Just got back from our outing in the Newcastle area. Took a bus from the royal quay in Tyne and roamed around for a while with the guide describing everything from the local council flats to various remnants of Hadrian’s wall. Stopped at lunch time in BlancSomething where there had been an abbey (where the monks all wore white) long ago. At this point it seems to be a nice, small tourist destination with a little hotel and a few other estblishments. It was an interesting drive in as we were on a full sized tour bus and the roads were not wide enough for anything to pass on the other side. At least once a car approacing frrom the other direction had to back up until we found a spot where they could creep past.

Lorna got to see many, many sheep but onlly from a long distance behind walls (and she said barbed wire). She was also upset that folks up here raise sheep for meat more than wool. Sheep are friends not food.

We had a nice tea and sandwiches lunch at a small eating place in the town, Lorna had a ham and white bread (real country white she says) sandwich with the best scone with whipped cream and jam she’s had in England so far. Lorna notes that the little old church in the village sure as hell smelled ancient. I have pictures, but after burning 100 MB posting pics yesterday, the rest will keep until I’m home.

I grabbed some macro shots of very nice flowers that I’ll post once I have a bigger net link.

Back at the ship by 2:15. I’m going to pull my shots off of the camera chips to my storage drives and get batteries recharging.

As we got back to the ship, a group of local dignitaries was heading out. Looks like they gave them a tour of the ship and lunch with the captain. I expect that the Disney visits will also be a nice boost to the local economy.

I took quite a few shots out the windows of the bus with my little camera. I’m not at all confident that any of these will work out, but it seemed work a try. Not something Ido often enough to have a solid feeling about.