Newcastle and Lindisfarne (NE England)

This year our sojourn to the Northern hemisphere was a few days earlier than originally planned as there was an opportunity to catch up with best man Steve and his lovely wife Jilly. It turns out our last catch up was 8 years ago. Newcastle was their penultimate port of call on a North Atlantic cruise to ‘cool’ places and a town we have never visited. Hence, an opportunity not to be missed.

At Steve’s insistence the day started with a ‘full English’. What was clear was our appetites are not what they used to be. We didn’t need feeding for the rest of the day!

Just down the road from breakfast was a beautiful shopping arcade. The walls, particularly the upstairs shops were covered in tiles. Many were ‘one-offs’. An extraordinary and flamboyant finish.

Of course the cathedral church of St Nicholas had to be different as well. This remarkable tower has over 500 years served many purposes including as a navigational aid. The spire was also uniquely adorned on each side by an unusually colourful clock. These were clearly synchronised as both were stopped on the wrong time.

Inside was also unusual. All the pews had been removed (and subsequently replaced by stackable chairs) to enable the installation of under floor heating. The result - an open warm area to enable all sorts of activities to occur such as concerts - and converting an historical underused monument into contemporary use. A recipe likely to be repeated elsewhere.

Just down the road from the cathedral is the old castle which, when it was new, gave the town its name.

Continuing down the hill we eventually arrived at the river where a wide variety of bridges awaits. The red foreground is the 1876 swing bridge whilst in the background there is the Millennium pedestrian bridge. The latter rotates around a vertical axis so the arch and deck move towards the horizontal and enable sufficient clearance for shipping.

On the (right) South bank is the Baltic centre for contemporary art. This shiny building was even more sparkly than normal as if you look closer you can see three abseiling window cleaners. 

On the drive up we had seen a well-known sculpture which we all agreed needed a closer inspection. The ‘Angel of the North’ is a reminder of 200 years of coal mining in the dark. It is also meant to change the focus from the industrial past to the new information age and overcome past fears with future hope.

At 20 metres it is some four double decker buses tall and the 54 metre wingspan is close to that of a jumbo jet. We have a maquette at the National art gallery in Canberra which we pass whenever we walk around Lake Burley Griffin,

And with future hope that the next catch up interval will be much smaller we took Steve and Jilly back to their cruise ship. As for us well – Lindisfarne is only a quick 1½ hourndrive to the North so the next day we found ourselves at the Priory and church of St Mary. What a dramatic series of arches. Given the lean of many of the walls it is amazing they are still standing. If you look closely through the right window you can see the castle in the distance.

There was a pleasant walk out to the fort which some took in their stride.

In the early 1900 the fort was reconfigured into (for those days) upmarket accommodation. I am not sure being in a blowy and wet promontory is my idea of a holiday but some clearly saw the appeal. Mind you the view from the ramparts back to the priory were certainly worth the climb.

At the back of the castle were some large lime kilns. This was a substantial operation which started in the 1860s and went through to the early 20thC.  

The surrounding fields had the usual sheepish occupants who, on this occasion, appeared quite possessive. This is our water trough – what do you want? 

And in an isolated small stone walled square was the garden – unusually some 500 metres away from the fort. The wild flowers however did present a colourful foreground to a different side of the fort.

However, Lindisfarne is probably best known for the fact that it can only be accessed during low tide. You can walk across – but clearly not all of the time…

Or you can drive across where the slight increase in road level allows crossing over a slightly longer period than the path. It ensures a stay of at least five hours – so a literally captured tourist trade. That fact made it hard to figure out why the café closed to enable servers to head back to the mainland….!