had a walk around, and even bought some goodies for tea so we didn’t have to shop when we arrived. The market had all sorts of cheap goods – a little fresh produce, no crafts, lots of cheap Chinese made goods (also some better quality ones like the Sketchers shoes for around $70AUD.)

                                                              Amble market

After this, we set our course for Bamburgh Castle, the most dominant of all the northern castles – it is visible for miles around by land and sea. It started as a Celtic fort, then along came the Anglo-Saxons, and the Normans. It’s changed hands many times over the centuries, but for six generations now has been the home of the Armstrong family. They still live there and rake in a sizeable amount from visitors to help with its upkeep. It cost us about $70AUD to go in, and another $12 for parking, so not a super cheap excursion! Still, it is a magnificent castle.

                                                   Bamburgh Castle

                                                                     Great Hall

                                                            So much medieval weaponry

Our first port of call was the café in the old tack room, where we bought soup, tea and coffee, and then ate them in the old stables. We then enjoyed a wander through the main body of the castle and the staterooms there, which held items from over a thousand years of history. Some of the rooms were set up as in the 1800s or 1900s, others were medieval. The castle is in a very strong defensive position, high above the sea and surrounding land, but it was still the first castle in European history to fall to cannon ball attack in 1464 during the Wars of the Roses, when Warwick the Kingmaker bombarded it with cannon for nine months until he finally breached the wall enough to enter. We enjoyed a walk around the ramparts and admired the view. Today was very windy, but cleared to a gloriously sunny day and about 20 degrees, so very pleasant. They also have a museum of military and aviation inventions (Lord Armstrong was very much an inventor).

We enjoyed ourselves for several hours, then stayed to watch the start of today’s jousting tournament. It’s wonderful the way they get the children in to flourish swords and march around and join in before all the action of the joust began. We’ve seen jousting before, at Dunfermline, and they put on a wonderful show.

However, we had to leave before the end, as it was nearly time to book in at our next accommodation, Turret Cottage in Cockenzie, near Prestopans, right on the Forth of Firth. It took just over an hour to drive up, and for the last ten minutes or so, we realised we were actually following Glen and Carol, so we all arrived together, found the cottage (despite the incorrect instructions!) and moved in quite happily. Turret Cottage is part of the manager’s house of the original Cockenzie House, which was a grand manor. It’s steeped in history; our bedroom looks out at the garden where Bonny Prince Charlie brought his victorious soldiers to eat apples after they had won the Battle of Prestonpans. (Things did not, alas, go all that well from there for him.)

Glen at the doorway of Turret Cottage

The Firth looked gloomy and forbidding this evening.

But another lovely view from our kitchen window!
There has been a music and food festival in the garden here this evening, but it was winding up by the time we popped out for a look. We went for a walk along the Firth, then Lex, Glen and Carol continued along further and I came home to start tea. We’re here for five nights, so plenty of time to explore the borders country!

 

Saturday, 14^th June                                BLYTH  -  NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

Robyn writes: It was grey and gloomy when we woke up this morning, as the Met had forecast. Also it was quite cold, and looking out the window, even the locals were wearing layers, puffy jackets and boots to walk their dogs! As we headed out in the car, though, there were runners on the foreshore as far as the eye could see – most wearing very little, in the rain, at 13 degrees. The British are a hardy nation.

                                                                They're a hardy race

We, however, were heading for Newcastle, our destination for the day. So we set our navigator for the nearest Park & Ride, at Great Park, found it, and……there was absolutely no-one else there. The signs said it was open on Saturday, but we couldn’t even see where we would catch a bus/train, so we went on to the next one, at Kingston Park. This turned out to be not free, like all the others we’ve used (to be fair, it was only one pound all day), and it was next to the Metro, which meant trains into the city. We bought a day rover ticket each for five pounds sixty pence, so considerably more expensive than the bus park and rides we’ve been using. But, it was nice to use a train for a change.

