Blogs from Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 9

Saturday 30st August And so it begins - the nostalgic last ever ferry to Norway complete with stragglers on the shore waving the Norwegian flag and a captain blasting the loudest horn I've ever heard the entire passage out the Tyne - honked like a man who will not get the opportunity again, which of course he won't. I am typing this on my eeePC looking out at the Tyne and Newcastle disappearing behind me, together with the setting sun. I haven't quite gotten my sea legs yet so perhaps typing now is a bit premature - in fact if this blog never makes it to the internet it will be because I barfed all over the eeepC and trashed it on its maiden entry. Its actually pretty cold on deck - the wind blasts you ... read more

First week down and 5 to go. Have travelled up to Lancashire, traversed the Pennines through to Newcastle after a road detour and still found the place OK!. Staying with Barbara and John whom I met in Sydney when they were tourists!! Now I am the tourist. Today we have been to Alnwick castle where Harry Potter was made. Then to a little village inn for lunch, then up the coast to Bamburgh castle and the Farne Islands which is not too far away from Scotland. We headed back down the coast through coastal towns. You would not know they existed except for my wonderful guides!. An enormous amount of history related to Newcastle and early England. Learning so much.. has been very interesting. Tomorrow heading down the coast toward Durham, Nottingham and Leicester. Overnight near ... read more

Warkworth Castle Yesterday was the first day I've been here and it was sunny. Despite it being sunny, the weather was still cold. I finally understand how my people (haha I sound like a bit of a Nazi saying that) got so pale. Even when it's sunny, you still need to wear a hoodie. After a conversation with Raph at the bar last night, she told Dom that he HAD TO take me to see a castle. So we went to Castle Warkworth which is about 40 minutes drive from where I'm staying. The first part of the Castle was built in 1150 AD (according to the booklet thing I have infront of me) with modifications contastantly being made until about 1569-70 when it was ruined by Sir Thomas Forster. A lot of the Castle was ... read more

Journey Commenced 16th July 2008 at 5:45pm NZ Time. Melbourne Airport (Transfer) The flight from Auckland to Melbourne wasn't too bad. I tried to keep awake in the hopes that I would fall asleep on the Dubai Trip. At the Melbourne airport, during the transition period I ordered a vegetarian pizza. The girl at the counter told me she would call out to me when it was ready, so I sat down and started reading my book. After about 15 minutes or so (I'm guessing here as I didn't have any way of telling the time) an announcement came across asking for all NZ Passengers who were on the Dubai flight to go through. I walked over to the counter and asked the chick where my Pizza was. She told me they'd accidently burnt it but ... read more

It started with Kaitlyn going on a field trip with her six-year-olds to Whitley Bay on Thursday and wanting to go back for more of an adult time at the beach without running around chasing kids, drawing pictures in the sand, or searching for a toilet. :) Mark promised Kaitlyn that one day this weekend, we would make our way to the beach. We had talked about going on Friday (the 4th), then changed our minds to wait a day until Saturday. We woke up on Saturday and noticed it was a bit foggy, rainy, and just overall an overcast day. Nonetheless, we wanted to be like the typical person from Newcastle and let nothing stop us! We packed a backpack with umbrellas, sweaters, coats, and some diet coke (for Mark of course) and hopped on ... read more