Newcastle day 2

Good morning everyone!

Well yesterday was a lovely day.

I'd read in a guide book that there were markets happening along the river, beneath the Tyne bridge on Sunday mornings, and as yesterday was Sunday, I said 'why not'.

I decided to put my map away and just head downhill until I reached the river. It's rather nice to walk around without a map glued to your hands. You certainly see a lot more.

The markets were lovely. There were of course some cheap and crappy stalls, but the majority was good quality.

Some of the stalls I saw were: a Fudgery with the most glorious array of large blocks of different flavoured fudge which you bought by the pound, home-made ice-cream of which I had a scoop of Hokey-Pokey, Italian food - olive oil that was stored in large silver vats and siphoned off into bottles (gorgeous), a little cake stall with all sorts of cupcakes with mounds of icing, one-of-a-kind t-shirts, lots of handmade jewellery (I had to resist!), a stall that was selling freshly cooked noodles with chicken and vegetables (I had to stop and have some for lunch), and the funniest little coffee bars - the coffee bars were tiny (and I mean tiny) little trucks that had a coffee machine built into the back and they just opened up the lid and the back and could make coffee straight away. They are obviously common because there were 3.

There were also a lot of stalls selling prints of different parts of Newcastle. There was one artist in particular that was selling prints of his original paintings of scenes of Newcastle that I found very interesting. I nearly bought a picture of a girl standing under a bridge, sheltering from the rain that was set just around the corner from the markets - but I resisted (mainly because it wouldn't have fit in my suitcase!).

There was also a woman doing hair wrapping. I used to have it done to my hair when I was little down at the markets in Subi. What they do is get a small section of your hair and using thin wool, wrap it around that section of your hair in different patterns. I had the most childish impulse to have it done to my hair, so I caved in and got it done. It was my big extravagance for the day - 3 pounds! I got it done in Blue, Yellow and White in celebration of the Eagles victory! I'm liking it so far and will leave it in as long as I feel like putting up with it.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I was interested in finding out the tilting times of the Millennium Bridge so I could watch it. It turned out that it was happening at lunch time yesterday when I was down at the markets. I was already in the area so it sounded like the perfect opportunity to watch it happen. It was really rather amazing.

The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that has the most unusual shape. It is rather hard to explain, so here are some pictures that I hope turned out ok.

This is the Millennium Bridge before it tilts to allow ships underneath. The pedestrian path is down the bottom at the back.

This is the bridge as it is starting to tilt.

This is a side view of the bridge in its final tilted spot. It looks pretty amazing. The walkway is on the left hand side.

This is a view of the bridge from underneath when it is tilted.

These are the big pistons that drive the tilting action. It is a lot quieter than I thought it would be. It is practically silent.

It was great fun watching it. It was really interesting that the bridge is designed to function this way. There were heaps of people standing along the river watching it.

All in all, I had a great day exploring.

I nearly forgot to mention that the worldwide Bell Ringers conference is in Newcastle at the moment. For the last 3 days the bells of the nearby cathedral have been ringing several times a day - and not the standard hourly ring, but a proper 20min piece. It's been pretty amazing. I've been woken up most mornings by the sound of the bells - rather lovely. I made the mistake of walking past the cathedral one day when the bells were ringing. I think in the future I will avoid doing that again. It was deafening!

I saw yet another street performer. This one was at the markets and his trick was to get audience members to wrap him up in chains and padlock it all together and then using a hair clip escape in under 2 mins. It was entertaining. The different street performers obviously train together, because they all have the same patter and comments. Even so, it's fun to just stop and watch for a while.

Anyway, I'm going to head off exploring soon.

I will be staying in Newcastle until 1st June and then will head straight to Edinburgh from here. I've had to change rooms today, so I'm just waiting until I can put my luggage into my new room and then I can head out for the day. Toodles for now.