Monday we left Scotland after some photos and went out side to 0 degrees, brrrrrrr.
After scraping the ice of the windows we set off for North Berwick beach which was very pleasant and on a warm day would be really nice, but it was good to be walking on a sandy beach even rugged up. We came here on Malcolm's recommendation and onto his next choice, Tantallon Castle.
Tantallon Castle is a semi-ruined mid-14th-century fortress, located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of North Berwick in East Lothian It sits atop a promontory opposite the Bass Rock looking out onto the Firth of Forth. The last medieval curtain wall castle to be constructed in Scotland, Tantallon comprises a single wall blocking off the headland, with the other three sides naturally protected by sea cliffs. (thanks Wikipaedia). It was badly damaged by Oliver Cromwell and sank into disrepair, but still quite awesome especially given it's location on the cliffside. Great view of Bass Rock though.
Off then to Newcastle and a stop for lunch at the Lidisfarne Inn, it dawned on me that the road outside led to the Holy Island causeway and it was only 2km away. Down the road we went and it was high tide so we didn't try to cross, just as well, but it looked good over there.
Another day, another Holiday Inn Express, near the city centre. Great breakfast though.
Walked down to Quayside and saw the Sydney Harbour lookalike bridge and the Gateshead Millennium span, both spectacular .
Gateshead Angel of the North was the next stop. This is a huge metal statue of an Angel created in 1998 by Antony Gormley for no other reason than there is not another in the area, but there you go, modern art. It's 20 metres tall and 54 metres of the outstretched wings.
Back down the A1 with no real destination, thought about Harrogate however on the way Penny saw a sign to Fountains Abbey. She remembered this place from a childhood visit so off we went.
I had never been and I have to say very impressed, it is a huge area and was built in 1132 as a Cistercian monastery. It lasted and grew for four hundred years until Henry VIII closed them all, he had the roof removed and sold off all the lead and of course the whole thing just went down hill and crumbled away.
Just a word about history in the UK and Europe. Everywhere we went and visited historical ruins it was usually a ruin because either Henry VIII, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon or Adolf Hitler destroyed it, if it wasn't for these guys we would have a lot more complete historical buildings to look at. They had no sense of history.......
Penny enjoyed the memories though.....
