Newcastle Aug 7,8,9

After getting picked up here:

and dropped off in Newcastle, I headed straight away to the Theatre Royal to pick up my ticket for Jersey Boys.  This was because the hotel would not let me check in a minute before 3:00.  Whilst executing this errand I happened on a food emporium that reduces Whole Foods to the level of Stop and Shop.  Bought a salad with salmon and a few other things, like raspberry jam with basil, and returned to the overpriced hotel with broken window to settle in. 

Following day went first to the Laing Gallery, an excellent space with a weird exhibit, then on a two-hour tour of Victoria Tunnel, about which I had been very excited until I was actually on the tour, which was, desafortunadamente, kind of boring.  That you would be cold and that it would be  dark and wet I had expected, but although the volunteer guide was super enthusiastic, his talent for coherent narrative was, shall we say, seriously wanting. 

The performance of Jersey Boys was excellent, the music oh so wonderful, and the Theatre Royal lives up to its name.

Second rest day visited some art museums.  This installation at the Baltic Museum of Contemporary Art reminded me of the homeless scene in San Francisco:

Although, when you look at this part of it, the butterly-ish piece lends a rather charming note to it all:

I really have an aversion to slogans, especially when a supposedly deep thought is being tossed your way only you just think, "Huh?"  Actually, you think something sharper and harsher, pero bueno:

Another art gallery was on the surprisingly beautiful campus of Newcastle University:

Back down on the quay is this terrific fat, slug-like building, which is a music venue:

(A little bit like the water filtration plant on the corner of Armory and Whitney.)

People bridge:

Car bridge:

Spent some time shopping to replenish my supply of nuts, raisins, peanut butter, apples, cheese, etc. for tomorrow is the first day of Hadrian's Wall, and a surfeit of food shops there will not be.  Oh, as I was checking out at the grocery store, the cashier asked, in a completely innocent tone, "Doing a bit of shopping today?"  Very politely, I answered, "Yes."  We can liken this to the receptionist at the dentist's office who, when I asked for an appointment to have the temporary bridge re-cemented, asked, "Do you have it with you?"