Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

Sunday, September 30, 2018

We'll let you guess where we are now located!

When we last blogged we were headed to Gullane, Scotland where Tim hoped to play golf.  Gullane is located about 30 miles east of Edinburgh on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.  As the crow flies Gullane is directly south of St. Andrews.  Tim did, in fact, play at the Gullane Golf Club, the host of the Scottish Open on occasion and often serves as a qualifying  course for the British Open.  Tim once again thoroughly enjoyed experiencing golf in Scotland, as the game was invented.  After his round Tim picked up Lynda and we stopped on the outskirts of Gullane at the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, more commonly known as Muirfield, a part of the rota of golf courses that host the British Open.  As the name would suggest, this is a rather posh club.  Tim did walk out and take of couple of quick pictures of the course but made no attempt to find the pro shop in hopes of buying a shirt.

Making a hasty retreat from the HCEG, we drove east towards the wonderfully named town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.  The villages and towns in the UK have such inventive names.  Lynda still chuckles over the name of the village of Cockbridge that we drove through.  The drive along the coast on Friday morning gave us stunning views of the North Sea.  We stopped at one point to take pictures of a huge rock island that jutted out of the sea not far off of the coast.  A lighthouse had improbably been built on the side of this rock.  Our destination for the night was Newcastle-upon-Tyne. (In case you haven't figured it out, Tweed and Tyne are rivers.)  We found a lovely inn just outside of Newcastle called The Snowy Owl where we had a large, comfortable room, and enjoyed dinner in a very nice pub that was part of the inn.  This was the kind of accommodation travelers a hundred years ago would have stayed in.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne was a nice surprise.  We planned this itinerary with stops in cities we have known about in our visits to the UK but had never visited.  Just like Forrest Gump we don't know what we will get.  Newcastle was good.  As you may have already seen on Facebook, a pedestrian bridge was built across the Tyne to commemorate the millennium.  It is a beautiful, contemporary structure.  We discovered purely by accident that the bridge moves in order for boat traffic to pass under it. Everyday at noon the bridge is closed to pedestrian traffic and it swings up even if there is no boat traffic.  We watched this happen from the 5th floor of the Baltic Museum of Contemporary Art that overlooks the bridge and has an observation deck for this purpose.

A friendly couple from Newcastle explained everything about the bridge. Two bits of information you might enjoy. 1. The bridge itself was built off site. It was then moved by crane up the river and placed into hinges that it turns on.  Both sides of the river were lined with spectators watching to see if the bridge would actually fit as there were literally just of few inches of clearance on each side of the river. A huge cheer went up from the crowd when the bridge fit perfectly in place. 2. There is an older woman who hosts family and friends and always brings them to watch the bridge move at noon. However, she does not tell them that it always goes up and down at noon. She asks them if they would like to see the bridge do its thing and says "I'll go see if they will move the bridge for you".  Cheeky woman.  We also enjoyed walking  Grey Street, named after Sir Earl Grey of tea fame.  There is a statue of him at the top of the street.  The street was alive with people and we enjoyed window shopping and observing the wide selection of restaurants and bars.

Leaving Newcastle, we stopped just outside of the city at the site of "The Angel of the North".  This is a huge, 65 feet tall with a wingspan of 175 feet, metal sculpture that stands on a hill overlooking  the major road into Newcastle.  It serves as a welcome to the north of England and also commemorates the importance of the coal mining industry to the economic health of the area.

The Angel of the North

We drove on from Newcastle towards our destination for the night, Scarborough. (!) As we neared Scarborough we saw the ruins of a castle on a high cliff overlooking the North Sea.  There is never a ruin we won't take time to see so we exited the main road  and descended into the town below the ruin.  This turned out to be Whitby, situated on a small inlet off of the sea.  It was a picturesque town, so after getting close up pictures of what turned out to be a ruined priory, not a castle, we decided to see if we could find accommodations in Whitby.  The city centre was abuzz with people. Tim went into a hotel on the harbor but discovered there were no rooms and was told there probably were no rooms anywhere in Whitby.  A 60's music festival was taking place.  This was another of the pleasant surprises we get when traveling. It was a disappointment not finding a room for the night.  So it was on to Scarborough.

Tim was responsible for Scarborough being on the itinerary.  With strains of Simon and Garfunkel running  through his head, he pictured a bucolic town with a picture perfect market (fair).  His quick research revealed an attraction called the Scarborough Fair Collection.  Viola!  Except further research after arriving showed the Collection to be a collection of antique vehicles, calliopes, and such.  Also, there was nothing bucolic about Scarborough at all.  It was a decidedly down on its luck town that made up for it by not being particularly attractive. Tim may not be allowed to plan the itinerary again.

Seizure

In the spirit of full disclosure, this blog entry was started in Scarborough but is being finished in Lincoln.  We left Scarborough this morning, Sunday, and drove to the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden southwest of York.  We had discovered this park on a previous trip and loved it so decided to return.  Most of the sculptures are created to be displayed outdoors.  We saw 6 pieces by Joan Miro that we enjoyed because Miro has always been a favorite of ours.  We also went inside a work called "seizure".  The artist had taken a room from a house that was to be torn down, removed all furnishings except the toilet fixtures, sealed the room and pumped it full of a chemical solution that was almost at the boiling point.  When the solution had cooled to room temperature, he pumped the solution out of the room and created a door size opening to the room.  As the solution cooled it had formed crystals on all the surfaces.  The crystals were a vivid blue and created quite a striking effect in the room.  A docent tried to explain to us why the work was called "seizure" but she was not very successful.

From the Yorkshire Sculpture Garden we drove to Lincoln.  Lynda got online this morning in Scarborough and arranged an Airbnb apartment for us to stay in here in Lincoln. Unless you stay in high end, modern hotels, accommodations in England tend to be cramped for space.  We are renting this apartment for two nights so we can spread out and relax for a couple of days.  We do plan to explore the area but maybe at a more leisurely pace.  We will be back in a couple of days.

Cheers.

Thoughts from the navigator.  Scarborough had an attractive area on the water front - it reminded me of Bath - the curved road with tall houses lining the street going up hill along the water.  Besides the sculpture garden the highlight of the day for me was finding the perfect spot for a Sunday joint....not the kind you smoke!  The Red Lion Pub had both beef and pork loin roasts today - with roasted potatoes, seasonal veg, Yorkshire pie and stuffing.  To top that off my beef I had Banoffee pie - my favorite.  Very rich with carmel but delicious.