The Culture Vultures descend on Newcastle

We had a chat with Richard in the marina office about leaving tomorrow. High water will be at 06:00, and the marina cill is raised three hours after HW. So we should be able to leave at 09:00, except the office and the bridge doesn't open until 09:00. We could either leave this afternoon and sit on the waiting pontoon for the night or Richard agrees to open the gate half an hour early on his way to his morning shower. 

We caught the bus into town and stopped at a Whetherspoons for eggs benedict breakfast. After which we visited   The Great North Museum: Hancock, full of elephant, polar bear & dinosaurs. It also had a large and interesting centre display regarding Hadrians Wall. 

We passed through the campus for the Northumbria University where the bright young things were wearing gowns & caps for their graduation ceremonies. We stopped at The Hatton Galleries were the  art was rather stretching. There were also a number of studios where work was in progress.

We had intended stopping for a Newcastle Brown at St James Park, Terrace Bar, home of Newcastle United but it was closed for refurbishment. We found Tilleys Bar were we each tried one of the  160 beers in stock. 

We made our way through the China Town area, looking for suitable restaurant for tonight, it won't be a problem finding one, just difficult making a decision on which one. 

We spent most of the afternoon in The Discovery Museum. This houses Turbinia, the first steam turbine powered ship and a great deal more about the industrial heritage of the Tyneside area.

 

In the evening we returned to the Chinese Resturant we'd seen earlier and had far too much to eat.