Month: February 2014

Whey aye, Howay the lads, gun doon toon and all that nonsense we were heading for the Toon mun.

Had breakfast included here as it was the cheapo hotel, only £35 then 15 for brekkie – had in the TGI’s – which was sticky and not really as clean as you might like. But the toast was great, the butter was tasty and the meet was hot. Let the hotel at a reasonable time and headed out of Leeds and up the variations of the M/A1 towards Scotland. We had about 2.5 hrs to drive this morning and we flew for most of it. A lot of the motorway was quiet and we got up to treble figures on occasion – before we knew it we finally arrived at the Angel of the North. Which, sneaks up on you when you are coming from the South – it is in quite an odd place to be honest, we did notice coming back it looked a bit better, up on the hill, but coming from South you can barly see it until you are on top of it. Its a shame because the motorway takes you past some very open countryside and that would have been a great place for it – but anyway, it didn’t seem as big as expected, so we stopped for a look. It is quite big.

Only just outside Gateshead, so within 15 mis we descended the overly complex streets to the second hotel. The location was amazing (or so I thought) just under the Tyne bridge, which is an amazing iron construction, the block we were on was an good old fashioned square, imposing building which looked just like the home of the main character of GTA IV. I loved it.

The room wasn’t so great. We headed out to the Millennium Bridge, and across to Gateshead and back – which was a brilliant introduction to the better side of Newcastle. Fistly though we stopped in the Slug, which was next door because we had promised Kate she could have the Pud she was going to have yesterday before we were kicked out for being too young. It was clean and bright and really quite nice. We managed to get up the hill into town a little way for a quick pint in the Pleased to Meet you – then headed back towards the hotel for a pie for lunch. The pie was nice – in a real old fashioned place with little rooms and low ceilings – the Red House, they had specially made pies which were nice, with a tasty mash and gravy.

After lunch we mooched around Newcastle proper, and here we saw the slightly underwhelming part – where as the first part had been like Bath, the second half need one. Bus stations are always a bit crappy, and although it wasn’t awful, it just didn’t quite live up to the initial expectation.. Saw St James Park and “Chinatown”, and went down to the discovery center which was closing at four so we had to be quick – as it was already four when we got there we just couldn’t quite manage to be quick enough. So we headed back to check in.

Room was okay – not great, so we left after one of us managed a quick snooze (can’t quite remember which one of me it was) and ended up in The George as the town was filling up nicely with young boozers and there were bouncers everywhere. After a couple of beers here, we let Kate decide where to go so she picked Pizza Express – we went to the one down the road and although there were no people there – it was booked out. (Oddly the Slug had reserved tickets on (for 7:00pm+) when we got there at 11:30. Luckily there had another one, which was like a goldfish bowl in the shopping center which we managed to get into and stuff our fat faces with bread and cheese and meat. Tasty.

The toon was too scary after that, so we headed home after picking up some water and went for another early night.

Newcastle – 8/10

Hotel – 6/10

We have decided to spend some time up in the North of Englan. It is half term with us this week – where as England have already had theirs, so we can make the most of the quietness and visit some places we have not been. As it happens Day 1 was Leeds, chosen because Newcastle is too far away and we have been to Sheffield more times than Leeds.

Up and at them early doors, and managed to get away for 8:30 – great and quiet journey up to the first stop of Rotherham, and we made pretty good time – although the bloody roadworks before Sheffield were a right pain. They have about 15 miles of works, with average sped check all the way along it – so you have to do 50 – not that everyone did. I do wonder if these average camera’s are actually on half the time. Anyway, after a slow drive we eventually got to the Rotherham turn off and headed to Magna Park.

The reason for this pause in the journey was that this is where Planet X live. They are a bike shop, who seems to sell lots and lots of bikes and are amazingly cheep compared to other places. I was looking for a new racer, on a carbon frame wit the new Ultegra 6800 groupset. The price in Planet X is very competitive if you compare with Ribble and Cannondale etc. As this will probably be my last bike – I really wanted to push the boat out. Nice place on the Magna estate. Next door (almost) they have the “factory” where they do the builds – although all the frame are manufactured in China or somewhere like that – they are all designed by Planet X thought, to their specification and tolerances (so they say). The showroom has quite a few bikes on display – but apparently no place to test different frame sizes – which seems incredible if you think people are dropping 1500 – 6000+ quid on a bike – I suppose if you did buy a very expensive one they may push the boat out a little more? Had a small tough looking chap who was a bit crap as a salesman, and I was a bit crap as a customer – Sian piped up – “Why don’t you get this one” which was 500 quid more, and I was tempted – but that takes it to silly money and also the other one looked like an advert. So five minutes later and I am sitting the the car pondering whether I did the right thing, and ruing the fact I didn’t upgrade the wheels – as it would be £220 and he seemed to think I didn’t need them – what does he know?.. (Update: the following Weds I called and got the upgraded wheels for an extra £130)

