Skegness

Skegness is a traditional holiday resort on the east coast of England.

I visited in April 2016 with my family as part of the Sun newspaper's caravan holiday deals.

Skegness is the main resort, although there are actually several small towns close together, one of which we stayed in.

The main theme for the area seems to be caravans (I've never seen so many in my life), amusement arcades and rides and the traditional chip shop. That said  there is much more to Skegness and the area than just these things.

One of the highlights for me was visiting Natureland. This is a seal life rescue place, which is just up from the main sea front. Inside there is a small zoo, with lots of different animals as well as the rescued baby seals, which are very cute.

Another favourite of mine was the Aquarium. This has a lovely main tank, as well as lots of smaller tanks full of different fish. The staff are also very friendly.

Skegness Pier is also a place not to be missed, as it is one of the things the town is famous for. It is a lovely wooden pier into the sea. At one end are amusements and the arcade, which are also good fun.

The town itself is nicely laid out, with a good variety of food places and shops. There is also a lovely park with a boating lake, as well as fairground rides.

Skegness is somewhere I really enjoyed visiting and would be happy to go back 

Golden palm

In April we went to Golden Palms resort in Chapel st Leonards near Skegness.

Golden Palms is a large static caravan site, and we went as part of a Sun Newspaper holiday deal. I went with my husband, and parents, staying in a 4 berth caravan.

The caravan we had was a two bedroom, for 4 people with one being a double and the other a twin, The caravan was nice looking inside, and felt very modern with enough crockery and cutlery for our needs. There was a fire in the main room, and small electric blow heaters in both rooms.

The caravan was nice enough, although pretty snug for 4 adults, I don't think you would have a problem if it was 2 adults and 2 children though. The second bedroom in particular was tiny, with only about 6 inches between the two beds, and a small wardrobe.

The site is very large with an entertainment complex, swimming pool as well as a shop and take aways. I thought the prices were quite reasonable and there was a lot of choice.

We tried most of the amenities, but found the evening entertainment very limited as it was out of season. It consisted of some pretty bad singers and bingo. The onsite pub does meals until 8pm, and was quite nice.

My favourite part was the pool, which has two slides, and a water play area. I also thought it was a nice sized pool.

In the local area there is a lot to do, and in the reception you could get vouchers for various attractions.

I think I'd stay here again, although not with another 2 adults.

Sun holidays

Here in the Uk we have a national newspaper called The Sun, several times through the year they have a great promotion called Sun holidays.

I've now been on these holidays twice, once to Scotland and the second time to Skegness. Both times we picked the midweek 4 night offer, which is arriving on a Monday and leaving on a Friday.

The idea behind the offer is that you collect a certain number of voucher codes from the newspaper, and you can use these to book a 3 or 4 night caravan break for as little as £9 per person. These codes can also sometimes been found online, or if you are a sun perks club member you can also book the holidays.

Like many offers this is not actually as simple as it seems, for a start the holiday is based on 4 people so it's a minimum of £36 for a break, which is still great value, although obviously less so if there is just 2 of you going.

At the begiining of the promotion the paper has a booklet which shows all the different holiday sites, and the dates they are available. The information is also available on their website though. One of the catches that you have to look out for is some weeks have added extras, as they will charge you for entertainment passes and cleaning the caravans, but I have always found that there is plenty of choice of places for the basic price. It does help though if you can be flexible about when you can go.

After you have the voucher codes you can either book through the post, by sending them off with your choices or you can book online. I recommend doing it through their website as you can also check availability for your choices. To book you have to give them a choice of 4 places that you would like to go to, make sure you put your first choice first as if this is available it's the one you will get.You pay the Sun your money and then they will send you confirmation, with a second confirmation from where you are going usually coming a week or two later.

You then just need to check any small print, for example when we first went we had to take sheets and quillt covers with us, print off your confirmation if it was sent by email and arrive at your destination. The sun booking website has a forum, which can be a great source of where people recommend and what to expect.

I think this is a great offer as there is a lot of choice of places to go, the first time we went to Scotland and the second to Skegness in England. It is also possible to book sites in France, and Spain and they offer deals on ferries if this is something you want to do.

