Where was I? We didn’t discover that Philosopher had lost his phone until we arrived at our little apartment in Berwick-on-Tweed. This cast a bit of a blight on things, as you could imagine… The apartment was OK but our sleep was somewhat disrupted. After three nights we were both really tired and pretty fraught, so we changed our plans – no staying in a slightly faded heritage hotel in Alnwick with no parking, no fending for ourselves in a far-too-cool loft apartment in Newcastle, also with no parking. Instead we booked ourselves in for 4 nights at the Hilton in Newcastle-on-Tyne, and were very glad we did. We really liked Newcastle, and also had a fabulous sunny day in Durham. We travelled on from Newcastle to York, where we spent the night with friends Penny and Pete, and visited the Railway Museum, then spent our final night with friends Richard and Liz in Oxford. We were totally exhausted when we got home on Sunday afternoon… We bit off more than we could chew with the trip… too much travelling, too many different beds… But there is possibly good news about the phone…
The Berwick apartment was just over the bridge on the Tweedmouth side of the big river, and it was a really pleasant, cosy little place except it rained on a couple of the nights and there was a leaky gutter right over our bedroom window. Water bucketed down onto the window sill. The noise was so loud it was like someone was playing a drum kit at the end of our bed… and the people in the apartment downstairs were quite noisy as well. I complained to the owners but they did not get back to me until the day we were due to leave! Loads of apologies and they repaid us one night’s rent, but it did not make up for 3 nights of poor sleep.
Battleaxe spent much frustrating time trying to sort Philosopher’s lost technology. I have an iphone, he has a Samsung Android. Everything I tried to do, I’d be asked for a two-step verification with a code sent to an Android device – and we didn’t have one. Round and round in circles we went. We couldn’t access the Find My Android tool, or his Google or Gmail accounts. He had to phone Barclays (Hah – what an effort) and cancel his debit card, disable his SIM via Vodafone… jeez, we nearly went mad, and were so tired…
As you can imagine, this meant that we did not fully appreciate the sights of Berwick, which looks to be a very handsome town. We did walk round the famous ramparts…
We drove out to Holy Island – one of Philosopher’s must-see sights. Neither of us had done our homework properly, and thought it would be redolent with mysticism and spirituality, a bit like St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall… er, no. Lindisfarne is big, and pretty flat except for a little mound with the castle on it. The causeway is a proper road… First thing, when we arrived, we were funnelled into a vast, bleak, car park which must have had getting on for a thousand cars in… and cost £7.00. Then you walked and walked, past ye fish and chips, burger vans, ye olde tat stalls, and came to the Priory. English Heritage, £12.50 for a load of old stones. We didn’t pay. Went to the tacky Meadery and gifte shop, then walked and walked out towards the castle, which was a long way away. The weather was dull, cold and drizzly, we were dead tired and fed up, so we gave up and went home. Sorry Holy Island – we thought it was a dump.
By this time we were realising that something would have to shift, so I cancelled the stay in Alnwick and the Newcastle Apartment – fortunately both via Booking.com free cancellation. Booked four nights in the Hilton in Newcastle. Had some difficulty because at first they didn’t have the same room for all the nights. ‘My husband is ill and needs quiet and complete rest’, I shrieked down the phone. Lies, all lies. Well, mostly – he had a degree of sinus infection… So they bumped us up to a river-view room on the Executive Floor.
On the way down from Berwick we paid a flying vist to Bamburgh. I wanted to get the classic photo of the castle from the beach, but everywhere we tried to stop just for a few minutes, they tried to charge us £7! We went on to Seahouses, which is a nowhere place apart from being a departure points for boats to the Farne Islands. But it had cheap parking, distant views of the Castle – with a bonus rainbow, a coffee shop, and the cleanest public loo I have ever visited!
Went to Alnwick for lunch. Yes, parking was a nightmare, even for a few hours. You had to go to a shop and buy a parking disc… Visited the well-known second-hand bookshop in the old station, Barter Books, where they have a little railway running round the top of the shelves.
Had lunch in a faintly dodgy pub then walked round the town. A bit twee, we thought. Passed the White Swan, where we should have stayed… it has the dining room from the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic… Didn’t see that, nor the Alnwick Garden, but they were pretty much the only things on the trip we didn’t see due to our change of plans.
The Hilton in Newcastle is a featureless great lump of a building just on the Gateshead side of the Tyne, with a car park – at a price but we were beyond caring – underneath the building. We shoved the car in there and forgot it for four days!
