Tag Archives: Newcastle

May 13 2011
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England, Travel

Newcastle – Part 2

No trip to a city called Newcastle will skip over a visit to the castle that gives the city its name. The city has been called Newcastle since the old wooden castle was replaced by the keep in the 13th century and Aarti and I spent almost an hour exploring the castle keep. There were excellent views of the river (including the bridges) and of the train station from the top and plenty of narrow corridors to explore. It’s a little unfortunate, but even though the city is called Newcastle, the castle keep itself was strategically useless after just a few centuries. This was mainly because a massive city wall was constructed.

By this time, I had also realized that Newcastle is not far from where George Stephenson was born, and the city claims the father of the steam railways as their own – Stephenson Rocket. There was a big statue of him near the train station. The station is truly massive. It’s also got a bend in it, which is much easier to spot from up above.

That evening we joined up with Luca and Morgane to go out and do what Newcastle is known for. We probably tried half a dozen clubs at the Gate.

It’s hard to describe what I saw, but it’s safe to say that I’ve been scarred for life. The girls, even the ones who looked way too young, were wearing the sluttiest clothes imaginable and way too much bright coloured make-up. There were a few near fights, among both genders, but I have no doubt that we’d have seen more than one had we stuck around. Also, plenty of crazy costumes for the stag and hen nights.

The club we spent the most time in was playing classic rock from the 70’s and 80’s. It was pretty cool that all of us were rocking out to YMCA. We also chilled out in a salsa bar in a failed effort to find dancing, but a successful effort to find mojitos.

The next morning we walked down to the riverside outdoor market for some breakfast and to check out some of the shops. About 30 minutes before we had to leave, the Millenium Gateshead Bridge began to open, and that is a very cool piece of engineering. Instead of opening in the middle, the bridge tilts up on its side. We managed to get a few photos of the whole process – it was very impressive.

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May 13 2011
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England, Travel

Newcastle – April 14th and 15th – Part 1

A night out drinking in Newcastle is not exactly a rare outing for Scots. In fact, there are probably as many Scottish Stag Nights and Hen Do’s there as there are anywhere else in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

The timing of this trip worked out well, because of French friends who were visiting Newcastle the same time as us. The train deal I found was a bit cheaper, but left very early on Saturday morning, 6:15 am.

The first things on our minds was dropping stuff off at the hotel and finding some breakfast. It actually took us a fairly long time to get around to the latter. We walked along the river and checked out the bridges, Sage Gateshead, and some public art before walking up the hill to find somewhere to eat.

After having a bacon sandwich at a French cafe near the arcade, we wandered off in search of Grainger Street Market, which we found quite accidentally – we were advised to go there, but made no effort before hand to find out exactly where it was.

We went through the entrance by the Black Garter pub – I am keeping a running collection of amusing place, shop, and pub names, and that one sounded very saucy. The market reminded me a lot of the Granville Island Market, but had to be at least twice the size. It was split into a few parts, but it looked like it could have been a converted warehouse like the one in Vancouver. It had a high glass ceiling, and all of the large open spaces were filled with vendors selling fresh produce, deli meats, cheeses, clothes, and tourist knick knacks.

While walking around a few of the other shopping streets, we stopped for a moment to listen to some buskers, and were met with a very nice surprise. We were expecting to meet up with Morgane and Luca at the train station later that afternoon, but there they were sitting on a bench not far away.

Now being a foursome, we walked around a bit more and eventually made our way over to the Laing Art Gallery. They were doing an exhibition on a Victorian painter (named John Martin) that we all really enjoyed – lots of vibrant colours, vivid landscapes, and stories from ancient mythology and the bible. One of these days, I’ll actually have to read the bible front to back because I always find there are a few gaps when I try to remember the stories.

We arranged to meet up later, and split into pairs again. Aarti and I went by bus out to the biggest mall I’ve ever seen called Metrocentre, which kind of sounds similar to a place in Burnaby where I used to work. It dwarfed that one. IT’S A BIG, BIG, MALL.

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