This morning was a bit of a slow start.  Left about 0830

Then we got on the bus and travelled into the centre of Newcastle Upon Tyne (hereafter called Newcastle).  After getting off the bus we asked a Policeman the way to the Tyneside Docks, a tourist area now, they pointed us in the right direction.  It was really just walk downhill!  The architecture along the way was pretty impressive.  Stumble across a great old church with the most magnificent stained glass windows. 

Just round the corner was the New Castle and the Black Gate.  When they started building railway lines they demolished some of the castle to make way for the railway!!  Just down the road from there was one of the oldest bridges to cross the River Tyne a two level affair with a railway on top of a road.  There are 7 bridges within 1 mile along the river.  One of them is the swing bridge which is the oldest surviving bridge (all the older ones were mad of wood). We continued our way downhill through a walkway down a set of winding steps that lead us by chance down to the Tyneside.

We watched the Millennium Bridge go up to let a boat through.

For a tourist area it was just about devoid of cafes, restaurants, etc.  We were looking for somewhere to have lunch, in the end we had go into Starbucks for a tea/coffee and a bacon roll.  By this time it had started to rain again.  We didn’t feel like walking all the way back up the hill and we noticed that there was a Big Red Bus stop nearby so we decided to do the circuit on that then do a bit extra to get off where we had to catch the bus home.  We did a bit of shopping for tomorrows drive while we waited for the bus.

Back at the hotel at 1630.  We had walked 5Km.