July 15 Newcastle

The Newcastle Walls Walk looked promising, so I headed off to give it a go, but about three blocks into it there was a NO-CAN-GO blockade in front of a horrible, rusted, tall zigzag stairway that led to an overpass.  It is not as if Newcastle has surplus beauty so that you could just wander about and be happy, no, this is a city that requires a plan.  It is also a city that has more you-can't-go-here-so-go-somewhere-else situations than you can imagine, so I thought, OK, I will simply do this walk in reverse, and that is what I did, which was fine, until I got to the end.  Of course I was faced with the NO-CAN-GO blockade from the other side.  Fortunately, at that hour, there were construction men (am I allowed to say that?)  about, and people are very nice when you ask for help.  I got turned around and straightened out, and was ready for the second walk of the day, but of that, later.

Now, you don't walk the city walls of Newcastle, as you do in York; you look at remnants.

Here is remnant number one:

Is that a wowzer, or what?  Really gets your blood up to see the more.  

BTW, Newcastle has a serious garbage problem.

The wall experience does get better. 

This remnant looks like the Kotel.....sort of!  Well, maybe just a little bit.

or maybe not at all.

Ahh, now we're going back in time:

To navigate the route, one has to cope with a lot of ugly overpasses with ugly access:

But there was one quite artistic one:

And some are underpasses.

After The City Walls Walk, I did a City Central Walk.  It was just like the Walls Walk but without the walls.  By this time I was utterly urban-blighted-out.  I had time to visit the Biscuit Factory, which, despite its name, is a art gallery.  It was first rate!

An enamel on metal fish:

This piece was titled:  Wake Up and Smell the Roses.  Do you see the roses?

Oh, what big ears you have!

Not every subject was four footed.  There was this lady with a great hair-do.  No, wait!  That is a hat!

But many were, like these wire animals:

Oops, there is a two-footed creature in the mix

Flowers (foxglove, mainly):

There was a wonderful selection of note cards.  As I was looking at them, I got into a bit of a conversation with a woman who told me that she plays the piano. She buys these cards and sets them on the piano to look at them because she cannot bear to give them away!

After the art gallery it was time for the thing I was most eager to do in Newcastle, the Victoria Tunnel Tour but although the guide was enthusiastic and regaled the group with many anecdotes, a lot of which had to do with going to a pub, and some of which were just silly. He obviously enjoys this volunteer gig, but the tour was, for me, an utter bore, and there is no escape because for two hours you are are prisoner in a cold, dark tunnel.  No doubt, the style of ha ha ha is appealing to a lot of people, but I found it irritating AND the tour actually exceeded two hours!  Note to self:  do not repeat

On my meander back to the hotel, I saw people queued up waiting for the bus.  This you would be hard pressed to see in the U.S.

Dinner tonight was not the usual lox concoction, it was a hot honey chicken sandwich from the sandwich shop down the block.  It wasn't bad!  Not bad at all!

July 14 Carlisle to Newcastle by train

Carlisle is not very big nor is it very small.  The buildings are not tall, not are they especially low.  There are a few things to do, but not very many.  The B and B where I stayed was musty and hot, and way overpriced, but the lady who runs it was nice and the location was good.  I was not sorry to leave.  

I was planning on taking a 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. train to Newcastle, but I was ready early and so caught the first train of the day at 5:54. How nice to have an "anytime" ticket.  The Carlisle train station is unusually nice.  

This poster was part of an ad campaign get people to ask for help if they feel they need it.

The thing is that,"Are you alright?" = "hello"in these parts.  

Since the two-car train route is Carlisle—Newcastle with 15 stops on the way, there was no problem finding a spot for my suitcase.  These little things matter.  Anyway, this early departure got me to Newcastle at abut 7:30 and to the hotel before 8:00, so not a chance in hell they would let me check in, but there was a nice ladies' room in which to change and re-org for the main excursion of the day, a walk to and through the park in Jesmond Dene, a suburb of Newcastle.  

As one would not seek out Carlisle as a destination, neither would one seek out Newcastle, but Newcastle is big and does have a few attractions and wide sidewalks.

The big draw in the park is this man-made waterfall:

OK, Now we can move on.  There is also a small animal zoo:, small being a double-duty adjective to describe the animals and the size of the zoo:

You are very cute:

These porkers need a better diet:

This is Max.  He can say,"hello" and "good bye."

As can our Max!

There were trees:

And a dog giving a stepping stone demonstration:

Now those are my kind of stepping stones!  

Having completed the circuit of the park, I had to get back up to street level, the park being along the river.  I had to ask four or five people how to manage that.  Very frustrating!  Then I was going to take a tour of the suburb, which is reputed to be "very nice," but since it looked like this:

I aborted the plan and headed back to Newcastle proper where it was time for ice cream.  It was still too early to go to the hotel, so I headed to the Laing Art Gallery.  Can't say I loved the art, but there was a pretty tea pot:

And a charming village scene:

And a Jacob Epstein sculpture:

of his wife, who was frequently his model.

The gallery had a portrait exhibit, which certainly featured a lot of different kids of subjects, but the political-like commentary was super off-putting.

Finally time to try my luck at the hotel.  Success!

I had hesitated to book this hotel because the decor was so off-putting:

But aside from the animal thing on the bed  (you could plotz) and the whole black and grey color scheme and the chains and the fringes and stuff, and the very dim lighting, it is actually a very comfortable hotel, excellently located.