Our top-floor room gave us the most amazing view of the river, all the bridges and the city landmarks as far as, and including, St James’ Park. You really could not have bettered it.
Needless to say, we were extremely comfortable and well looked-after, and best of all, there was an Executive Lounge just down the corridor, with free soft drinks, fruit, tea and coffee, also with a fantastic view of the river. Also, wait for it – free food, prosecco, wine and beer between 6pm and 8pm. Yes, free! It was supposed to be ‘canapes’, but in common with many other guests, we loaded up our plates for evening meals. You got salads, bread and butter, hummus and a couple of hot dishes like mini-burgers, fish or chicken goujon things, hot potato wedges etc… Added to that, we had huge hotel breakfasts, and on our first day, we even made our own sandwiches…
Newcastle was a big surprise to me – it is a fantastic city, with many beautiful buildings, a lovely waterside, fabulous shops and loads of character. We spent one day just wandering round the city, and another day visiting the lovely Laing Art Gallery, the sights, and some of the shops.
We found a huge Fenwicks to die for, and a really classy TK Maxx… We crossed the Millenium Bridge, found the original Marks and Spencer’s Penny Bazaar in the Grainger Market, visited the Cathedral, walked up Grey Street and admired the Grey Monument… so much to see…
One day we had lunch in somewhere called Harry’s Bar, on Grey Street. We had planned to go to Cote, but it was full, so rushed into the nearest place without looking, as it was coming on to rain. It looked alarming, all neon, leopard print and cocktails with glitter on the top, but the food was very good and reasonably priced, and the service was excellent. We imagined it would be the haunt of Newcastle’s fabled half-naked carousing girls, who are supposed to stagger along the Quayside while falling off their stilettos. We didn’t see any all the time we were there, nor topless blokes going ‘Toon, Toon, Howay the lads!’ We didn’t even go out at night – too busy scarfing up our free food and booze! Newcastle was playing Barcelona at St James’ Park on our last night, and we could see the ground all lit up, and hear the crowd if we opened our window. Toon lost btw…
On our last day we went on a day-trip to Durham. We travelled there on the train – I love big old stations, and I hoped the train would go over Robert Stephenson’s High Level Bridge across the Tyne, the earliest of the seven bridges. Of course it didn’t, it crossed much further up…
We walked down… and then up… to the Cathedral, which was on Battleaxe’s Must See list. It is truly massive, and magnificent.
As we were looking round I remembered that I had read somewhere that if you ask specially, you can view the actual Magna Carta – just for a limited time period. Durham has one of the very few remaining originals, as well as two other slightly later, but still ancient, versions. Well, we did ask, and indeed you could, and so we did. It felt like a very poignant thing to be doing, on the day of the dreadful Trump’s State Visit. At the very time we were peering earnestly at the venerable document, Trump was being flattered by Starmer at Chequers… I posted about it on Facebook.
We returned to Newcastle on the bus – the journey takes close to an hour, unlike the ten minutes on a fast train. But it was very interesting travelliing through the countryside – a suburb of Durham is called ‘Pity Me’. In the more deprived areas we saw many St George’s flags… We went past the Angel of the North – now, there’s a thing – the trees have grown up round it so you can only glimpse the structure as you pass…
Next day we drove down to York – quite an easy journey compared with some we had undertaken. Stayed with friends Pete and Penny. In the afternoon, Philosopher and Battleaxe visited the Railway Museum – another place on Battleaxe’s list. I was hoping they would have some of the steam locomotives, such as King George V, which my father worked on when he was an engineer with the GWR in Swindon, and a Bulleid Pacific like Sir Keith Park, which I drove – or rather attempted to drive – crikey, it was this time last year!
But no to both. The GWR engines were all out and about, as was the Flying Scotsman, and they don’t even have a Bulleid Pacific. The museum is in the middle of a vast refurbishment programme, and parts were closed. We had to walk, and I don’t exaggerate, miles, to find the temporary entrance, and miles back again. A bit disappointing, really. But here’s Battleaxe with ‘Mallard’.
Next day, on again, to Oxford – probably the longest drive we had to do. Aaargh, am exhausted just writing this…
But one good thing, when we got home there was a phone message on our land-line from a man in Dunbar, who is posting Philosopher’s lost phone back to us. We don’t even know his name, but he is a saint… he had kept the phone well over a week hoping we would get the message. He did say it had been run over by several cars, so of course we don’t know if it will work…
So, phew…probably never again! All in all, we enjoyed our trip, and saw many wonderful things, but as you can see from the last post and this one, it was pretty darn full on… the little car carried us for over 1100 miles…
