Newcastle Upon Tyne

If it’s Thursday then it must be Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. This past week has been a bit like a Trafalgar Tour with a new port every day.  It’s very tiring, getting up early and on to the bus - I usually sit down towards the back and am asleep 10mins after takeoff though!  George has a front seat every time, never misses, they always set aside 3 or 4 for the disabled.  

Before I go on, I should have mentioned in yesterday’s blurb that Culross, where we were yesterday near Edinburgh, is often used for filming -  such films as The Little Vampire, The 39 Steps, Captain America:The First Avenger, and more recently in 2013-2015 was a location for US TV drama Outlander.  

So today we left the port at 9 am for a half hour drive to Durham. The tour was called ‘Historic Durham and Cathedral’.  Our guide definitely put me to sleep which meant we were there in no time LOL!  Maybe it was her droning on about St Cuthbert that hypnotised me!  When we left the bus she went on and on about St C, to the point that when we finally got to the cathedral (which was beautiful, by the way) we did our own quick tour then checked out the lovely medieval town!  Others were in her clutches for over an hour, listening to her commentary and were only released for about 30 mins before re-boarding the bus.  The trouble with all these Scottish/English towns is there is so much history and the guides all want to tell their story as if we’ve not heard it all before.  Having said that, the drive home was lovely, came back through Gateshead and Newcastle, beautiful cities with old and modern buildings.  The newish conference centre  and university in Newcastle look fabulous.  

There is an outlet mall close to the ship but will have to pass as we have a flight from Dublin to Heathrow coming up and need to be mindful of weight. 

Had dinner in Prime 7 again tonight.  My food was delicious.  Not up to scratch for some. And the show was excellent!