After the little pit stop we were back on the little run up to Leeds, it rained a bit whilst in the car, and once we got to Leeds we sat in TGI for a quick bite to eat it rained some more. But once we had finished our burgers and chicken the sun had almost come out. We took a mosey along the canal in Leeds, something I had not done before and it was an okay walk – very quiet, until we got to the Armories – free to get into and a really impressive array of weapons and armor. We were under slight time pressures so we whizzed around and it was well worth the visit – then we went into town proper to search out an appropriate boozer.

Finding a pub was not as simple as we first though – initially we didn’t want to do the regulars and wanted to see a little a Leeds so we meandered around the center until we got to the other side, and somewhere I almost recognized from the days I used to spend in Leeds and fell into Mr Follys Ale House. They had Erdinger here – but nothing like I had ever seen before – it was cloudy, but it also had an odd name, so I still dont know whether it was crap beer, or supposed to be like that – it tasted okay, but did look pretty fowl.

Next stop was the Slug and Lettuce – we know they are generally okay with children, and we knew we were going to have a Chinese later, so thought we could get Kate something. Couple of Peroni’s later Kate is just about to order her dessert and the server says we should have left half an hour ago! Something to do with the council and they cannot have children after I thin it was 7:00 or maybe half six. Anyway we had to gulp it down a little bit, but we managed and set off for the Chinese. We had heard good things on trip advisor.

People on Trip Advisor are either liars, stupid, or have never eating good Chinese. Servers were a little abrupt but the Prawn Crackers were loverly. Satay chicken was insipid, and warm and the mains were some of the most tasteless stuff I have ever tried since Phil came round last and I tried some of his Number 32 Special Bland, Boiled Chicken with Bland Sauce. Managed to sink a couple of 1664’s though – so not all bad.

Hotel was just across the road – not bad – average Premier Inn standard – reasonably comfy, clean and a good shower – I slept.

Leeds – 6/10

Chinese – 4/10

Kates birthday on Monday so we have had my Mum and Dad up from Friday and my sister up on Saturday so we needed to get out and about man.SO on FRiday we decended on the Lion in town for an early doors bit of nosh – which was pretty good – I had the burger which was great – but the chips were not. Pops had a stew with the smallest dumpling ever – luckily we got the waitress and he had a load more sent over, and the rest had an adequate gammon. Just a couple of beers and then back for the rugby where Wales stuffed France – good times..

Saturday Claire arrived – and Kate let out a little yelp when she was surpised by her – so we set off for Chepstow. We come here quite a lot and there isnt too much here, but it is good enough to waste a few hours in. First stop was the overly complex parking meter, where the guy in front managed to win his money back, but no ticket, then he won his ticket. Then a quick walk down by the castle and a stroll over the iron bri9dge which takes you from Wales to Engerland – in the middle you can be in both places at once. It was windy and rubbish in Engerland, so we came back.

We had a waltz though the town and popped into the smith and jones pub at the top for some light refreshment. An odd array of quite reasonable food was provided – nothing great, in fact not even that good – but was edible, and then it was off to Tintern again.  To start we went up the 365 steps – which really felt like 365 steps and had a slip and slide around in the mud – once slightly tired we set off for the village itself..We parked, we looked, we got confused and then we went to the pub because to park you have to pay £3 which is refundable if you buy a drink. I had water.

We had a little confusion when we left as to where everyone was but we managed to get home and after some poncing about ordered a nice big ruby murry. I liked it, Ant ate four, yes four, onion bajis with his.

Next day we headed off Tesco to pick up some stuff and then did something which for the life of me I cannot rememeber.

On Monday, which was Kates birthday proper I had to spend the morning waiting for the gas man to come back and give me a saftey certificate, then we went to Celtic Manor for a walk, which involved walking around the golf course – slightly confused. Then we went to see the Lego Movie which was “awesome, everything was awesome” then home and a small for me pizza hut.

And that was the weekend of the 22nd Feb. It was nice.