Wallsend

I made it to Newcastle as planned. Edmonton-Calgary-London Heathrow-Newcastle. It was 18 hours from when my first flight. I slept more than I thought I would on the transatlantic flight but Leighla the eight year in the seat beside me kept kicking me. She and her mother were off to Oxford to join up with their father who was training on flight simulators for the new Cormorant helicopter. They were otherwise quite charming and had left Comox 10 hours earlier than I had so I could forgive Leighla. By the time I got to Newcastle it was dark. The train trip was easy however walking around in downtown Newcastle to find my hotel using Google maps was a little unnerving. I looked left rather than right once while crossing the road and came close to being hit by a car. I have been more careful since. The hotel is very nice and quiet so I had a good first night.

During my travels yesterday I noticed that the soles of both my hiking boots were coming detached. There was no way they would last the trip. I found a shoe repair place and headed there first thing this morning. I dropped them off and they were ready by the afternoon. That was a relief as I think it would have been a challenge doing the hike in running shoes.

My main priority for Newcastle was to visit Segedunum the Roman fort at Wallsend near the mouth of the Tyne river. They had talked alot about it in the online course I had taken. I enjoyed walking around the excavations and the gallery but the less passionate may have not enjoyed as much. Mr toilet paper holder man who is travelling with me got very excited as they had stones from a Roman latrine they had excavated in the museum. It was the highlight for him. He wanted a selfie. What was very odd, if one get over the oddness of travelling with the pathology departments toilet paper holder is that 2 people who saw me take the photo came up and showed me their travel companions. No toilet paper roll covers. They actually suggested that when in London I should go to the Victoria and Albert museum to get a photo with an original Crapper toilet. Mr TPHM is not running the trip. It is about the experience not the Instagram photo.

We headed off to Tynemouth on the coast afterwards on the recommendation of another seat mate. There are the ruins of a monastery on a point looking out at the ocean. Tynemouth was a pretty village and the monastery and views of the ocean were very beautiful. Well worth the visit.

After picking up the hiking boots, we headed downtown for a stroll around. We took in the Laing gallery, a pleasant little gallery with some great paintings by artists unknown to me. We then headed down to river to check out the castle, the cathedral and walk back to the hotel along the river.

Tomorrow we off to Carlisle.Read more