I could not let the day go by without seeing the Tyne, as in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Bridge:

It pretty much captures the feel of the city

July 13, Carlisle

The day began with a walk to the train station.  Since I am leaving for Newcastle tomorrow, I wanted to make sure the station was easy to find and so on. 

 I, always fearing potential disaster, had already purchased my train ticket

Then it was off to see the sights and the sites, too, some of which I was planning on returning to, like the Cathedral for example:

This arch was adorable:

I went to a couple of major parks, which were ever so nice!  But at one point I veered off the derech (path) and had to cut through a trailer park where this horrible little yappy dog came after me.  I screamed at him very much, especially after he nipped at my leg.

Bad, bad dog!

One park had an Asian section, but the only Asian item was this pagoda:

It was a very small Asian section.

The Hadrian's Wall walk passes through Carlisle.  To play that up, three or four huge boulders have been set on bases because maybe the scratches on the surface mean something old:

And one is supposed to be awash with a feeling of reverence, I think.  The selfie is not part of the display.

A decorated mosaic seat I will call Roman-evocative:

The walk also went through a golf course:

After the walk came the castle.  

When they shot whatever out of this window, or whatever they did (maybe they just looked)

 for sure they did not see:

When the men folk were buy attending to fires and such, the women folk were tasked with raining down boulders onto the heads of the invaders:

Apparently they did this with much enthusiasm:

I did not think that the castle was well curated or all that interesting.  Here are my big takeaways:

Next stop: Interior of the Cathedral.

Doggies who go the church are good doggies!  Yes, they are!

I had the most fascinating time at the cathedral.  A volunteer spent a huge amount of time talking to me about the magnificent organ:

And many other fascinating features of the cathedral.  Here is just one:

The underside of that bench shows Richard II being crowned by two heavenly cherubs.  According to the gentleman expert, that was taking the divine right of kings a little too far.


Last stop was the museum. I will skip to the three pieces worth commenting on. 

This is Sisera's mother:

In case you need a refresher on the Song of Deborah, here it is in short.  Sisera, the Canaanite general who is losing the battle, runs away and takes shelter in the tent of Ya'el. "He asked for water and she gave him milk; she gave him milk in a lordly bowl." Anyway, he drinks the milk, falls at her feet, and she hammers a tent peg into his temple.  Meanwhile, Sisera's mother is looking out the window in anticipation of her son's victorious return, imagining his bringing spoils such as many dyed fabrics.  Curation:  "Sisera's Arab mother....."  Don't even get me started!

Then there was this Ophelia: 

She symbolized opposing sides of womanhood that could not be reconciled?  Huh?  Sometimes I wish I drank.

This lady represents "joyful resistance:"

She does not look as if she is resisting very much, IMO.  

July 12, Caldbeck to Carlisle

 Today began with a crisis. When I tried to leave the pub, the key to the exit door would not turn in the lock.  Now to backtrack.  I had asked, when I checked in, if there was anything I needed to know about how the lock worked—I ALWAYS ask this—and the kid who was showing me to my room said there was not and that furthermore, there would be someone on the premises at 5:00 a.m. (about which I was quite dubious) so that the regular door would be open.  A sixteen mile day lay ahead and I was locked inside the Oddfellows Arms.  I phoned, no answer, of course, nor do they have an emergency contact number.  There wasn't even a window you could break in order to get out.  I called 999, spoke to the police who told me to speak to the fire people, none of whom could help.  I was enraged and actually terrified at being locked in.  After about the fifth try, the key turned in the lock and then you  have to know to turn the door handle down because that is a British thing.  This took about 20 minutes.  Was I ever glad to get out of there.

The walk was not difficult—a couple of small navigational errors, easily corrected—but it was pretty dull, especially near the end when you have to walk miles on a bike path.  Deadly.  Let's put it this way, I don't think there was a single bench on the entire route

Notice the absence of mountains:

Vegetation like this:

But wow!  Take a look at this iv(or)y tower!

It was a sleepy sort of day:

But theses guys were not wasting any time:

Why the long face, horsie?

"Well, since you won't give me anything, I guess I will just have to fend for myself:"

Sheep wool hanging out to dry

Look to the left and you see barley, lots and lots of barley:

Look to the right, and you see this:

Can you see who is hiding in the woods?

Teasel:

 Thistle

Apparently they come from entirely different families. Had it not been for a woman we (Alex and Alex and I) met last year who had a gorgeous metal railing with  a teasel motif, I would have spent the  rest of my life thinking that teasel was a British way of pronouncing thistle!  There is so much to learn!

This photo was taken on the 13th, but fits so well with the thistle and the teasel!  It is a blue globe thistle

Approaching Carlisle, I encountered an  (old) woman in a wheelchair, walking her dog....she wasn't walking but the dog was, but you can't say rolling her dog.  Anyway, she asked me if I were a fisherwoman!  "No," I told her.  "Well what are you dressed up as?" "A hiker."  She asked me where I was going, so I asked her where she was going. "To the cemetery," she said.  "It is very pretty there."

I don't think it was this one, though:

Carlisle is a surprisingly attractive, small  city....well, at least the part I have seen.  Tomorrow will be a day of exploration and sightseeing.