All in  all I think they are a great way to get a few nights away in a caravan cheap, and offer a chance to see more of the Uk.

A caravan holiday in Scotland, part 4

On our last full day we decided to go to the Scottish Maritime museum in nearby Irvine. 

It wasn't too far to drive, and we had a voucher for buy one get one free, so it was only £7.50 for the two of us. 

The museum was a lot more spread out then we realised, and the sat nav originally found a street in between the sites. Parking was easy though, and free.

Having found the main entrance, we paid and got a detailed explanation of where everything was and what to expect. We were only ten minutes before the tour for the tenement house, and Mv Kyles boat. So we had a quick look around before the tour. 

There was only the two of us on it as the museum was deserted. The man was friendly though and he lead us on about a 7 minute walk down to the tenement building. This was just two rooms that are kitted out like the living quarters of a ship worker and his family. It was nice to see and quite detailed, and the guide explained things. I enjoyed this, although I didn't feel it was possible to spend time reading the information, although the guide probably wouldn't have minded. 

Next we walked for about 10 minutes down to the boat, this was a lovely walk along the quay. It helped that it was a beautiful day, but as we went he told us more about the immediate area and boats. At the boat itself there was more to see with the crew quarters, hold, galley, captains quarters and cheat engineers quarters. We also saw the engine bay, although the original engine has been replaced with a diesel as they are planning to move the boat further up. Again the guide explained about the boat and the nearby MV Spartan, which we couldn't go on. 

After we walked back to the main museum building to finish looking around. This was mostly lots of engines, boats and similar displays. There were several videos, and interactive games. My favourite of which was the interactive yacht, which moves from side to side as you try to pilot it. 

Outside the main building there are also other displays of anchors, and boats, including a World War Two refuge boat. This was moored in the channel and if a plane, or boat capsized you could swim to it and await rescue. 

We went across the road to where the cafe, and SY Carola (being renovated) is, and enjoyed a tea and some cake outside the cafe. 

It was an enjoyable trip, although not what I expected. 

We drove back, stopping at Morrisons as we were thinking of having a barbecue, but we changed our minds and had crackers and cheese sat outside the caravan instead. It was nice, sunny but breezy. 

A caravan holiday in Scotland, part 3

The next day we visited nearby Glasgow, starting with the Kelvingrove museum which we visited a few years back. 

After following the sat navs instructions badly we eventually found it and parked up. It was a lovely sunny day.

The museum itself is massive and is spread over 3 floors, it has everything from stuffed animals to paintings and sculptures and is a great day out.

In the end we missed Glasgow entirely and spent the full afternoon at the museum. My favourite part was the live bee hive. They have a plastic tube coming from outside for them to come and go, and through the plastic you can see the working of the hive. It was quite fascinating. 

I also enjoyed the stuffed animals, something I hated as a child, but now I can appreciate being able to see the animals, even if they arn't alive. 

One of the museums own highlights is the Dali painting of Christ on the Cross. This was the second time we'd seen it, and we agreed it's a good painting but not our favourite Dali.

Halfway through the trip we took a pit stop at the outside cafe, a bit pricey at £3 for a few chips, but it was nice to enjoy the sun.

We were there about three and a half hours and decided to head back to avoid the traffic rather than see Glasgow. 

It's tiring relaxing.

On the night time we decided to go back into Kilmarnock to eat at the Wetherspoons. The food was lovely as were the staff. 

When we got back we stopped at the bar, and caught the end of the singer (better this time), and another quiz show. 

A caravan holiday in Scotland, part 2

We decided to have a lie in while the day warmed up. 

After a breakfast of tea, and chocolate brioche we went to have a look at the beach. It's advertised as a 15 minute walk, but I don't think it's quite that, although it's longer as you access it by going over a small railway bridge. From there was a great view. It was windy though so we decided to walk back, and have a drive into the village.

We ended up driving all the way down to Arbrossin as there's not much at Saltcoats. There we stopped at an Asda to get some shopping, there didn't look anywhere exciting to stop so we ended up back at the caravan. 

