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!