Newcastle upon Tyne; Wednesday, 12 August, 2009

An early start to the morning as I had to be at the station before nine to catch the bus up onto Hadrian’s Wall. Unlike in May from Carlisle, the AD122 only has one service a day in each direction to and from Newcastle, so its quite important to make the morning one, otherwise it’s the train out to Hexham (at additional cost) and then hanging around in Hexham for a while for the next bus.

First stop of the morning was Chesters Roman fort and bathhouse, then onto Housesteads set dramatically on a ridge. From Housesteads it was back to Hexham on the bus and a look around the town, and a spot of lunch, before catching the train one stop to Corbridge and the Roman site there.

After looking around Corbridge it was back to the station and back to Hexham and then onto the last AD122 of the day, the one that goes back to Newcastle.

By the time I got back into Newcastle it was already gone six, but with clear blue skies I decided to head on out to one of Gatesheads most famous sites, though it’s only just over ten years old, and most people think it’s in Newcastle.

Anthony Gormley’s Angel of the North statue stands on a hillside overlooking the A1 as it approaches Gateshead and has become an unofficial shorthand for the whole North East (in the same way as the Houses of Parliament or a Red Double-Decker are short hand for London). Up close it was smaller that I thought it would be, though you don’t have the effect of seeing it on a hilltop, when you are on top of the same hill.

Having taken in the statue it was back to Gateshead metro station and I realised good timing to head out to the coast to take some pictures of Tynemouth castle and priory in the evening twilight.

I took quite a few photos and then started to wander along the coast a bit to take some more pictures. Part way along I stopped to watch the stunning sight of the moon rising, appearing to come up from underneath the North Sea.

I carried on walking as I watched it, and managed to completely miss all the signs for the Metro station that I was heading for Cullercoats, and instead found myself back in Whitley Bay, with the time fast approaching 10:30, so I wandered back to the metro station and caught a train back to the hotel. I managed to grab some stuff from the Tesco’s just behind the hotel with minutes to spare before it closed, and then headed for bed.

No sooner had my head hit the pillow then I was up again as the fire alarm had been set off. The whole hotel evacuated, I did a naughty and quickly got dressed but was still in the middle of the main bulk of evacuees. It turned out, 20 cold minutes later, after the fire brigade had been and gone, that a guest had not believed the signs about sensitive smoke alarms and “this is a no-smoking hotel” and had lit up in their room. Needles to say, there were not continuing their stay in the Travelodge.

So, nearly 40 minutes after I had started going to bed, I finally got to bed.