Here we decided to have something to eat at the boathouse restaurant, and get there 2 for £11 deal. Except after we'd picked something we were told they'd stopped serving food until 5, strange the offer is advertised between 12 and 5. Not much of an offer then. 

We got a bacon sandwich back at the caravan instead, and enjoyed sitting outside in the sunshine.

Next we drove to Kilmarnock to buy an electric heater. I enjoyed it, as it's a lovely little town with a nice range of shops, statues and cafes. A kind man also pointed out to us that you don't have to pay for parking after 5.

We decided to eat at a McDonald's, and came back to watch TV.

We went to the nighttime show at the clubhouse, which was billed as cabaret, but was actually a singer, who wasn't that great. This was followed by another music game show which was ok.

A caravan holiday to Scotland part 1

In June 2015 me and my husband went on a cravan to the west coat of Scotland through a Sun newspaper deal.

It was a long journey across from Northumberland, the weather was raining on and off, but the view as we crossed the pennines was great.

We stopped at Hexham to find a petrol station, and after a drive around I remembered the map on my iPad. Using that I located a garage, £50 for 40 liters of fuel later we continued on our way. 

The journey went well, especially when we hit Scotland. The M74 is an amazingly smooth 3 lane motorway with little traffic. The view continued to be amazing with sweeping hills, and wind turbines, which I like. 

After several little villages we arrived at the park. Checking in was nice and easy, the lady was friendly and gave us a map of how to get to our caravan as well as information on the entertainment, facilities and our entertainment passes.

The weather was still nice, and the caravan was red hot. The caravan itself is basic, but nice. There are two bedrooms, and the main one has an ensuite. 

I made the bed (you had to pay for bedding or bring your own, they just provide a quilt and pillows). We bought our own quilt to save messing around with quilt covers. We then had a cup of tea while looking at the information. We decided to have a bite to eat in the restaurant and then have a look at the show.

The restaurant stops serving at 8pm, and it was ten to so we both quickly decided to have ham, egg and chips. With a cider and a half it came to about £17.50, not bad value. The food itself was ok, although I was disappointed that the egg was hard and not runny. They had golf on in the restaurant but you couldn't hear it above the amusements in the other room. 

After we went into the show bar, but the kids thing was still on. It finishes at 9, we had a go in the amusements while we waited for 10 minutes. Then we had a drink and settled down for the show, except it was a game show instead of what was listed. It was entertaining enough though, and after they had a quiz which was pretty easy. 

After that we went back to the caravan, which was freezing. We put the fire on and watched TV, before going to bed. Again it was freezing, and I was pleased we had our thick quilt, it was that cold we put theres on top, and the two singles from the spare room. It was a good nights sleep though, nice and quiet.

49th Northumbrian Gathering Photos

This is my photo video of photos I took during the Saturday of the 49th Northumbrian Gathering. 

It was an event I really enjoyed, despite the weather 😀

                      

Ladies Morris Dancing at the Northumbrian Gathering

Another old tradition is ladies Morris dancing, and again I was lucky enough to see the Hexhamshire lasses at the Northumbrian Gathering this year, and they were great. Ladies Morris dancing is a bit different from the men's as it involves hoops and less bells.

Morris Dancing at Northumbrian Gathering 2016

An old tradition in England is Morris dancing, and it's something that can still occasionally be seen at local fairs.

I was lucky enough to see the Hexham Morris Dancers at the recent Morpeth Gathering. It was fun to watch, and if you get a chance to watch some I recommend it.

Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering 2016

The Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering now in it's 49th year, is held the first weekend after Easter.

It is a celebration of the traditional lifestyle and crafts from Northumberland and Morpeth.

This year I went on the Saturday, and I would describe it as a treasure hunt of events. There is a lot going on, but it is spread across the town and apart from signs telling you what's on when, and the farmers market it would be easy to miss. I first learned about the gathering from my mum, as she had seen a poster advertising the opening of Morpeth Castle for the event.

Morpeth itself isn't short of car parks, although they do operate a parking disc system. For the event they had a park and ride system from the local council offices. We decided to park at the local train station as we expected the other car parks to be busy. That turned out not to be the case, probably because of the rain.

