Sunday, 30th May 2021
The night was pretty bad.
Although the bed is comfortable and the bedroom is to the back of the building therefore away from the street noise, the noise of the hostel guests was considerable. I am starting to regret having booked such a cheap accommodation in the city centre in the middle of a weekend! There was loud talking, shouting, laughing and door banging all night long!! Bloody teenagers!
The reception staff is friendly and the showers and toilets are clean.
The plan today was to have brunch with friends at the North Shields Fish Quay and to visit Segedunum Roman Fort.
We took the Metro to Tynemouth hoping to do some sightseeing before brunch but it was very very foggy. The locals call it sea fret, which pretty much is mist coming from the sea. We couldn't see the castle and we couldn't see the lighthouse. However, we did hear an intermittent sound which I learned to be from the lighthouse. When visibility is bad, lighthouses swap from light signs to sound signs. Intelligent, isn't it?
We thought about walking to the lighthouse but the path is gated and closed. We kept going on the Coastal Walk from Tynemouth to the Fish Quay in North Shields. It was a bit chilly because of the sea fret but the walk helped to warm up.
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| Benches by the coast but no sea can be seen! |
We looked for somewhere to have brunch at the Fish Quay but options were limited. Several places were closed. We called our friends who replied 'let's go to Tynemouth then'. Really? Ok, we'll walk back!
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| Porky's Restaurant graffiti at North Shields. |
The sea fret was retreating and when we returned to Tynemouth we could see a bit more.
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| Pier Road |
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| Tynemouth Priory and Castle |
Our friends are staying with family at Whitley Bay so we walked back with them via the Coastal Walk, this time northbound. It remained a very foggy morning.
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| Long Sands Beach |
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| Cullercoats Bay |
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| Cullercoats Bay |
Hoping on the Metro again we headed to Wallsend.
Wallsend Roman Fort (Segedunum)
The fort lays at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall and it was occupied for around 300 years.
The layout shown is of AD 200 when it was garrisoned by a cohort of 480 infantry soldiers and 120 cavalry soldiers.
Each cavalry barrack was divided into 9 small spaces and a large room at the end.
The large room was for the Decurion, the officer in charge of the group of 27 cavalry soldiers. Each 9 small spaces was further divided into a back room and a front room. The back room housed 3 cavalry soldiers and was used to sleep, cook and store their equipment and belongings. The front room was to keep their horses. It's crammed for both men and horses and likely to have been very very smelly!
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| The back room. |
There is an observation tower so one can somehow understand the layout of the fort. It also has good views to the river Tyne.
Admission to the fort costs £2.95.
We bought the Hadrian's Wall Path Passport at the fort's gift shop. It costs £5 and the money goes towards vital maintenance of the wall.
Mid afternoon we decided to have some rest at the hostel. We ended up having a 3 hours nap! We really did not sleep much last night...
Dinner was at Chiquito (a chain of Mexican restaurants), in Eldon Square shopping centre and it cost £62 for both. The food is amazing! I can't believe we have never had a meal at Chiquito before...
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