Out of England to North and South - Newcastle

Our holiday this year took us north to Hadrian's Wall and border country, then south, by train, to the Loire Valley. Up north we stayed at Wendy and Bill's house in Gosforth, Newcastle. Wendy and Bill had stayed in our house (a non-simultaneous exchange) in 2004 while we went to Finland and then to Cardigan Bay. Up until now we hadn't organised a return stay as nothing had taken us that far north. This year, however, we were offered a voluntary wardening position, with the YHA, at Birdoswald Roman Fort for a few days; a good opportunity to spend a few days visiting Newcastle. The first few week or so of our holiday would be spent in the north.

We had, this year, arranged an exchange with a French family and we wanted to spend at least a little time in France. After the long drive north and back we thought it would be more pleasant to go by train to France and so we booked the Eurostar to Paris and then a train to Tours.

All four of us went north but Beccy wanted to go to scout camp, which started during our holiday. This would mean that we would return to Rochester to drop her off and then get the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet.

Patricia and Didier (our French exchange family) had offered us their car and had arranged for it to be left at the TGV station. We would need to pick up the keys and directions for the house, so I suggested that we meet for lunch. They had a better idea: they would invite us to lunch at our house.

The final plan was: one day travelling north; three days in Newcastle; one day travelling to Birdoswald; three days at Birdoswald; one day travelling south; one day around Rochester including lunch with Patricia and Didier, dropping Beccy off for scout camp, and taking the train to Tours; three days in the Loire Valley; one day in Paris then home.

Sunday August 10th, we left home and drove to Lincoln for an overnight stop. We had a quick look around the university campus, as Ben thought he might be interested in applying there, then went to the city centre for our first ever visit to Lincoln. We walked around the cathedral area through the cobbled streets, past old buildings and the statue of Tennyson in the cathedral grounds. We found an excellent Indian restaurant called The Bombay where we had one of the best meals we remember. On the way back to the hotel we drove out onto the fens and spotted an owl hunting in the fields.

Monday August 11th, we drove from Lincoln along the A19 and over the Humber Bridge. We then headed towards Middlesborough and across the A1(M) so that we could see the Angel of the North. A drive round Newcastle to Gosforth and we arrived at Wendy and Bill's house where we met them, finally, after four years of contact by email and phone. We hadn't managed to meet them when they came to our house as the timing meant that they arrived after we had left and left before we arrive home. Mum had let them into the house and shown them around.

We had time for a cup of tea and a chat before Wendy and Bill left for Leeds and Chester where they were going to visit some friends.

We settled into the house and then went out to explore. We took the Metro to Newcastle City Centre (Monument Station where there is a statue of Earl Grey whose tea we drink!)

We walked around the city centre then down to the river to see the Millenium Bridge, the Tyne Bridge and a rail bridge. we crossed the millenium bridge to find the Baltic Centre closed but we were able to go into the Sage where we had a cup of coffee and a look at the concert hall from the viewing gallery. We sat in the library for a while, listening to some music and looking at music books and magazines.

We walked back into the city centre and found a Mongolian restaurant where you could choose your vegetables, meat and sauce plus rice or noodles, then pass your plate to the kitchen where they would stir fry it and return it to you. You could do this as many times as you wanted and we all had 2 or 3 plates full.

After eating we walked along the river again so that we could see the bridges lit up, and eventually made our way back to the metro station.

Back at the house got ourselves settled and drifted off to bed. Brian and I liked the memory foam mattress on our bed, a real treat.

Tuesday August 12th, we woke up at around 8.30am and slowly got ready and had breakfast. The weather forecast gave persistent and heavy rain and we weren't sure what to do. We did want to visit the north east coast so we went for a drive, up the A1 to Alnwick. The literature that Wendy had left us about the area said that Alnwick was a historic market town and we thought it would be worth a look. We looked at the shops in the main street and then visited the Bailiffgate museum where we looked at the mining exhibition, the local history exhibition and the regional history exhibition. We learned about the lengthy battle across the borders between the Scots and the English.

We drove to the river and then along the coast road back towards Newcastle. We stopped at Seaton Point, between Alnwick and Alnmouth, and walked along the beach, looking at birds, skimming stones, and playing ball.

It did rain and quite heavily at times so we drove on to Alnmouth (not much there) and then to Whitley Bay (which was like a ghost town at the north end but more lively looking at the south end, although there was no one around because of the rain).