We started of at the castle, as it is privately owned by the Landmark Trust (who rent it out for holidays) so it is rare you can visit it. The castle itself is quite small as it's just the original gatehouse, but it is nice inside, especially if you were staying there. In the castle grounds there were medieval style tents, and people dressed in medieval clothes as part of the celebrations.

After we had finished at the castle we walked into town via the park. Here we came across some Morris dancing. Morris dancing is an old English traditional dance, and it is great fun to watch, even if by now it was pouring down. We saw men dancing, and the ladies.

The next thing we visited was the clock tower, this is in the centre of the town, and is something I've often admired. The visit turned out to be a chance to try something that should have been on my bucket list, bell ringing. First though a lovely lady told us all about the towers history.

The tower dates back to the early seventeenth century, but the bells were first installed in 1706 in repayment for voting someone to parliament. Today the bells still chime every night for the curfew.

In the towns main market square there was the farmers market on, with a welcome surprise of a Punch and Judy 

Finally also in the town were various storytellers and work shops, there was also a craft show in the town hall. The gathering on the Saturday also started with a parade.

The gathering is held each year on the first weekend after Easter, and if you are in the area I would recommend it, as there was lots to see and do and it really was an interesting and fun day out.

Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, UK

Once upon a time there was a kingdom called Northumbria that was ruled by King Aethelfrith, when he married to strengthen his kingdom, he renamed his fortress after his new wife Bebba (Bebbanburgh later became pronounce Bamburgh)*. At the time Bamburgh castle and it's king was the most powerful force in northern England, and Bamburgh castle would be one of the most powerful castles in England for hundreds of years until the vikings attacked around the 10th century. Bamburgh's prominence was such that it had links with early christianity through St Aidan who was bought to neighbouring Holy Island by King Oswald, who also became a saint following his death.

The castle that stands today, has been rebuilt and renovated over the years, due to being attacked and neglected. For much of it's history this has been a royal castle, and was built and maintained by them as an important defensive fortress. Some of the main keep dates from around 1163 when the castle, had the great tower started for the sum of £4*, now that sounds a bargain although I'm guessing it was worth a bit more then :) 

Today the castle is in owned by the Armstrong family, who bought it in 1894*, at the time Lord Armstrong of Cragside (see earlier review), saw it for sale in the Times and decided to buy it for £60,000*. He did quite a bit of renovation to the castle, as it was in need of it when he bought it. It's funny my first thought when I realised he owned both Cragside and Bamburgh castle, was why would you buy Cragside if you owned Bamburgh castle, but I now see it was the other way around :)

Bamburgh castle is probably the castle most recognised, outside Northumberland, unless you were watching Harry Potter (that's Alnwick castle), as it is the one on most advertising, due to it's magnificent appearance.

I visited on a windy day in February, the timing being because I had bought a Groupon deal for £12 for 2 people and it ran out at the end of February (I bought it in December, not realising the castle was only open on a weekend up to February). I visited with my dad one Friday, as that's the day we go out together :) Normal price is £9.95 for adults, £9 for senior citizens, £4.50 for children or £25 for a family (2 adults 3 children), so we saved £6.95 (my dad is a senior, not me :) )

**Our Visit**
The day we visited was initially windy but dry, and we really hit on as, as we were leaving a storm hit and it started to rain heavily. Bamburgh is on the Northumberland coast about 42 miles north of Newcastle, it's about 30 miles from us and took us about an hour to get there going up the A1 and then following the route across to the coast. On the way back we came the coastal route which took maybe 15 minutes longer, and this is considering we were taking it steady due to the weather. 

Bamburgh castle is high up above Bamburgh village, overlooking the sea (150 feet above), and sand dunes. It affords great views of the neighbouring Farne islands, and Holy island, as well as the sea and beach. We parked in the council car park at the bottom, paying £1.80 for 2 hours, we chose here as we had visited the castle years before and remembered the parking above being limited. The council car park now offers free parking. Walking up to the castle is quite steep, and at the top we discovered the parking has now been extended and there is a reasonable sized car park with all day parking for £2 :) Still I needed the exercise :)

