A love letter

Don’t tell Manchester but I totally cheated on her this weekend.

I didn’t mean to and I would have sworn blind that my heart belonged to her but this past Bank Holiday weekend The Person and I fell in love with a new city.

Newcastle.

Seriously don’t tell Manchester, she’ll be devastated. I really couldn’t say if this was just a fling or a full blown love affair and I would hate to call it all off because of two days of passion but I can’t lie. We had fun.

The reason for our little excursion was that of a wedding. Normally I wouldn’t travel all that way just for an evening do but The Person and I won’t get to do a holiday this year (or probably next year. Or the year after that) so we decided that Newcastle would be our holiday. I believe the cool kids are calling them city breaks.

The wedding do was on the Saturday and we had a good deal on a Premier Inn out near the airport so we decided to travel down on Friday morning, giving us a good couple of days to have an explore and a wander.

I didn’t really know that much about the city and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do and where to go. I’d been on the tourist info website (which is really good by the way) and knew that I wanted to go and pay a visit to the ol’ Angel of the North and I knew that The Person has an almost worrying enthusiasm for a bit of Castle action so we had a couple of things on the list but didn’t really know much else.

Enter....Lucy.

I remembered that she totally lives near there and might have some hints for me so I promptly e-mailed her. And then promptly remembered that she was on holiday. But as I was travelling up on the train I got probably the most comprehensive guided tour of Newcastle in e-mail form from a lady who had only just arrived back from her holiday.

Seriously. It was amazing. Anytime we weren’t sure of where we were going or what we wanted to do, out came my Smartphone and up came the e-mail and we would have an idea. The trip became littered with “Lucy says it’s this way.” “Lucy says we should try this place.” “Lucy says the bridge blinks at midday” etc etc. We would have been lost without her. In fact at some times quite literally lost, I don’t think either of us has the best sense of direction.

I was a little worried that we’d lose most of the day travelling back and forth from the hotel but we were saved thanks to the Metro system. Let’s hear it for the Metro! The Metro is like the Tube but friendlier and about 100 million times less scary. In fact I think that before anyone attempts the London Underground they should go on a recce to Newcastle to practice on the Metro – you can’t go wrong, there are only 2 platforms but it would get you used to the whole system.

However. Don’t bother buying a ticket. The Person and I spent a total of £11 each over 3 days on Metro tickets which were never ever ever checked. There are barriers. But they’re not in use. There were even men in jackets. But they just stood and watched you. On the last day on the way back to the station I declared that I was not going to buy a ticket because I was sick of it. But then I remembered that I’m totally incapable of breaking the rules so I went ahead and bought one and then stamped my feet when that wasn’t checked either.

Anyway, let’s not spoil our weekend with a lover’s tiff, we love you despite of your non-Metro-ticket-checking ways.

I was totally going to tell you about what we did there but I realise that this blog post is already too long and that really I should leave it as it is – a love letter to Newcastle. (And Lucy.)

Next time?