Blogs from South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Today we tried to break a record for the most English Heritage/National Trust properties visited in one day! After we settled up for breakfast – same breakfast, third different price in three days (at least the price was going down not up!) – we packed up all of our gear and programmed the SatNav for Edlingham Castle which is administered by English Heritage. Edlingham Castle was built in about 1300 by Sir William Felton at a time when Northumberland was relatively peaceful. The best-preserved part of the castle that remains today is the solar tower that was added in 1340-50 by William’s son. With the advent of Anglo-Scottish hostilities William (junior) also strengthened the defences with a gate tower and stone curtain wall. After passing to the Hastings and Swinburne families the castle was abandoned in ... read more

Mark and friends decided to go check out Hadrian's wall and the coast at Tynemouth. Hadrian's wall was just ok. If we go again, we'll just do the "free route" since the actual wall is right off the street with an unlocked gate. Mark says Homestead has more of the actual wall pieces so we might check that out for next time. Kaitlyn was good at making her own entertainment by having a live battle in the gift shop with one of Mark's coworkers. Not so sure security liked that idea though. :( We found an awesome pizza place right near the coast that was pretty inexpensive and pretty good tasting at the same time. After that, we made the trek along the coast seeing some pretty impressive sights. Kaitlyn even dipped her toes in the ... read more