The entrance to the castle is further up hill through a large gatehouse, with the ticket office being in the constable tower further up. From here you are outside the main section of the castle in the outer ward, the path is quite steep, and you can either follow it up, or walk along the battery (outer defensive wall) as we did. We chose this way so that we could admire the view of the sea, and the nearby islands, although it was quite overcast so we didn't get the best view. There are also lots of cannons along here :)

**The Outer Ward** 
The battery, and path both lead to the outer ward. There are a lot of buildings here, although the castle grounds themselves are reasonably compact. The ground here is hilly, with the ground sloping rapidly down to the west ward. In the outer ward, is the old stables, which now house the toilets, and a cafe on the left hand side. There is also some stocks on the green, and a replica of the King's of Northumbria's royal stone seat (which I had a seat in). At the bottom of the slope is another gateway which leads into the west ward.

In the west ward there is a picnic area, 2 sites where they are doing an archeological dig (in summer you can watch them), the armstrong aviation museum, and an old mill. The museum is quite small, but we both found it really interesting with huge engines, and old cameras that had been used on planes. There was also a model of a spitfire, and a large gun. 

The walls on this side of the castle give a great view of the village of Bamburgh.

**The Inner Ward**
Uphill is the inner ward of the castle, this has an inner curtain wall, from which you again get a great view of the sea. There are also the remains of the chapel, with a large bell. The entrance to the state rooms, and keep is here. There is one entrance, that is open as you actually go through the state rooms to get to the keep.

**The castle, and state rooms**
While you can't explore all the rooms, as there are private apartments above, the parts you can see are interesting. My favourite was the King's Hall, which is a beautiful room with a lovely wooden beamed ceiling which you can admire with mirrors that are provided. In here there was a lovely guide, who we had a nice chat with. This room has a minstrel's gallery at one end, and a lovely seating area (roped off) raised up at the other, the room is actually from the victorian times as it was renovated and designed by Lord Armstrong. In total I think there are about ten rooms that you can look around, including the rooms in the keep itself. Other highlights for me were the secret stairway in the keep's wall, the model of the castle, the well (dug through over 40 feet of solid whetstone), and the victorian hoover (I like my old gadgets :) ). There were a further two guides in other rooms, both of which were friendly and knowledgeable.

The keep leads to the shop, and from here you can visit the dungeon. This has several figures showing old torture methods, and was pretty interesting. Next to the shop there is also the archeological museum, which houses various finds from the castle's grounds. The exit opens back out onto the outer ward. From here we took some more photos before hurrying away as by this time we were over our parking time (not that we expected a ticket as Bamburgh is pretty deserted in winter), and it was bucketing down and windy. 

**The cafe and shop**
We visited the cafe for a warming cup of tea during our visit. This is a nice room and the prices were reasonable, about £5 for a sandwich. The drinks were slightly more expensive, at around £4 for a pot of tea for two. 

The shop has the usual range of gifts, as well as some local wine and foods. There is also a small art gallery, with some lovely pictures you can buy in the shop. 

**So what did I think?**
We both really enjoyed our visit, the only downside was the weather as the views weren't as clear as we might have liked, and quite a lot of it is outside. However, as they say "every cloud has a silver lining", and the weather and time of year meant that there were only a few other visits so we could get some great photos without lots of people in them, and we had plenty of time to see what we wanted to see, as well as to talk to the guides. 

The grounds and buildings are really well looked after, and there are plenty of signposts telling you where you are and what things are, which we found really useful. It is also possible to buy a guidebook or hire an audio tour, although we didn't bother preferring to discover things ourselves. As said inside there are also several guides, who are knowledgeable and friendly. 

Bamburgh castle surprised me as when I visited it in the past I didn't really enjoy it, and my memory was just of lots of plates. I was left feeling that the best thing about it was the outside, but now I have been again I have completely changed my mind, as there is so much to see. From their web site I can see that they have won several awards, including one from trip adviser, and I can see why. Everything feels really well thought out, informative and welcoming, I can imagine that if I visit again in summer, while it would be more crowded you would still enjoy yourself, and it would be pleasant to enjoy a picnic overlooking the sea. 

We spent about 2 and a half hours there in total, including getting a cup of tea in the cafe before going into the castle proper. We took advantage of the walk back down to the car park, to take some more photos of the castle, although by then we were pretty wet. 

