It was our first day in England and we spent the day exploring Newcastle. This little city is our starting place for Hadrian's wall path and we are excited for tomorrow. Our little hotel is on Quayside right next to the river Tyne facing the swing bridge. This used to be the Roman bridge and the only one across the water. Now there are 7 bridges. The most recently constructed is the Millennium Bridge. This is a foot and bike bridge below.
Liz and I had a few discussions about how these bridges worked and if they opened. So the Millennium Bridge does open. The whole thing tilts backwards so the curved part of the footpath raises above the water. As for the swing bridge, we are still arguing over that but think it pivots around a central axis. I'll have to look this up to find out how it works for sure.
Other sites of interest today were Castle Keep, where we saw a defensible outpost used in Old times before the city had a wall around it. It was pretty cool to get a picture of how things were done in the old days. It reminded me a lot of Game of Thrones, as flashbacks of the show came to me nonstop when I was reading the museum placards describing life in ancient times.
Additionally we hit up a couple of museums including the Great North Museum and the Liang art gallery. At the first one, we got a good sense of the wall and what we would be seeing. At the second, we saw an Alice in Wonderland exhibit where we learned about the history, art and variations on this old children's book.
The highlight of the day, at least for Liz was a place called Catopia, which is a cafe that you pay to go in and hang out with a lot of cats. We only peered in the window at a bunch of people sipping tea with their shoes off and petting cats.
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