Losing it[1]

I’m beginning to wonder how many more public artworks I’ve managed to avoid noticing. Today, I took a stroll down to the Haymarket and noticed this rather tall chap:

 

  

  

 

I took a couple of days off work[1] and decided to use one of them (Monday 14 March, if you really want to know… ) to take a longish walk around Newcastle. I had a good look around the always lovely Laing Art Gallery and the Discovery Museum, which I hadn’t been to for over a year. And while I was wandering around, I took a few pictures.

I walked across the High Level Bridge, which is currently closed to traffic while the wooden deck under the road surface is replaced. As the bridge is a Grade I listed building, it has to be restored with original materials. This is what lies under the tarmac road surface:

Looking across from the bridge, I got this picture of a former warehouse which now contains some of Newcastle’s most outrageously expensive apartments.

When I reached the Laing, I took a closer look at the Blue Carpet. This is one of Newcastle’s many public artworks - it’s a public square covered with this blue tiling. What I’d never noticed before (and I’ve seen it many times) was that a corner of the “carpet” is slightly folded:

On my way to Discovery, I passed this interesting sculpture thingy, which I’d somehow managed to not notice previously:

Finally, I remembered to take a look at the new Chinese Arch, which was completed for the Chinese New Year recently. It’s a lot bigger than I was expecting:

I couldn’t get a full shot from the front without playing with the traffic, so here’s a shot from behind:

There are some really nifty lions at the foot of the arch:

And finally, I had to include this, to maintain my geek credentials. The publicity for the new Doctor Who series is everywhere. TV teasers, magazine articles, even ads on 6 Music. And posters:

[1] Has to be done now and then to preserve what’s left of my sanity

What’s that? It’s the latest piece of public art to be unveiled in Newcastle upon Tyne. I’d heard that some kind of sculpture was going to be placed outside the Gate, but I didn’t know the details. After reading a BBC Report, complete with picture, I took a stroll along there yesterday. I didn’t have my proper camera with me, but I did take a few shots from my phone. And here they are

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

On my way south to Tynemouth Priory, I saw signs of piracy and someone flying a quite large kite:
 
Tynemouth Priory is a glorious ruin now (and has been for centuries). Just imagine how it must have looked when it was complete! It must have been visible from far out at sea…

 
The Priory shares a site with a castle and an old gun battery. There’s also a modern Coastguard station nearby, making a fascinating mix of buildings. There wasn’t time to go in and look around properly on this visit, so I’ll be going back to take some more pictures. In the meantime, here’s the castle:

After that, I walked up to Tynemouth Metro Station, and rode one stop to North Shields, where I took the bus to the Royal Quays outlet centre for some shopping and a very late lunch. Then, I headed for home.

As I walked further north, I got closer to St Mary’s Island:

 
After what turned out to be quite a long walk, I finally reached the causeway leading to the island. At high tide, the causeway is completely covered by the sea, cutting off the island. During the summer months, the lighthouse is open to the public all week, but at this time of year, it’s weekends only, so I couldn’t climb it and enjoy the view. But I did get a good look at it from the outside:

I walked around the small island and could clearly see the huge wind turbines further up the coast at Blyth:

Then it was back along the causeway to the mainland. As I wanted to get a lot more done, rather than walk back the way I had come, I took the bus back to Whitley Bay for the next part of the walk…

Now this is something I haven’t done in ages. It used to be a regular thing on a day off, or maybe a Sunday afternoon, to take the Metro to Whitley Bay, then walk along the coast to Tynemouth. What with one thing and another (laziness, spending too long on the net, that kind of thing), I haven’t got round to it for ages. However, I persuaded myself to get out and get walking. It’s been so long since I went there that I managed to forget the route I meant to walk from the Metro station

So, rather than getting straight to the coast from Monkseaton and starting near St Mary’s lighthouse, I found myself in Whitley Bay. After walking through the town centre, I headed for the sea front, passing by the old Spanish City, which was immortalised[1] in the Dire Straits song Tunnel of Love. I’d heard that the amusement park behind the building had closed, but I was quite surprised to see that a school had been built there. The domed building is looking rather sad now. It’s been a landmark for many years, and it’s a shame that it’s not being used:

One new feature was this odd grouping. I think I like it…

I then headed north to St Mary’s Island, taking a few pictures of the coastline along the way:
 

On the way, I saw a quite nice little bridge and a very soggy mini golf course[2]
 

[1] Can I say that?
[2] People[3] were actually playing, of course
[3] Well, golfers, anyway. I’ve often suspected that they’re a different species…..

Another day, another fine northern city. Durham is about ten minutes from Newcastle by train, so naturally I hardly ever go there . However, as part of my plan to do more with my time off, I decided that an afternoon there was in order. Not a bad way to spend my birthday .

Durham is dominated by the cathedral and castle, built on high ground overlooking the River Wear. Here are some pictures I took while wandering around:

  
 
 
 
 
 
In case you’re wondering, the white elephant belonged to the “No” campaign in the referendum on the proposed regional assembly for north-east England. It was probably the best thing in the whole campaign from either side…

I went on a little day trip to York today. I’ll be posting a proper report with lots of pictures later, but I just had to get this uploaded.

It seems the fancy display screens are running Windows NT 4. This one seems to have a slight technical problem. Fortunately, the highly trained staff are on hand to fix it:

Yes, that’s a broom he’s using. I’d never thought of using a broom to reset a PC before. Just goes to show that you can learn something every day. But what’s this?

This picture isn’t all that clear, but my professional diagnosis is that either the computer has a floppy left in the drive, or the hard disk is ever so slightly broken.

While that was going on, the screen to the right seemed to be stuck in a never ending reboot cycle.

After the Museum Gardens, I walked across the Lendal bridge, looked over to the old building where my company[1] used to have an office, and got this picture of the tower at the end of the bridge:

Finally, I walked back across town to Mickelgate[2], another old street which features lots of old shops, which I didn’t have time to really look at. I took a couple of pictures of the Mickelgate Bar before heading to the station for my train home.
 

There’s a lot to see in York, and I only had time for part of it. There are a few more museums, an art gallery (well, that’s closed for refurbishment at present) and much more. I’ll be going back - stay tuned for the next York visit!

[1] That’s the one I work for, not one I own, I hasten to add
[2] Note to anyone who doesn’t know York: anything called “Somethinggate” is a street. The gates in the city walls are called “Bars”, even though you can’t get a drink in any of them.

For the next part of my York visit, I decided to go to the Yorkshire Museum, located in the spacious grounds known as Museum Gardens. The first things I saw was this fragment of the old city fortifications:

Then I came across some of the sculptures that are spread around the site (I missed a couple, I think):
 

After a look around the museum, I strolled around to the rear of the buiding where these abbey ruins can be found:

After having a good look at the ruins, I wandered down to this lovely old buiding, known as the Hospitium. It’s not open to the public generally…