Saturday, 14th 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.)
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 20th 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.
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!
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!
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment