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Published: August 22nd 2022
Newcastle-upon-Tyne geographically worked out to be a good stopping point for us as we need to get to Aberdeen, Scotland in a few days to fulfill an obligation we made through Trusted Housesitters to take care of a couple of cats for a lovely couple while they travel.
When traveling and everything goes smoothly as it has been, guess there always has to be a July 17
th type of day! We booked the train to Newcastle and when we got on and went to our reserved seats (you can’t actually pick your specific seats like when flying) we were more than a little surprised that we had 2 seats, but absolutely NO window! They were the last ones in the coach and the wall curved in a little so the inside seat leg room was smaller than normal. Not a good start, but figured we could deal with it (as we didn’t really have a choice anyway) as the train was quite full. If that was all that happened on that day, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but…
We then found that we had the booking from H… At this location we couldn’t find an Airbnb,
Crossing the River Tyne on the train
seeing a couple of the 7 bridges located hereso had decided on an apartment which we booked through Booking.com. We have used them before without a problem so were not concerned (and we did get a confirmation email). As check-in time was after 3PM, we arranged to leave St. Albans about 11:30am with an arrival time of 3:23 in Newcastle. The connections worked out fine with a subway ride between the two trains. We walked to the apartment and when we got to the building it stated that you need to enter your apartment number in as a code to gain access. Unfortunately, we never got any communication from the property or through booking.com about this. We figured it wouldn’t be too much of a problem as had a phone number for the property and they knew our approximate arrival time. That wound out being a wrong assumption as we received a recording when we tried to call stating “that the phone number you are calling is not receiving calls at this time”. It seemed like a strange message right away as it didn’t say the phone wasn’t working. We tried a few times, receiving the same strange message. We then knew it was time to call customer
service for Booking.com They agreed that it was strange, apologized for the situation and said they would try calling them and get back to us. Well, surprise, surprise – they got the same message and they could hardly believe it. I was told they would send an email to them and get back to us with their response so to wait to hear from them. Remember, this means we were still outside the building and it was quite windy, getting cold and seemed like it might rain. We started this process about 3:45PM and to make a long story short, we didn’t get into another place until 7PM! It took that long to wait the required time based on Booking.com rules to actually look for a comparable place for us. They did come up with 2 possibilities, but when we looked at them, they weren’t even close (both geographically or facility wise) to what we had booked. Finally, they said we could book what we had found (we did have time to search after all with the waiting we had to do). The downside was it was about $100 more. In the end, after we finished our stay in Newcastle,
We Both Did Our Duty and Voted Early
Thank goodness for absentee ballots! we do have to give Booking.com their due as they provided us a full refund for the difference. We were definitely pleased with that outcome and they did say that they would thoroughly check out that property manager as I told them not to advertise them to others!
The apartment that we did end up in was a little farther away from the center of town, but fortunately it was quite close to a bus stop so all was well. We didn’t know that at the time so walked UP hill towing our luggage to find the place. As we got to the apartment so late on a Sunday night and with no time to stop at the grocery store to pick up food, we figured we would walk to a local pub we passed on our walk for dinner. Wrong again. It was quite close by, but when we got there, we were told that they didn’t have a working sink so no food! The only other thing to do would be to head down the hill into town to find a restaurant there. With it not being too long a walk and it was downhill we stretched
The Central Arcade Built in 1837
with beautiful tiles, mosaics & stained glass our legs and hiked down. Not sure if I mentioned it, but this was a Sunday so keep that in mind. We walked around to try to find a place open, but everything was closed! Wait, we did see a McDonald’s sign and as a last resort, we figured we could at least get something to eat as we didn’t have anything since breakfast. Well, we got inside and they took our order, BUT now were told that the dining area was closed so we had to take it out! Thankfully we walked down the block a ways and found a stone ledge outside a building that we could sit on so that is where we had “dinner”. We were able to catch a bus up the hill and back to the apartment to end an “interesting travel day”. Thankfully, this was the first of this kind type of travel day and hopefully the last. It definitely makes you appreciate it when things go smoothly. Oh well, you just have to now laugh about it (and especially after a week of finding we did get money back from booking.com)
We have also learned since using public transport here, that
the bus companies typically have day tickets and/or family tickets that make the costs much less than buying two one-way tickets. These have worked out well for us as many allow for transportation not only the central towns we are in, but also to some neighboring towns. Sometimes you just have to ask to find out these “tricks” while other times the drivers will actually work to make sure they find you the least expensive way to travel - very nice of them indeed.
The next day we needed to get into town to do some grocery shopping and start our exploration of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. As in most places we have been, the Cathedral is typically in the center of town with outstanding architecture and beauty to see. The one in Newcastle was somewhat unusual in that they had recently remodeled and had taken out all of the Victorian pews and put in very simple benches leaving it looking like a very large empty space as you walk in. A very different look from the start, but as you got closer to the front of the Cathedral you could view the magnificent stone and wood carvings. This Church of England
was founded in 1091, built about the same time as the Castle located here. A fire in the 12
th C destroyed the original wooden Norman Church. The current building that we see today was built in 1350 and the Lantern Tower was added in the 15
th C. As this Church is close to the river Tyne, the lantern tower was an important navigational aid for all the ships that plied the river here. In 1882, it became the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, honoring the patron saint of children, sailors and fishermen, very appropriate with the closeness to the sea. We learned a tidbit that saved the lantern tower from destruction back in 1644. At that time the Scots invaded and threatened to bomb the tower. To save it, the mayor of the city decided to hold all prisoners of Scotland in the tower figuring they wouldn’t bomb it with their own people located here – quite clever of him.
At this location there was a Roman fort built in the mid-2
nd C. to guard against any enemies from crossing the river Tyne. Roman control of the area fell in the 5
th C. The son of William the Conqueror
We Have Noticed Quite a Few Refill Shops In the UK
a great idea - helps reduce containers by refilling decided in 1080 to build a Castle where the fort had been located earlier. As with everything, additions were made and between 1247-1250, a gate (barbican) was added which still stands and the town walls were added in the early 14
th C. It is always interesting to us to learn of the modifications that are made over the centuries based on who is in control at the time.
To make up for our meal the night before, we found a Caribbean restaurant to have our lunch. We were very pleased as we found listed on the menu, goat curry and Trini doubles! Needless to say, we ordered them both which brought us back to our time in the Caribbean a few years back! Nice memories indeed. As I think I mentioned in previous blog postings, we do enjoy the food in Turkey, but it is many times difficult to find any other cuisine, so we are taking advantage of being in the UK and eating foods other than from Turkey. The funny thing we find though, is that there are numerous Turkish restaurants here and we have had many recommendations to these places from the various people we have
agreed to cat sit at during our time here. Seems to be very popular here, which we do understand.
We also see lots of Turkish barbershops which reminds us of when Bob went to one in Turkey. He figures he’d like to do it again as they did such a nice job, but with the currency conversion, he’ll wait till we get back to Marmaris and as he says go to “his barber”! We always chuckle at that as he hadn’t been to a barber in decades before the one in Turkey.
One of the days we wandered around town and walked across one of the 7 bridges located here – the High-Level Bridge was built in 1848 which has 2 tiers, one for the buses and one for cars. From this bridge we were able to get great views of three other bridges. The Swing Bridge that was built in 1876 on the same site where the Roman bridge had been located is the closest. Then the Tyne Bridge built in 1929 may look somewhat familiar as it was modelled after the plans for the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. This one was actually built 4 years
prior to the one in Sydney as it was the test model for the larger one to be built in Australia. The last one you can see from the High-Level Bridge that we were on is the newest bridge built in 2001 called the Millennium Bridge.
Another day we decided we wanted to walk down to the riverside. While checking out where we wanted to eat that evening, we found recommendations for an Indian restaurant near the river, so that was decided! It was a very pleasant stroll down to the river walk. We did keep saying to ourselves though that now that we were going down, we knew eventually we would have to go up – figured that would be good to do after our dinner!
The Millennium Bridge can only be used by pedestrians and people on bicycles. The interesting point of the design of this one is that the whole bridge tilts 40 degrees in order to allow boats to pass under it. We would have loved to have seen it do this, but it didn’t happen while we were there. We did walk across it and it is nicely set up with 2
Cathedral of St. Nicholas with its lantern tower
used as a navigational aid for thos on the river different lanes to separate those on bicycles from those walking. It even has benches to sit on for those that want to take in the view while on the bridge – quite the design.
The Rani Restaurant was an excellent choice – the food was superb and the service impeccable. After our dinner we enjoyed the stroll along the river along with many other enjoying the pleasant evening weather. We finally knew it was time to start the climb up. We did see that we could have taken a bus to the top, but decided it would be better to walk. The stairs definitely looked worse than they turned out to be – fortunately there were a few landings as well as we zig zagged our way up to the level of the city above the river. We heard that the Tyne Bridge is 85’ above the river so we knew that we at least went up that high and then of course at the top we still had to go up more. A lovely evening indeed!
As we were close to the sea, but hadn’t seen it yet here, we found we could catch a bus out
to a neighboring village, Tynemouth (very clever as it is located at the mouth of the Tyne River!) It turned out to be another lovely day outing enjoying the scenery on the way out there and then enjoying a walk to the 13
th C. fortress and monastery. We decided not to go in to this one, but preferred to take the time during the day to walk down to the harbor and of course enjoy seeing the boats sailing by. It definitely makes us miss being on Tsamaya, but we are thoroughly enjoying our time here in the UK right now. We met a woman that grew up in the area years ago and had recently returned to get away from London after retiring. Had a very pleasant conversation and learned more about the area from her. Always nice to learn from locals.
While here we had found out that many trains were not running due to the heat – they were cancelling routes on July 18
th and 19
th – thankfully, the buses were still running, so it never hampered our explorations of the area. There have also been railroad strikes while in the UK but fortunately the strike
dates are provided ahead of time so you can plan around them. We have been lucky so far that none of the dates we have to travel to meet any commitments we have made were on strike days – we are hoping our luck will hold out while here!
The next day, July 22
nd we were due to start to cat sit in Aberdeen, Scotland so we headed out again to explore another new area to us. When we decided on this trip to the UK very quickly while back in Turkey, we really didn’t know where we would be traveling, but as a result of booking some of these “cat sits” it is helping to determine our plans – it has been a very different way to decide on where we would go, but it has been lots of fun so far – hopefully that will continue!
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Views from the train
Never ceases to amaze me that on trains I am the only one not looking at or totally absorbed in my mobile phone or similar item. Great to see there is someone else in the World who looks out the window and watches the World go by. When overseas my mobile is at the bottom of my bag and sometimes is never pulled out.