Newcastle upon Tyne; Tuesday, 11 August, 2009

First stop of the morning was the change machine at Central metro station so that I could by a day ticket for the metro, then it was off towards the coast and North Sheilds. From there it was a short walk down to the river and a quick hop across the Tyne on the Sheilds ferry to South Sheilds. There I picked up first target of the day, the South Tyneside sightseeing tour.

I did a full circuit of the tour, before continuing on to Souter Lighthouse down the coast to have a look around that.

After the lighthouse I wandered back up the coast to Marsden Bay to have a look around the grotto which had been blasted out of the cliffs, and turned into a pub and restaurant, then it was back onto the bus and up to the Roman remains at Arbeia just above South Shields.

Having looked around the site, I wandered back towards the river to catch the ferry back across, hoping that I would beat the massive black clouds that were gathering, I did, but only just and I still got a little damp.

From the shelter of the ferry waiting room I watched a particularly spectacular downpour work its way out to sea, and then, with impeccable timing, a very damp load of passengers disembarked the inbound ferry.

Back in North Shields I headed back to the Metro station and round one stop to Tynemouth to take in the Castle and Priory that I had failed to do the previous evening.

Then it was back to the hotel for a bit to eat, and an early-ish night.