So... this past weekend was another ad-hoc weekend. I had not made any plans to do anything Saturday and figured I'd do some more shopping or sight seeing around Newcastle... I hear they have the biggest Mall in Europe just a couple of miles away! As it turned out, Sara called me with a plan. She wanted to rent bikes and ride out to the coast. It seemed like a nice day and that sounded like fun. The catch was that she first wanted to go by a new museum with the history of Newcastle... also something that sounded like a good idea. Once we reached the museum (about 11:30), she mentioned that she wanted to wait until 1:00 before leaving so that she could pick up some pictures from the photo shop... she had about 200 digital pictures printed... it cost about $32. By my calculations, it gets dark here about 4:30. If we didn't leave until 1:30, that didn't leave much time to ride 8 miles out to the coast, see much, and get back. As it turned out, the museum took quite a bit of time and we didn't even get over to the photo store until almost 2:00... NO WAY we were heading out to the coast at that point. I thought it would be a good idea to at least figure out the details of renting bikes and then try for another day. We walked down to central station where the bike rental shop was supposed to be. We finally found it and were told that it cost £10 per day to rent and a £50 ($100).... and they only accept cash for both. I didn't even have £50 in cash left and didn't plan on handing someone that much money as a deposit for a junky bike... anyway, other factors also determined that riding a bike this past weekend wouldn't happen....
On Sunday, my cell phone rang at 0830... I figured it had to be Athena calling... it turned out to be Sara. She simply said, "Look outside." I opened the window to find that there was quite a blizzard going on in Newcastle. I told her that she could go pick up a bike and ride to the coast if she wanted... I was going to stay inside where it was warm. It probably snowed about two inches total by about 9:30 or so. Then, all of the sudden, it stopped... the clouds parted, and there was blue sky. The snow melted by about 1:00 when I got a call from my real estate agent telling me that the apartment was ready. I tried to call a taxi and was told they couldn't get me until 5:00... "there is a football game today." The game started at 4:00... I don't understand why that should be such a big deal. Anyway, I ended up getting a ride from the handy man that works for the property management company. I got moved in and settled and was thinking of walking down to the market to grab some food when Sara (queen of bright ideas) called me again. Since the weather was nice again (there was blue sky and sun) she thought it would be a good time to take the metro out and see the coast. Since the weather looked stable, I agreed... big mistake. We got on the metro and went 2 or 3 stops to Whitley Bay which is supposed to be a nice town on the North Sea... the walk from the station to the actual Sea went from bad to worse... it was sleeting and the wind was blowing about 30 mph by the time we actually got down to the sea. It was MISERABLE!! Sara took a picture of the North Sea and we got back to the station as fast as we could. We got back on Metro and rode up to North Shields... which is also supposed to be really nice. On Sunday's, everything is closed though... therefore, it wasn't so great. We ended up sitting in McDonald's drinking warm tea and trying to get warm enough to feel our toes again... that took about 40 minutes. On a NORMAL day, the metro is great... one of the stops takes you to Wallsend, which, as the name implies sits at the end of a wall known as Hadrian's Wall. It was build around 200-300 AD by the Romans and still exists in some areas today. It runs from coast to coast and was designed to keep the Scots out... guess it only worked for a while :)
Let's see, that pretty much brings me close to current events... I froze my ass off this weekend, which was bad since I had a sore throat. I now have an annoying head cold. My ears are pretty clogged up, which is bad since I will be flying tomorrow. Where in the world am I flying??? Well, back to Newcastle. Our team flew down to Cardiff last night and then drove out to Swansea.... where is that you ask??? Wales. South Wales to be exact. The drive from the airport took about an hour. We arrived at the Ramada Inn Swansea at about 8:40. It took 20 minutes to check in 5 people.... Wales is known for efficiency!! We had dinner at the Ramada which wasn't bad... again, efficiency wasn't the best though. The rooms were about what I'd expect from a Ramada Inn... not as good as where I am now :) We spent the day talking to people in Swansea and got to hear someone speak Welsh (hence the count above). We finished around 4:00 this afternoon and then drove back to Swansea where we checked into the Hilton... quite a step up from Ramada. The view from the hotel is quite nice.... see attached pics. We can see the HUGE castle here in Cardiff from the rooms and the lounge upstairs. VERY nice.
Anyway... it's about 11:40p here and I need to get to sleep. I have a 7:50a flight and have to meet our team in the lobby at 6:15a. I will try to post more pictures of the apartment when I'm back in it. The property manager had it repainted and put up new curtains. They are supposed to have my high-speed internet turned on this week and 2 new leather sofas delivered next week. If anyone wants to visit Newcastle, now would be the time... I have a huge 3 bedroom flat that is open for business!! You have until May 3 to drop in!!! Actually, my stay may extend until May 30 at this point... so book now!
Take care!
Steve
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