We were into Newcastle city centre by about 10.15. It’s a very grey, drab looking city, with lots of hills so lots of layers and steps everywhere. It was very overcast, too, with very light drizzle, so that added to the greyness and general air of gloom! Our first destination was the Discovery Museum, so we walked for about 15 minutes until we got to it, only to find that on Saturdays it doesn’t open until 11. Lex looked up a nearby café on Google, so we found it and took refuge there. The Salt & Pepper Café is a very basic establishment, obviously catering good plain food to the locals and at a very reasonable price. We both had a nice warming cup of Yorkshire tea, and Lex had a cheese and onion toasted sandwich (this appears to be a Newcastle delicacy; I saw it on other menus in the city.)

                                                               Discovery Museum

                                                            The Salt and Pepper Cafe

By the time we’d finished, it was 11am and the museum was open. Admission was free, which was handy. It covers a huge range of topics, from the Sciences to History. Lex went off to look at the Science/Technology wing, while I headed for ‘The Story of Newcastle’, which was the history of the district from prehistory to the Romans and to the end of the 20^th century. It was very well done, and took ages to look at it all. We met up in the café at lunchtime, then headed back past the railway station and towards the river.

                  I never knew that Brian Johnson from AC/DC was in Geordie, and from Newcastle.

                          I'm old enough to remember reading about them in my teen fan magazines!

                                                                Museum interior

We split up; Lex went straight down to the River Tyne, and I headed for the Cathedral (regular readers of this blog will know I do like a good cathedral!) and past the castle before navigating myself down to Quayside beside the Tyne. This involved a lot of turns and steps and hills but I finally found the lovely, broad walkway they’ve established next to the river. It’s lined pretty much completely with expensive eateries but it is very nice, and I did feel like I’d stepped into an episode of Vera; there were even three police officers escorting a bloke into a police van! There are so many bridges that cross the Tyne, but the two iconic ones are the Tyne Bridge (which we drove over on Thursday) and the newish Millennium pedestrian bridge, which is also a swing bridge. Sadly we missed seeing it swing; we were about an hour too late today. The Tyne Bridge is very like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and no mystery why: they were both built by the same company! The Tyne one is much smaller though, and was considered a prototype for the Sydney one a few years later. I met up with Lex on the Quayside, and we walked across the Millennium Bridge to Gateshead. He wanted to look at the gallery of contemporary art there, so I left him there to enjoy that, and navigated myself back across the bridge, up several horribly steep sets of stairs, and to the castle. By now the day had fined up quite a lot and warmed up considerably; I took off three layers and had my coat tied around my waist, and hadn’t even brought my hat into the city!

                                                                Millennium Bridge

                                                         It has a real lean and curve

                                                                  Contemporary Art Gallery

                                                                    Tyne River Bridge

I did enjoy seeing what’s left of the castle. It was built in the 1200s on the site of an old Roman fort, and was one of the homes of the powerful Percy family for hundreds of years. The keep and the Black Gate (main entrance) remain, and it cost just over 11 pounds for my ticket. The keep is still in remarkably original condition – a bewildering array of spiral stone staircases leading up and down, 100 steps up to the rooftop, where there was an amazing view, and it was very easy to get lost. I would’ve liked more time to sort out the layout. The Black Gate is a lot more altered; it holds the only toilets on site, the gift shop, a learning room and a small museum. It also has a lift, so a lovely rest from spiral stone staircases, yay!

                                                                     Black Gate

                                                                       Castle

                                                             How it was in its heyday

                                                              Wonderful views from the top

                                                      I liked the medieval archer sculpture!

Lex and I met up at 3, and walked back to the station. Our train back to Kingston came almost immediately. It began absolutely pouring during the trip – one of the forecast storms was moving through. However, by the time we got back to our station, it had finished, and it’s now cleared to a bright, sunny, but very windy afternoon. We’ve been sorting photos, having a nice rest, had tea, and soon will have to face packing once more – tomorrow we are heading north to Edinburgh, where we are meeting up with Glen and Carol. Another travel day coming up.

                                                Prettiest view from the kitchen window so far!

 

Friday, 13^th June                        BLYTH – GATESHEAD – CHESTERS ROMAN FORT – BELSAY

Robyn writes: Another jam-packed day today. Thank heavens for my sleep mask, as it’s getting light around 4 now, and the new flat only has blinds with wispy curtains, no light blocking here!