**Anything else?**
The castle has pretty good disabled access, including a separate cafe room, as the cafe entrance is upstairs. By it's nature parts of the castle are not wheelchair accessible, but a surprising amount is, and again this shows how much thought has been put into it, including tarmac paths which while steep provide a good surface. 

The castle is also available for weddings, and wedding receptions, and if I wasn't already happily married I'd be tempted as it would be a great location :)

The castle is open everyday until the 2nd of November, 10 am until 5pm

For more information there website is http://www.bamburghcastle.com/index.php


*Bamburgh castle website


This is updated from my review on Ciao

Not quite ambling around Amble

Last Friday I went to the nearby seaside village of Amble.

Amble is a pretty village on the coast of Northumberland, it is on the south side of the River Coquet and from the small harbour you can get boat trips to nearby Coquet Island.

Coquet Island

There is ample parking near the harbour and small beach, although you do have to pay even if you have a parking disk. 

We didn't visit the shopping street on this occasion, but it's a nice shopping area with a variety of shops. The quayside has a market every Sunday, as we went on a Friday it wasn't on :). 

On our visit having parked up, we went to the Quayside cafe, which is in the harbour. This is a chip shop cafe, and I had a lovely cheese patty and chips, whilst my dad had haggis and chips. Haggis is actually a Scottish delicacy. The chips from here are lovely, and if you are visiting the area I would recommend them.

After we had eating we braved the weather outside, which was extremely windy. 

Amble has a lovely small harbour in the river, and you can look across to get some great views of Warkworth Castle. 

View to Warkworth Castle

We walked along the river, and than along the pier. The pier goes around in a circle, and offers some protection to the small beach. 

Amble Beach

Amble Pier

We walked all the way along and around the pier, it offers some lovely views back towards Amble. The first section has the river on one side and the small bay with the beach on the other, at the top end the pier is open to the sea, and has a great view of Coquet Island. 

We walked all the way around the pier, and then back along the houses in the bay, before walking across the small beach. 

Amble Beach and view looking back to the pier.

We finished up with a nice hot tea in a small cafe opposite the harbour. I can't remember it's name but it was friendly, if a little strange and cluttered. We got chatting to some locals about aeroplanes of all things.

An A to Z of Northumberland A

Hi, last year I started an A to Z about Northumberland in the UK on Bubblews, and I thought I would tweak it a bit  and share it with you.

So starting with A;

A is for Alnwick (pronounced An-ick), which is a small town and home to the Duke of Northumberland, who owns the rather magnificent Alnwick Castle. The Percy family have been the Dukes of Northumberland for hundreds of years. The castle is also famous for being used as Hogwarts. 

Alnwick is also famous for having one of the UK's largest second hand book shops called Barter Books, in it's old train station. 

The town is called a market town, as it holds a weekly market selling all kinds of different goods. Throughout the year they also sometimes have special fairs, for example French ones, and a Christmas fair.

Alnwick also has a great museum called Bailiffgate, which is about the history of the town and surrounding area, and the award winning Alnwick Gardens which is a separate part of the duke's estate, and visitor attraction. 

My favourite thing to do in Alnwick is to explore the streets, which are full of history and the Alnwick pants (water fountains), and to sit in one of the many cafes and let the world go by.

A is also for;

Ashington, a town in the south east of Northumberland. Ashington is the opposite of Alnwick in that it is an ex pit (coal mining) town, and is all back terraces and shops (unfortunately now mostly charity ones). 

It sadly had it's hay day when the mines were still open. Although the council are supposed to be doing something to improve it, and are currently building a new leisure centre. 

It is still though a lovely friendly town, and has a leisure centre (the old one), as well as the nearby Woodhorn museum ( a local museum about coal mining), and the beautiful QE2 park and lake.

Amble, is a small coastal village, with a lovely harbour and some great fish and chip shops, my favourite is the Quayside cafe, great friendly service and lovely chips.

Alnmouth, a small coastal village with some pretty houses.

Aydon, a small village in south west Northumberland, with a lovely castle.

Acklington, a small village best known for it's prison.

