York & Newcastle

After a brief week of working and recovery from Copenhagen and Sweden, I headed off to England on Saturday, May 22. I arrived very early on Saturday morning and caught a train up towards Newcastle which is located in north east England towards the Scottish border. I met a friend and fellow NOV employee from there during a seminar I attended in Houston. We really got along and had a great time and I threatened him that if I was ever in the area I was going to visit. He accepted that threat so I figured I better follow through with it. I bought a book that contained the 25 best day trips from London and York was one of them. York is about an hour south of Newcastle and is a precious town. It still has about 3 miles of medieval walls that line the city as well as small cobble stone streets that wind around the buildings. York has the largest gothic structure in Northern Europe so that was pretty impressive. I didn’t pay to go into the church because I didn’t have the time but it would have been neat. The city’s tourist website can be seen HERE. I did manage to do some shopping while I was there though. That was the most fun! It was just a splendid afternoon. I caught the train around 2:30 and headed into Newcastle to meet up with my friend.

My hotel was located right across the street and conveniently right next door to a Starbucks. I figured what better way to implore American irony than having him meet me there around 5. We walked down to the Quayside (pronounced Keyside) to look at the river and their famous bridges. He gave me a brief history of the area and then we decided to have a beer outside (with ½ of the town) and enjoy the amazing sunny, warm weather. We migrated to a few pubs and just caught up with each other’s lives and discussed a bit work in there. He caught the train home around 9 and I retreated to my room for a restful evening. My room over looked the street and the train station and it was very warm because I could not open my window but other than that, I slept like a baby. I had to catch the morning train at 9:30 to head back to London to meet another friends so I welcomed the early night and a long rest. If you would like to learn more about Newcastle, you can click HERE.

The bridge in Newcastle connecting it to Gateshead. It is a smaller version of the bridge in Sydney, Australia

The cute little streets of York


Inside the church in York. Over 1/2 of all the stained glass in England is in this church

The outside of the church in York

Cute mideval buildings in York