Flying Visit From An Old Friend

This week I had a blast from the past in the form of a flying visit from a high school friend. It was a super short visit to the Northeast but I think I managed to give him a flavour of the area in the day that he was able to spend here (and we certainly tasted as many of the local delights as one can taste in a day: see my food post here).

View of the coast from Tynemouth

 He had spent a good chunk of time exploring the wonders of London prior to his 3 hour train ride to get himself up North. Away from the craziness of the big city, I had to really think how I could ‘wow’ him with the very brief time I had available.


There is a lot to choose from since the Northeast has amazing landscapes, extra friendly folks, fantastic seaside towns, markets, museums, oodles of culture, cutesy tearooms, historic sites, stately homes, wildlife and lots more to offer people(where’s my commission from the Tourist office, eh?).


Tynemouth Priory

 So, what do you show someone who is here for just one day? My brain was whirring with all sorts of ideas until I settled on a few choice ones.


Since Britain is known for ‘fish & chips,’ and we all have to eat during the day, it made sense to suggest this as part of the visit adventure. The natural progression from this thought was to suggest that we head to the seaside (only 25 minutes by metro) to eat the aforementioned fish & chips.


A friend had highly recommended Marshalls in Tynemouth as “the best” place for us to partake in this traditional meal, and since Tynemouth is such a great place to visit on its own that idea fit in perfectly with the plan.

Tynemouth Beach

Tynemouth has a gorgeous coastline and beach with tons of character (and not only a place with ‘the best’ fish & chips but also a fantastic cake shop which I don’t know the name of unfortunately, but YUM! The fantastic selection of cakes is worth the metro ride alone).


Being from Chicago, where the architecture is amazing but not incredibly old in the scheme of things, my friend kept pointing to the really old pubs and other buildings saying “Is that building new old or old old?” which totally reminded me of myself for the first few years that I was in England. Now, after nearly ten years here my answer followed by a big smile was: “This is England, it’s old old.”


Newcastle castle keep

We then headed back into Newcastle city centre to view the actual castle. The Castle Keep is impressively old (built between 1168-1178 by Henry II) but it is also a tiny bit of a letdown if you are expecting a palace rather than an historic castle keep. I will need to explain this better to any of my future visitors.


We then popped around the corner to view the totally random Vampire Rabbit, the history of which is still a bit of a mystery.


We enjoyed a few local brews at two of Newcastle’s more atmospheric pubs which offer a wide variety of real ales (Bodega & The Bridge Hotel) and then carried on to The Raj Tandoori just off the Bigg Market for an incredibly filling four-course curry meal.


Newcastle's Vampire Rabbit

Britain has very good curry. I think you’ll find that fact a difficult one to argue with, so it had to be done even with our stomachs still full from our earlier taste o’ British cuisine.


All in all, it was a very picturesque and enjoyable day in the Northeast!