Doon The Toon
I was up in Newcastle for the weekend to spend time with Minimus, having arrived the previous evening. For once I’d travelled by train — partly for convenience, partly out of curiosity. A Cross‑Country service from Tamworth all the way to Newcastle: three and a quarter hours, which is practically teleportation by British rail standards. My hotel, the Four Points by Sheraton, was only a short walk from the station, and my room had a view across the rooftops to the top of Newcastle Cathedral. Not a bad setup for a weekend.
On Friday night we went for some half-decent ramen at Maki & Ramen near Eldon Square and then walked down to the quayside for a shufty at some lit-up bridges.
You know what’s coming next
Saturday morning was cold and breezy, the kind of autumn chill that makes you question your life choices until the first kilometre warms you up. Well, not “life choices”, but certainly “clothing choices” at least. I walked as briskly as I could manage up to Leazes Park through the city centre, arriving far too early. They were still setting up, so I ended up helping a marshall with some of the plastic sticks they use for taping off the funnel. Unexpected manual labour, but it passed the time.
A decent crowd gathered as 9am approached. The park sits directly in the shadow of St James’ Park. At 8:30 in October it is literally in the shadow. It was coldd, dim, and not exactly tropical. Thankfully the sun eventually crept over the stadium roof and made things feel a bit more civilised. It was actually a beautiful morning. Bright sunshine, once it got high enough to have an effect.
Three Laps and a Lake
The course is three anti‑clockwise laps around the outside of the ornamental section of the park, with a little crescent detour each time: a clockwise half‑loop around the boating lake. It’s a neat layout, though not entirely flat, and my ankle was still making its presence known. Even so, I got round in under 34 minutes, which I’ll happily take.
Leazes becomes venue #80 — a nice round number, and another tick on the ever‑expanding list. I didn’t stop for breakfast afterwards. Instead I headed straight back to the hotel to get cleaned up and ready to meet Minimus.
The Rest of the Day
Minimus and I spent the day eating and wandering around the shops. Nothing complicated, nothing strenuous, just a pleasant Saturday in Newcastle. I’ve had worse days. We had breakfast at a place on the outside of Grainger Market and did some food shopping for Minimus. We then popped home of the bus and back again before wandering around some shops for the afternoon. For dinner we met up and went to a mighty fine Indian restaurant on Grainger Street (Dakwala).
Sunday Morning
On Sunday Minimus forced me to go to the seaside. A simple trip by Metro to Tynemouth. It was a nice day again, so Minimus went for a cold-water swim in the sea while I basked and chilled. We had some lunch at a nearby cafe before going back into the centre. I’d left my bag at the hotel, so I went back to collect it and caught a train home at about 4:40.
It was an excellent weekend, although next time I use the train I’m going to book it earlier and pick specific trains so that I can reserve a seat.
