Whitley Bay

Sailing into Newcastle, I was so looking forward to meeting Paul’s English rellies. We arrived on a glorious sunny morning hopeful that we’d finally shook off the rain that seemed to be following us. Paul’s cousin’s husband, Douglas, collected us from the port and drove us to their home in Whitley Bay where we met Helen, their son, James, their three friendly big dogs and two chatty parrots.

After getting settled in, we went down to the beach where Yvonne spent so much time in her youth to have a paddle and try to find where her auntie’s tea rooms used to be in the sea wall. We also had some of the creamiest soft-serve ice cream I’ve ever tasted.

The next day, we traveled down to Durham to visit the famous cathedral. Unfortunately, due to a change of exhibits, the museum was closed, and due to the weather, the climb to the top of the bell tower was off-limits. The church itself was being prepared for a concert in the evening and seemed a bit like a movie set. Despite all this, it was easy to appreciate the beauty of the church, and we all really liked seeing the LEGO model of the cathedral. The town of Durham was also gorgeous. The roads in the old town were cobblestone and very narrow with beautiful stone bridges crossing the River Wear. 

That night, Helen had organised a dinner for the whole family and we got to meet Paul’s aunties, Ann and Sonia, uncle John, and cousin Michael and his wife, Chris.

We met more family the next morning when we visited Paul’s cousin Andrew and his wife Sandra and their Thai kick boxer children, Beth and Connor, who gave the boys boxing lessons and even gave them boxing gloves to take home which the boys loved.

Ollie was so in love that he wore them all afternoon while we visited Housesteads Fort on Hadrian’s Wall and learned all about the Roman efforts to try to subdue the Scots to the north and when that failed, how they built a fortified wall to keep them from attacking their lands in England.

Fast forward one day and several hundred years when we visited Beamish a living history museum that showed us what life was like in a colliery, pit village, and town in the 1900’s. We donned hard hats and visited a coal mine, wrote out lessons on slate boards in a school, rode on a tram, chewed licorice root, and thanked our lucky stars that we will never have to visit a dentist from the 1900’s. Back in 2019, Helen and Douglas’s other son, Matthew joined us all on a walk down to the shore for fish and chips.

The next morning we said goodbye to our lovely hosts and feathered and furry friends, and loaded up the car as we headed north to Scotland. On the way, we stopped at Alnwick Castle which was used for much of the exterior shots of Hogwarts in the first two movies. While there, we wandered the castle, fought a virtual dragon, took a fun movie tour, had a go at archery, and attended broomstick flying lessons. Despite some very cold and wet weather, it was a truly magical day. 

Back in our muggle transportation, we continued the drive up to Scotland and settled into our lovely apartment very excited to visit Edinburgh the next day.