The Castles, The Wall and the Angel (Part 2)

After taking the not-so-quiet approach to leaving the Newcastle University dorms, I hopped in the car and headed for Hadrian's Wall. I needed to exit the A1 at A69 going west. Unfortunately, I couldn't, because this bastard shot a police officer at that junction only 6 hours before. I did eventually find a way around and got on the A69, but it's not fun when you're lost and there's a gunman on the loose who was known to be in the area only six hours earlier.

Hadrian's Wall was not what I pictured it would be. Most of the wall has collapsed and where it is standing it is rare for the structure to be over three feet high (having collapsed down to it's base). Yet, it was still impressive, especially when you consider the terrain that it was built on. Though the prevailing rumor is that the Romans built Hadrian's Wall to keep out the wild Scots, that's only partially true. It actually acted as a border control to limit the number of people coming into England from Scotland . . . especially those that didn't have their green cards. ;)

To bring my trip to Newcastle and Northumbria to conclusion, I had to go see the iron icon of the area that is The Angel of the North. This piece of artwork was built by Antony Gormley in 1998. It welcomes all the visitors to the North that drive past it on the A1 . . . or if you live up North it welcomes you home. It is a most impressive structure. The wingspan is the same as that of a jumbo jet. You can see the scale in the picture below (a photographer in the bottom right and a person standing up next to the sculpture).


One more drive past the A1/A69 intersection (which was now open to traffic) and I was back at the airport. After a long week of work, it will be nice to fly home tomorrow and see my wife and son.

Incidentally the picture at the head of the post is the "new castle" that Newcastle Upon Tyne is named for. Not quite as impressive as the others.

The Castles, The Wall and The Angel (Part 1)

If you want to see some freakin' cool castles, go to Northumbria, England. There are other things to see like Hadrian's Wall and The Angel of the North, both worth seeing, but the castles were absolutely phenomenal. Last weekend, I flew over to Newcastle Upon Tyne and had an interesting weekend, which included avoiding a disgruntled convict with a gun.

On Saturday, I did the all-castles-all-the-time tour of Northumbria. The first castle that I saw was on Holy Island, Lindisfarne Castle. Holy Island is an island that you can drive to at low tide. A causeway opens up, just don't get caught trying to drive across when the tide is coming in.

The town was neat and I would have liked to stay a little longer, but I had a tonne (that's the British spelling) of castles to see and only one day to do it! Here is Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island:


Next it was down the coast toTHE most amazing castle that I have seen to date: Bamburgh Castle. This one deserves two pictures.

From the park:
From the beach:


And, although I have many other pictures of castles, I cut it off after this one as it's a good one to end on. This is Alnwick Castle, but you might know by it's other name: Hogwarts. This castle was the featured backdrop for Harry Potter as Hogwarts in three of the six films already released.


After my tour of the castles of Northumbria, I toured the cities of Newcastle Upon Tyne and Tynemouth. There really isn't anything spectacular about the city other than it attracts stag parties and hen parties from all over the United Kingdom and Ireland. For your reference stag party = bachelor party, hen party = bachellorette party.

I found cheap accommodation staying in a dormitory at the University of Newcastle. I'm such an old fart. I was in bed by 10pm. I first woke when the loud and raucous stag parties returned from the pubs (obviously of the same mind for cheap accommodations) at 2:30 am. I next awoke to my alarm and to extract my revenge, being loud (though not raucous) at 6am when I got up to start my Sunday adventures.

To be continued . . .

I'm Tired, so here's more Liverpool pictures

Late night tonight, I'll post on Snowdonia tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some more pictures of Liverpool for you.

A bowl of Ma' Boyle's Scouse - the dish that Liverpuddlians get their nickname - Scousers. It tastes like stew. It is stew.

Interesting door handle

A remnant from 2008 when Liverpool was named the European Capital of Culture


The Ferris Wheel on Albert Dock at night


What I affectionately call the "Serve or Die" statue. The statue basically says that if you refuse to serve in the military, you will be locked up, or put to death. The statue came complete with what looked like prison cells (see the grates at the base of the statue).


A picture of a picture of the Fab 4


A tribute to John


Paul and Julian - The composer and the muse of "Hey Jude"


Speaking of "Hey Jude" how about a Gold Record?


Please yield to the Humped Zebras

Liverpool: Beatles, Soccer, Cathedral, and Nightlife

Wow, what a weekend! Once I got past the pain of Ryan Air's boarding policies, I settled in and started enjoying myself. I visited Beatles museums, a monstrous cathedral, the highest peak in Wales, a few football (soccer) stadiums, a castle or two, and a few bars along the way. In addition, I had another run-in with the evil volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. The story is long enough that I'm going to break it into two parts: Liverpool & Snowdonia.

Liverpool

After landing in Liverpool, my colleague took me to THE most important attraction in the city: Ansfield Stadium, the home of Liverpool FC. There is also a shrine to the Hillsborough 96, the unfortunate 96 people who died at Hillsborough stadium in a 1989 FA Cup semi-final match against Nottingham Forest FC. Often misunderstood as an event of hooliganism, the cause of this tragedy was in fact due to the police trying to control the crowd at the expense of their safety. The deaths all occurred prior to the match starting as the crush of fans tried to get into the stadium. All 96 people who died were Liverpool FC supporters. R.I.P - The Hillsborough 96


Now that we got that depressing bit out of the way. On to something a little more fun: Friday. I started Friday out with a trip to two Beatles museums. The Beatles Story and The Beatles Story - Pier Head. One admission gets you into both museums. I learned quite a bit about the Fab 4 that I didn't know, including that Stuart Sutcliffe was the fifth Beatle (who left the band early on to pursue his art career, but died shortly after. He was not alive to experience the regret of leaving the band. Additionally, I learned that Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as the drummer. These may be known to your average Beatle-ologist, but it was unbeknown to me, your average Gen-Xer who barely remembers holding vigil for John Lennon in elementary school.

The Pier Head exhibition really hit me hard as it was sponsored by Cynthia Lennon (John Lennon's ex-wife) and Julian Lennon (John and Cynthia's son). In this exhibit were quite a few pieces of John Lennon memorabilia. What hit me hard were the correspondence displayed like love letters from John to Cynthia from the road and a postcard from Julian to his father which simply read: "Lover from Julian to Daddy." My eyes got a little wet as I thought dearly of my family at home. Here are a couple more pictures:



I then visited one of the largest cathedrals in the world: Liverpool Cathedral. This was an unexpected find for me. I had walked all around Liverpool taking pictures of the different buildings and enjoying the scenery. When my colleague met me, he didn't know what to show me because I'd walked all over town and seen it all. He finally walked me up to Liverpool Cathedral, which I passed on because it was a little of of the way (I also didn't know that it was one of the largest cathedrals in the world - I just thought it was closer than it looked). When we got there, I was in awe of the immensity of the building. The cafe and gift shop in the sanctuary is a nice touch.


Finally, I ended my first day with a night on the town, where I believe that a scouser (that is the nickname for people from Liverpool) was hitting on me. He kept coming over by me and putting his arm around me. I couldn't understand a freakin' thing he said over the music and through his scouser accent. I got out of there as quick as I could. I did see a good show at the Cavern Club, which is famous for being one of the Beatles favorite venues.


Next: On to Snowdonia!