We stopped at the supermarket to get food for dinner. After dinner we all sat down to watch The Shawshank Redemption on DVD.

I rang Patricia to explain how to get the key for the house and that we had left some food in the fridge and freezer for them.

Wednesday August 13th, we managed to block the toilet! Too much toilet paper! we tried and tried to unblock it and thought that we would have to call someone out but buckets of water and a good brushing cleared it in the end. We had got up late and then had the toilet drama but we managed to get out by noon. We got the Metro again to the city centre where we visited the shops and Grainger market. We spent some time in a large music shop where Ben played the piano and Beccy played the drums. We hadn't heard her play before as she has her lessons at school so this was a great opportunity to see what she had learnt.

We had taken a packed lunch into town but, as it was raining, we couldn't find anywhere to sit and eat it. We ended up eating standing up in a shopping centre! After lunch we visited the (relatively new) castle keep. There were no toilets in the castle and Beccy was desperate so this was a good excuse to visit a nearby pub for a drink. From there we walked over the old bridge that carries trains on the top level and buses and taxis on the lower level and has a sign to say that it is a weak bridge! The bridge took us to Gateshead where we caught the metro home.

We stopped in the Co op next to Wansbeck Road metro station on the way back. After dinner we watched Time Bandits on DVD but we gradually all fell asleep and didn't see the end. It must have been a tiring day!

Thursday August 14th, We cleared up the house making sure we left everything clean and left around lunchtime. We left behind some chocolates, wine and a card explaining that we were sorry about the teaspoon that we broke!

We drove out of Newcastle and toward Kielder Water and Forest Park. We visited the Tower Knowle visitor centre and viewed the exhibition about the history of the area and the flooding of the valley to create the reservoir. We walked to the water's edge through very wet ground and got soaking wet feet. Ben and Beccy chased a rabbit and, having got it cornered, it scratched Ben's leg on its way out of its trapped state. A discussion about the merits of trapping and frightening wild animals followed! We travelled on to an area further round where we could see the river flowing rapidly. We saw an eagle land in a tree next to the road and fly off again.

From Kielder Water we drove to the west and down to Birdoswald. Just outside Kielder we entered Scotland and all got excited at the idea that we had crossed the border. Around 20 minutes later we were back in England, our short visit out to the north over.

This stage of our holiday was a different type of exchange. We exchanged our efforts (running a youth hostel) for free accommodation. Most of the work was done by me but we were given a four bed room with shower room and had use of the self-catering kitchen, complete with Aga!

At Birdoswald Roman Fort, we met Daryl, the supervisor we were relieving. He showed me around the site and explained how everything was run. This was a temporary hostel in a building owned by English Heritage. Other than that the arrangements were the same as for any other youth hostel with a volunteer warden.

Beccy went out exploring and, after a trip to Brampton to the co-op, we had dinner and played battleships and poker.

Friday August 15th, I woke to loud boiler noises, although this didn't disturb Brian, Ben or Beccy. I did the general hostel cleaning and, after a shower in our large shower room, was ready at around noon. I later discovered that one of the guest shower rooms caused the noise with the boiler. The solution was - don't use it unless it is needed!

During the morning, Mum rang to let me know that our gerbil had been eaten by Smudge (our tortoiseshell cat). I phoned Patricia to reassure her that this wasn't her fault. She was very apologetic and needed to be convinced that she wasn't responsible for Smudge's actions. Exchanging often involves caring for animals, especially cats, which is great unless something goes wrong. Smudge had seen to it that something did go wrong this time.

We drove to Haltwhistle and found a shop where we could hire some bikes. We got 3 folding bikes and a touring bike (obviously Brian's). We cycled along the South Tyne trail along a disused railway track turned cycle path, to Lampley Viaduct. We cycled across the viaduct (to a dead end) then locked the bikes and walked down some steps running down the side of the valley to a footbridge. We climbed down to the water's edge and found a rock large enough to sit on to eat our packed lunch while the children skimmed stones across the river.
We climbed back up to the bikes and cycled back to the shop. Apparently there were red squirrels by the viaduct although we don't think we saw any. After returning the bikes and shopping in the co-op we went back to the hostel, arriving at exactly 5pm to open up.
We played crib and cards, had dinner and went for some walks around the fort. An English Heritage event was running over the weekend and people who would be doing the historical re-enactments had started camping in old style tents in the hostel grounds. One of these people told us that there were red squirrels in the woods around the fort. We decided to try to see one before leaving.