It can be a hassle that most things we want to visit only open at ten, but this morning we had the perfect start, with a visit to The Angel of the North. This is a massive piece of sculpture on the A1 at Gateshead outside of Newcastle, placed there in 1998 as a temporary installation. It’s since become a permanent fixture, and certainly makes its mark on the landscape. The angel’s body is 20 metres high and the wings 54 metres wide.  We got there just as a big bus was parking, so whipped across quickly to see it and get photos without the hordes! An impressive piece, and certainly worth the visit.

                                                        The Angel of the North

From there, we set a path to Chesters Roman Fort. Hadrian’s Wall runs basically from Newcastle across the narrowest part of England, so there are lots of Roman forts and ruins in the district. In 2014 we visited Vindolanda, a massive fort complex. This was smaller (about 500 cavalry soldiers at its peak) but very well preserved. We owe this and several other preserved Roman sites nearby to John Clayton, a 19^th century local landowner, businessman and enthusiastic amateur antiquarian (Victorian word for archaeologist). He inherited the property that the fort was on, started excavating, and when other pieces of land nearby with Roman ruins came up for sale, he bought them. He lived until well in his 90s, and his last huge dig was excavating the wonderful bath house down by the river. Eventually (he had no heirs) all the land passed to English Heritage. We arrived about 10.40, which was just the perfect time to have a cup of tea and a scone, then join the tour that started at 11. This went for well over an hour, and was excellent – we saw the gatehouses, principal buildings, commandant’s house, stables (the men lived with their horses!) and of course the huge bath house. A lot of the land around is still unexcavated, so who knows what will be found there in future? Before we left, we visited the museum which Clayton had built to house his extensive finds.

                                                    This was probably a safe room for valuables

                                                 Pool area in the bath house

                                                         Eastern gate now and as it was

After a wonderful couple of hours channelling the ancient Romans, we decided our next visit would be Belsay House, Castle and Gardens, another half an hour’s drive to the north-east, and in a part of Northumberland we hadn’t seen before. Belsay House was built by the Middleton family in the 1800s, so it’s not particularly old, but its builders were obsessed with ancient Greek buildings. After honeymooning in Athens, they decided to channel the ancient Greeks when building their forever home! The foyer is particularly impressively Grecian. Belsay Castle had been the home of the Middletons since the 1300s, but after the family had moved to their new abode, they kept it as a ‘romantic ruin’. (Very trendy!) Sadly, during the war, the house was commandeered by the army, and it got fairly well trashed. The family effectively hasn’t lived there since the 1960s, as the upkeep was too much and too expensive. At least it’s looked after, now.

                                                              Belsay House (built in the 1800s)

                                                  The library, 1800s

                                                 The library now

                                                      Most impressive classical entrance foyer

We arrived just before 2, so by this stage were looking for a late lunch. The lady in the Tea Shop very obligingly heated us up two bowls of red lentil and vegetable soup, and they were delicious, especially as I had mine with a cheese scone. This fortified us to go and explore – Lex wanted to do the walk to the Quarry Gardens, so he set off, while I went and explored the house (it’s a bit sad to see it empty – the rooms are huge and echoing.) Then I had a lovely walk around the terraced gardens before visiting the second hand book shop and finding a Louise Penney book I hadn’t read – score! Lex climbed to the top of the castle, admired the Quarry Gardens (Sir Charles was a very keen gardener) and thoroughly enjoyed his walk. Both the fort and Belsay are English Heritage properties, so our membership has saved us money again today.

                                                        Beautiful display of Rhododendrons

                                                 Amazing giant rhubarb - leaves were a metre across!

                                                               Belsay Castle (14th Century)

We set off back towards the coast a bit after 4, and came home via Morpeth just to see what the UK version is like. It was good to get home just after 5, after another big day out!

                                        John Clayton's museum, built to house his many finds.

