Day 3: Heading North

June 23, 2014

Our friends dropped us at the train station the next morning to resume our journey north.  Thanks to the magic of rail-passes, we could stop and start as much as we liked, so we stopped in Newcastle and had a lovely walk.  Newcastle hasn't quite got the hang of exploiting their waterfront yet, but a pleasant riverwalk and a scattering of restaurants suggest it's catching on.

The views of bridges on the Tyne are fabulous.  I was quite struck by the modern pedestrian bridge, the Gateshead Millenium Bridge.

Views from further up the river were great as well.

We walked around and found a lovely covered arcade:

We visited the Castle Keep, where JT got a rare picture of me (usually I'm the one behind the camera).

The keep had a splendid great hall, which rang with echoes of the shrieks of schoolchildren.  We climbed up to the tower for a view of the city:

We were charmed by a memorial to a street musician and fiddler.

We also admired Robert Stephenson's mid-nineteenth century bridge- a two story bridge which still carries rail traffic on the upper level and motor and pedestrian traffic on the lower.

After a satisfying lunch, we hopped back on a train and went the rest of the way to Edinburgh.   It's a lovely city, with a satisfyingly cohesive style.

We checked into our hotel, dropped luggage, and enjoyed some more walking while we got our bearings.

We located Edinburgh Castle-an imposing pile.

And were delighted to find that bagpipers fairly littered the streets.  We stopped for a bit and listened to this duo who were giving a street concert. (They're on YouTube if you'd like to see them too.)

We admired the famous flower clock.

And I had to take some rose pictures for Valerie, they were too pretty!

We stopped by a pub that was reputed to have music, but nothing seemed to be happening, so we got some dinner and then I returned to the hotel, as I was pooped.   Jonathan did a little more walking, taking advantage of the late sunsets so far north and eventually did find some music.   Here's Castle Mile, at after 10 pm.  And here was where we planned to start our day on the morrow.