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Good friends
Peter, Linda, Lee, John in the pub in Beamish Final day of the Giro and the bike tour and we are greeted with steady rain and cool weather for our final ride. We left about 0740 and rode down the valley on a bike track for approx. 40minutes , with a couple of climbs thrown in, and then retraced our ride back to the hotel to clean the bikes, shower and pack our gear for the drive to Milan. Final stage of the Giro is a 15K time trial near Verona, which is about 200K from where we are and the trip to see the time trial is not viable with the majority of people leaving for home or to continue holidays. The Giro has been decided with Basso in pink for GC winner, Cadel in red for consistency, Matty Lloyd in green for KOM and Richie Porte in white for best young rider. Aussies did themselves proud.
All on the bus by about 10.30 for a 3-4 hour trip to Milan where we hope to find a place to see the final stage. Hopefully there will be some places open in Milan as it is a designated tourist area.
The bike tour has ended, but the holiday continues as
Beamish
An example of the set-up in Beamish Lee and myself travel to the UK for some sight-seeing and trave.
Left Milan for the airport at about 12.30 with plenty of time for my flight to the UK. Plane delayed by the Italian authorities but finally left 20minutes late for Heathrow. Met by BA staff who escorted me through customs as the flight to Newcastle was boarding. Un-eventual flight to the Northern city and met by Lee’s cousin Peter, who I get along with very well. He could nearly be an Aussie. Back to Peter and Linda’s place where Lee was having a drink with Peter’s wife, Linda and after a few drinks, a bed was very welcome after a long travel day.
Peter has got the week that we are staying with them planned and we started on Tuesday morning, in light showers, by going to the Tynemouth where we visited the volunteer museum, which was very interesting. The old bloke who ran the museum chatted away to us as we four were the only people there. He told us of his father who had immigrated to Australia with his brother and they enlisted in the Light Horse in WW1 and were sent to Gallipoli and then
Old steam engine
Peter inspects an old restored steam engine in Beamish France. Extremely interesting man who informed us of the TVLB, Tyne Volunteer Life Boat and that they are still active today after at least 100 years of service to the sea-faring community. Tuesday night dinner was with Harry and Nancy, Peter’s parents who are still fit and well.
Wednesday was a trip to see Peter and Lee’s cousin Joy Bacon and her husband John who live in Tranwell Gardens, near Morpeth and live on a very nice estate in a very comfortable place. Lovely lunch and drinks filled in the afternoon and as has happened on the previous two occasions, the sun was out to further enhance the day. All of us enjoyed the sunshine as the weather in the UK has been the worse for a long time. Temperatures of MINUS 17, which puts the 1-2 degrees cold that we get at home in Mt Gambier to shame, and we couldn’t imagine the cold they must have felt.
Another sleep in on Thursday morning before we travelled to Beamish where they have re-created a village from the 1913 era. This is in a similar vein to Sovereign Hill near Ballarat with buildings being restored and people dressing in period
Durham Cathedral
View of Durham Cathedral from the gardens in Crook Hall costume to show the lives of the past. Many old buildings have been re-constructed after they were taken apart brick by brick and then carefully restored to their former state in the park at Beamish. We enjoyed wandering through the old buildings getting an insight into the former lives of the residents of a typical English village in the coal mining period.
Peter enjoys showing off his city and on Friday, Peter, Linda, Lee and I went to Crook Hall, now a private residence, which has been restored to a grand place both inside and out in the gardens. The ceilings are low inside with solid walls and some lovely restoration and the gardens are set out in various styles, with an orchard, large pond with fish, vegetable garden that supplies the cafe and ornamental gardens with stunning views over Durham and the Cathedral. Peter and Linda were impressed with the cheap parking as you have to pay everywhere in England to park. We walked into Durham where we had a nice lunch and split Banoffee pie (Wikipedia it for further info) for sweets.
Final day in Newcastle and the orders were that we were going on the hop-on, hop-off
Sage Music Centre
Centre for performing arts in Newcastle. Unusual shape bus for the day with an extra sight-seer to join. Kayleigh, who is Peter and Linda’s daughter and had been to a literary festival in Hay-on Wye in Wales had returned and would be joining us on the sight-seeing tour. Had plenty of time to kill, so a half was in order while we waited for the bus to pick us up. Did about one and a half laps of the town on the bus with great commentary and explanation about various aspects of the city of Newcastle and even Peter gained new knowledge of his city. Very nice lunch in Paradiso which is Linda’s favourite eatery followed by a beer in Peter’s favourite old pub, the Crown Posada, which is very old world and has a juke box that plays records and is run by the barman. Called in to see Harry and Nancy (Peter’s parents and very good friends) and then back to Peter and Linda’s for an easy evening as we are due to leave on Sunday with a hire car to travel south
Picked up the hire car from Newcastle airport and after final goodbyes, Peter guided us to the motorway that would take us south
Bridges over the Tyne
Swing bridge in foreground and another of the seven bridged that cross the Tyne river in Newcastle to Liverpool where we intend to spend a couple of nights.
Uneventful trip to Liverpool through drizzling rain and a lot of traffic as people are returning from their holiday break with school due to re-start on Monday. Took an early turn-off and approached Liverpool from the Northern side instead of the Eastern, but after stopping and getting directions from police, we eventually got to our hotel near Sefton Park and about 2.5 miles from the city centre. Quiet night with a couple of drinks in the bar and then bed as we have trips planned for Monday.
Walked into the Albert Dock area of Liverpool after breakfast and went to the Beatles exhibition which contains all the information you need to know about the Beatles, from their solo beginnings to how they formed and as a group and when they performed their final concert as a group. Very interesting and spent quite a bit of time there before climbing onto the bus for our Magical Mystery Tour, which showed us where the Beatles were born , lived, went to school, met, performed in groups and eventually formed as the Beatles and where they wrote a lot of their material. Tour guide and bus driver were both characters and full of information about the members of the group and their history. Lee recognised the guide and when questioned, he mentioned that he had been doing it for about 10 years. The popularity of the tour is growing and they had about 38,000 clients in the previous year and that was only the tours that he was on. There are other companies running similar types of tours as well, so the popularity of the group is still growing, even though they ceased performing as a group in 1970. At the end of the tour, which dropped us at the Cavern Club in Mathew St. we had a couple of beers and then back to our hotel for dinner. Very enjoyable day and back in the car to continue our journey on Tuesday.
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