We
commenced our decent into Newcastle just before 10.00am and were reunited with
one of my oldest and dearest friends in the arrivals hall just 40 minutes later. Lin and I have been great mates since 1978
when we met on the bus between LAX and downtown LA. I chatted to Lin and her travel companion
Linda then wished them both well and then reluctantly headed off to buy a map
of LA from a nearby vending machine.
Remember paper maps? Two came out
of the slot instead of just the one my 75c entitled me to so I chased after the
Lindas to give them one and thus was born The Fellowship of the Two Maps. This has since come to embrace scores of
others and tens of thousands kilometres of directly related travel over the
last 42 years.
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| John & Lin |
It’s three
years since Peter and I last saw Lin and being with her once again has been
nothing short of wonderful, but wait, there’s more - and I’m not talking about
steak knives because she’s been a vegetarian for longer than we’ve known one
another!
When
Lin retired almost two years ago she started doing U3A courses and along came
John. We have spoken on the phone and
even emailed one another so I knew I was going to like the man and of course I
did. John and Lin crossed paths in their
younger days without ever actually meeting and John even worked in Hornsby when
he lived in Sydney many years ago so the entanglement of connections is both
deep and almost eerie. But best of all
this man has made my friend very happy so he is, forever, my friend as well.
Day 1
in the North-East was all about catching up but Day 2 saw us out and about and
back to one of my very favourite places, Beamish - The Living Outdoor Museum of
the North. It quite literally is a
living outdoor museum of all things Northern from the 1820s to the newly opened
1950s expansion. They have transported
and reconstructed everything from shuggy boats to entire buildings from all
over Northern England and connected them with tramways, railways and roads with
horse drawn vehicles, steam tractors and vintage buses and cars. All those wonders aside, my favourite remains
the 1940s village with the Victory Farm and heritage chooks that wandering
freely about. We fell in love with Molly
the pig on our last visit and although she’s since moved on (hopefully in a
good way) Myrtle is almost as gorgeous and liked Peter just as much.
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| Myrtle & Peter |
Next
day we were off on a train journey to the seaside like in my infants’ school reader
only different. Oh how I enjoyed Open
Road to Reading! We boarded the train at
Bishop Auckland which was within walking distance of Lin’s house in a fitter existence. We drove though. It’s a lovely hour and a half ride through
the North Yorkshire countryside, only an hour if you drive but that would be no
fun, especially on the motorway.
Saltburn-by-the-Sea
ticked a number of my boxes. First up
there’s the “by-the-sea” business in its name then there was the train ride. Add to that the seaside cliffs which are
signature to that part of the east coast and the Victorian funicular that transports
you down to the equally Victorian pier at the foot of the cliff and what a day
we had!
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| Saltburn-on-the-Sea funicular and pier |
Next
day we were off to the nearby Head of Steam - Darlington Railway Museum which is
located in North Road Station on the 1825 route of the Stockton &
Darlington Railway, the world's first steam-worked public railway. It also houses George and Robert Stephenson Locomotion
No 1 and that’s just a bit special! We
rode behind the replica at Beamish just two days earlier.
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| Locomotion No 1 |
A
lovely picnic lunch in the park was followed by another rail experience at the
iconic Locomotion Museum a little back along the road at Shildon. Locomotion is part of the continuum of
national science museums, a little like Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum only much
more extensive and without the constant threat of relocation. This is where railways began and it’s packed
to the rafters with the genuine items so I was like a pig in muck!
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| A fraction of what's on offer at the Locomotion Museum |
Lovin’
the North!
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