                                                  Many incredible statues, gravestones, plaques etc

 

Thursday 12^th June       LOCKTON – BISHOP AUCKLAND - DURHAM – NEWCASTLE – BLYTH

Another big travel day! We were up nice and early in our lovely Lockton house. Cait and Danny called (both sick with the winter lurgy) so we chatted to them, then finished packing and set off. As it only takes a few hours to drive to Newcastle and district, we’d decided to go via Durham, which we both wanted to see. Lex had read that Bishop Auckland was a lovely city, so we set that for a morning tea stop. Well! One of the perils of the navigator is that it will take you to a random spot in a town or city, unless you program very specific instructions. We got to Bishop Auckland, then followed the signs to the city centre, found a car park at Northgate, parked and went out. The streets were…..depressed looking. We kept walking but it got no better. Boarded up shops, grubby footpaths, rows of empty shops. The vape shops were doing fine, however. Vaping is VERY big in the UK. Anyway, we finally saw a bakery/coffee shop, and stopped there, then got back to our car nice and quickly. Driving away, a few streets over, we did see some lovely looking old buildings and what looked like the gateway to perhaps a Bishop’s palace? We’ll never know!

                                      Glimpse of an impressive looking gateway in Bishop Auckland

Anyway, we got to the Durham park and ride at Belmont, and easily caught the bus into the city. Medieval Durham is just lovely – it’s sort of all contained by a loop in the river. We looked at the castle, but there were no tours available until 2.30, so we went into the University Library building there. We were lucky enough to go straight into a free tour of their library dating back to the 1660s, all donated by the Bishop of the day. It was incredible; the library is very little altered from the 17^th century – the shelving and paintings all date from that time. Also, they have a first edition folio of Shakespeare’s on display. It was stolen in the 1990s, but turned up in the USA a decade later. Unfortunately, to try and stop it being identified, the thieves tore off the cover (vandals) but a court case proved it was the Durham copy, and it is now back (and held under much tighter security, one hopes.) We enjoyed our half hour timeslot, and chatting to the leader of the group. From there, we also enjoyed a look at the rest of the displays in the library, including archaeological finds from the area.

                                                                River Wear

                                            Why are cathedrals and castles always on a hill?!

                                                              University Library building

                                                         Shakespeare folio - stolen, now returned

                                                             The library

                                                The paintings were all 17th century
After that, we went into the cathedral. Again, I’m running out of superlatives, but this was another amazing building. It was very different from a lot of others we’ve been into – it’s quite dark, and has very little decoration on the walls. The different markings on the columns are really effective. It holds the tombs of two great Anglo Saxons – Saint Cuthbert, and The Venerable Bede. In 2014, we visited Lindisfarne, where Cuthbert was originally buried, so it was good to see where he ended up. (They had to move him due to constant Viking attacks.) Amazingly, Cuthbert’s body is still buried in the cathedral – during the reformation, Henry VIII’s men usually completely destroyed any shrine and the bodies of any saints, but apparently when they opened his tomb, they found his body ‘uncorrupted’ so quickly buried him again. (They destroyed his shrine and stole all the treasure, of course. There are limits.) Bede was one of the great writers and historians and theologians of Anglo Saxon times, so it was wonderful to see his tomb there as well.

                                                         Tomb of the Venerable Bede

  

                       Tomb of St Cuthbert                                           The nave

                                                                 Durham Cathedral

After a long wander around the cathedral, we had a very late (2.30) soup lunch in the café there. Then we walked back to the bus stop, where a bus was fortunately waiting, back to the park and ride, and set course for Blyth, north of Newcastle, our next accommodation. Unfortunately this trip didn’t go smoothly, due to an accident on the A1, and we ended up going through Newcastle to avoid it. (You never see Vera getting stuck in traffic!) Anyway, we reached the Morrison’s at Blyth at 5, got our groceries for the next few days, then moved into our little flat.

It’s right on the beachfront in a purpose built set of units, has two bedrooms and is on the first floor. The weather had been very kind to us today, and I was thinking longingly of a walk on the beach, but that wasn’t going to happen – it was almost full tide, the wind was blowing a hooley (dangerous winds forecast here over the next 24 hours) so the waves were crashing, and it was COLD! We did go for a walk on the footpath next to the beach; best described as invigorating. I can report that my new puffy jacket is both warm and windproof, however!

                                                       Our block of flats

                                                  Beach at Blyth

                                                          Nice view from our windows

We’ve since had tea, done a load of washing, inventively hung it up to hopefully dry, and now for sleep. It’s ten to ten and still quite light. Tomorrow we can explore the Newcastle region.