I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling generally well rested. The
next step was to head to the train station (Cambridge North, a ten
to fifteen minute walk), and catch a train north to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
our next destination.
It took about 3 hours to get to the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne station (I will
shift to the shortened, more widely used, and less pretentious town name
of merely Newcastle, but not quite yet) and then probably 30-45 minutes
to find the office for Alamo car rentals.
We knew it was near the station. We walked around the area, stopped
in a nice hotel a block away and asked them to look it up. Then went
back to the station. Asked someone there. No one really knew about it.
But eventually they pointed us to a car rental place in the outside
corner of the station. I figured at the least, they would know the
name of their competitior where I had a reservation. As it turns out,
in England they spell some words differently than in the US. Alamo is
spelled Enterprise. As is Budget. Fuckers. That explained why, when I
had called Alamo to make the reservation, they didn't actually KNOW they
had a location in the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne train station. The all-seeing
Google had assured me such a place did exist, and apparently that was
able to convince them or their computer to allow that.
Anyway, the people were actually quite nice and since they do handle
rentals from all three companies, they had my reservation. It cost
an extra £10/day to add Stephanie as a driver, but I figured
it'd be worth it. Despite her objections, and based on the advice
from several other friends, I had rented a car with an automatic
transmission. I had asked for a small car, but wound up being given
a Vauxhall sedan. I asked them if we could leave the car there
(with our bags locked in it) for a few hours while we got lunch
and explored a little of the town by the riverfront area and not have
to deal with navigation and parking and such. They were completely
accomodating and said it wouldn't be a problem.
So we walked around a bit, had lunch at a pub-ish place. And then walked
along the water in the Quayside area. (Note: in the US, it would be
pronounced kway-side; in England key-side.) We were near the area of
where the remains of the new castle of Newcastle is, saw some art and
sculptures and such, before we headed off. It was pretty cold, like
in the mid 40sF/5-8C, overcast, with a bit of wind. I was glad I had
taken my gloves with me.
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure
000-DSC_0834-header: The train to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
000-DSC_0834-headertext:
000-DSC_0834: Before our train arrived, a freight train stopped at the station
for a minute or two.
001-DSC_0835: I was curious about the black shock absorbers between cars. I
couldn't see any coupling and was wondering if it could be some high-tech,
fancy magnetic coupling. Sadly, I don't think that's the case.
002-DSC_0836: The English countryside seen from the train.
003-DSC_0837:
004-DSC_0838: It's a foggy day, so visibility is limited.
005-DSC_0839:
006-DSC_0841: Frank ponders the universe on the train. Not at all staged.
OK, maybe a bit.
007-DSC_0843-header: Quayside area in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
007-DSC_0843-headertext:
007-DSC_0843: Sage Gateshead concert venue. It's on the south side of the
river.
008-DSC_0844: A signpost along the Tyne River.
008-river_tyne_Panorama: Looking west at two bridges over the Tyne,
the near one is Bridge Street and the far one is the high level
railroad bridge.
008-tyne_bridge_Panorama: The Tyne Bridge viewed from underneath on the
north bank. It's a flat bridge supported by one semicircle arch above it.
009-DSC_0854:
010-DSC_0855: The Custom House.
011-DSC_0856: Looking east at the Gateshead Millenium Bridge, a footbridge.
012-DSC_0857: Another picture of the Gateshead Millenium Bridge.
013-DSC_0858: The Sage Gateshead concert venue, a sort of pixelated mutant
silver bean.
013-quayside_playground_Panorama: A composite shot of the HMS
Newcastle/Quayside Seaside playground (or play park), across
the street from the river. It looked like a fun place for kids
to have nautical-themed adventures. Note: later I was advised
by an expert in the field (a 4 year old Isabel), that both terms,
playground and play park, are widely used and valid.
014-DSC_0862: A picture of the Gateshead Millenium bridge with the BALTIC
Centre for Contemporary Art (a converted mill) in the background.
015-DSC_0863: I think I was intending to link this and the previous one
together, but who has time for such things...
016-DSC_0864: The bridge and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
017-DSC_0865: Stephanie looks to the west down the River Tyne and its
bridges while trying to stay warm.
018-DSC_0866: The Tyne Bridge (green) with 3 other bridges behind it
(red/white, blue, and tan stone).
019-DSC_0867: Frank on the Gateshead Millenium Bridge in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
020-DSC_0868: Another of Frank on a bridge over the River Tyne in Newcastle.
021-DSC_0869: Quayside in Newcastle. The far left place is called "The
Pitcher and Piano" which sounded like an odd name.
022-DSC_0870: More views from the River Tyne looking east.
023-DSC_0871: The quayside, north short, by the Tyne bridge. A bar in
the building by the bridge is called "The Slug and Lettuce".
It's like a bad randomly created name from D&D.
024-DSC_0872: Sandgate is an area on the north side of the Tyne just beyonghte
Millenium Bridge.
025-DSC_0873: There was a scuplture by Sandgate.
026-DSC_0874: A statue commemorating slaves (I think), as seen from Sandgate
looking south to the Gateshead Millenium pedestriang bridge and the River
Tyne.
027-DSC_0875: I thought the graffiti was colorful and looked kind of cool
even though the building was condemned. It was about a block or two north
of Quayside.
028-DSC_0882: Stephanie is looking at the ruins of the corner watchtower.
028-newcastle_watchtower_Panorama: A composite picture of the remains
of the corner watchtowner that was along the Town Wall. It was built
after Pandon was incorporated into Newcastle (in 1298), and likely completed
in the early 14th century, as it was being built in 1307. See the next
picture for (hard to read) information on the watchtower.
029-DSC_0883: Information about the corner watchtower. The sign has seen
better days and is hard to read, but at full resolution is readable.
030-DSC_0884: Another old area of town. Likely where the workers lived
or worked or something.
030-newcastle_church_Panorama: A picture of the Cathedral Church of
St. Nicholas. It was almost 3pm. We needed to get to the B&B
somewhere between 4-6pm (30-45 minutes away). I had also learned
that owing to a misunderstanding, instead of spending the next day
exploring the 80 miles and various museums associated with Hadrian's
Wall, the plan was to do that today, which, given the time would be
about a good 30 minutes to do that (depending on traffic).
Fortunately, flexibility is a key to traveling and I was enjoying
exploring Newcastle, and always wind up making plans for way more
than I can do or see (so there are always options for substitutions
if something on the list is unavailable). So I wasn't particularly
worried about the what time it was.
031-DSC_0887: A monument to Queen Victoria in front of the Cathedral
Church of St. Nicholas.
032-DSC_0888: Note that there's a free ping-pong table in the
train station! That's cool! Sadly, I did not partake of it.
Bottom:
Part 9: Backyard
Blacksmith Workshop Part 10: Bagby Airfield Part 11: Byland Abbey Part 12: National Railway
Museum Part 13: Cambridge (Part
2) Part 14: Cambridge
Botanical Gardens Part 15: The Departure