Easter trip to Newcastle Day 1

For the Easter long weekend, M and I have been planning for weeks to surprise another 4 Londoners with my participation of this trip and also for the jump on Easter Sunday. Our plan went smoothly. I traveled on my own from Liverpool to Newcastle station. Arrived 2.5 hours before the London group arrived as the ticket price was the cheapest at that time. Don't ask me what time I had to get up that morning.

Newcastle was freezing when I arrived. I sought refuge at Pumpkins. Had a cup of hot chocolate trying to keep warm and read a magazine while waiting. Plan was going well. Suddenly around 11am, 1 more hour before the London group arrived, I got a message from M. 'They found out that you're coming. PL told H about it'. Noooooooooooo! PL why???? I was so tempted to take the next train back to Liverpool at that moment. Just joking. At least the secret was safe till the actual day of surprise. Haih...... P.s. PL, to get my forgiveness, you have to come to Liverpool for afternoon tea. Hahahahaha.

We checked-into Albatross Hostel which was only 5 minutes walk from the train station. I really liked this hostel. Really clean and free tea, coffee and toast round the clock.

Enjoying our mugs of tea and coffee before heading out to explore.

There's the heritage trail to follow but I think we followed the wind direction and trusted our hearts more.

The black gate and Castle Keep - where the name Newcastle originated from.

Side of Castle Keep

On the stairs up Castle Keep

We continued our journey to see the beautiful bridges of Newcastle and to stroll along River Tyne

On High Level Bridge - it was very busy and there were 2 lanes for vehicles and pedestrian path on each sides.

View of Newcastle from High Level Bridge

Tyne bridge and Swing bridge

High Level Bridge from below

I liked how the new buildings blend in so nicely with the old buildings

Birds making the underneath of Tyne bridge their homes

Tyne Bridge

It was a really nice stroll along Tyne river. The sky was a bit gloomy but luckily it only drizzled a tiny bit.

On Millennium Bridge

Groupie

Walking towards Baltic Art Centre

We went up to the highest floor of Baltic Art Centre to enjoy the view of Newcastle. There were some really comfortable sofas there and we almost didn't want to leave.

Afternoon tea at Baltic cafe on the ground floor. My first taste of scones in the UK.

After a tiring afternoon outdoors, we decided to make our way to The Gate for a movie and dinner.

We ended up buying tickets for Clash of the Titans for 8.20pm. It's an action movie. I wouldn't say it's recommended. Badly written storyline. The princess only appeared for the sake of getting someone to be a sacrifice and I think her total screen time was less than 15 minutes.

Buffet Dinner at Gecko:

The food there was really good. Much better than the buffet places in Liverpool. You can see that they have proper sushi there. Had ice-cream with fruits and crepes for dessert. I should restrict myself from further buffets as it does me no good.

Newcastle Day 2 next. Will do 2 cases first before I continue. Hopefully will be up tonight.