New Year in Morpeth, Northumberland, UK

Now I admit Morpeth is not the most glamorous place to find yourself on New Year's Eve, but if you are taking a holiday in Northumberland or in the area it's one of your choices.

Morpeth used to have a very lively night scene, but sadly that's no more and it's now just a collection of pubs with a little bit of music on in the background. 

Me and my husband went there with some friends to see in 2015, and while it was pretty quiet we did have a laugh. 

We went for the pub crawl method, starting of in The Electric Wizard which is their local Wetherspoons. Wetherspoons is a cheap pub chain, specialising in cheap food by day and cheap drink by night. It's a popular place to start the night off and to give you an idea of how quiet Morpeth is we easily got a table for 6, in fact we did in every pub. 

After Wetherspoons we went to the White Swan, the Black bull, the joiners, back to the black bull, up to the square to say Happy New Year and then back to the Black bull before going home. As you can tell the Black Bull was our favourite, followed by the White Swan and Electric Wizzard. The Joiners is ok, but it's more of a local pub, with strange stuffed dead animals above the bar, and we thought it pretty expensive compared to the others, it also took me ages to get served. 

In Morpeth people go up to the square in front of the clock tower a few minutes before midnight. There was quite a crowd considering the pubs weren't that busy. There people count down the last few minutes and wish each other Happy New Year.

I wouldn't rush back to Morpeth as I didn't think it was that cheap or special, but it's a nice enough place to go if you want a quiet drink at new year. 

Morpeth clock tower

Morpeth square and clock tower

Magaluf restaurants and bars

In September 2014 I went on holiday to Magaluf, Mallorca, and as we were self catering we visited various bars and cafes. 

So here are my thoughts :)

Tom Browns

No trip to Maguluf would be complete without a visit to Tom Browns. This cafe is on the main street (where you also catch the bus) next to Mcdonalds. It is quite a large cafe with the majority of it being outside under cover. They tend to be on the cheap and cheerful side of the cafe scale, and have lots of very busy happy, friendly staff, TVs playing sports or music, mini golf and a snooker table. We mostly went for our breakfast, although we did have a couple of nice evening meals there, although the burgers were not very big :).

The Moon Bar

This bar is located down the street directly opposite McDonald's, and next to two of the larger hotels. We probably wouldn't have noticed it if we hadn't been staying in one of those hotels. That said once we did we kept going back. The food was really nice, I got to cuddle a lovely cat, and a bottle of wine was reasonable :). The waiter is also really friendly, and we had several conversations with him about the upcoming BH hotel and cats :).

El Salmon

This is a more up market for restaurant at Cala Blanca, between Torrenova and Palmanova. We went there once and had their special offer of nachos followed by steak. It was absolutely beautiful. The only problem was the restaurant was very empty, and while we were there a young spanish couple came in, and then changed their mind and left. Not traumatic in itself except the staff then started arguing about it, which meant the only other couple in the place finished their desert and left. When we got our bill we'd been overcharged for some wine we didn't get, they put it right when we queried it, but it wasn't ideal. We did consider going back a few days later as the food was so nice, and stopped to have a look after we had spent the afternoon at Palmanova. It was about 7pm and we were on our way back to get a shower, but were looking at places to eat later that night. The owner or someone in charge was in the entrance next to the menu board, and without greeting us he turned away, obviously they didn't want someone in beach attire in their restaurant :). That, coupled with the special still being the same, and everything else being a bit pricey for our budget made us decide to go elsewhere :).

Florida restaurant

This was on the way into Palmanova from Maguluf, and is a small friendly restaurant, which seemed to attract repeat custom, we went there twice. The food was nice, if nothing special, and it had a nice ambience with a great view of the street, perfect for people watching.

Benny Hills
Benny Hills is a large bar on a corner of the main street opposite Mcdonalds. It is a fun bar with a small cafe area around one side. It has a large outside seating area, various games for the children, and friendly staff. Inside is some nice comfortable seating, a large floor area, and a huge wrap around bar. There's also a dj and karaoke. We only ever got a couple of late night kebabs from here for around 5 euros each, these were nice and quite filling. We finished off most nights at this bar as it was convenient for our hotel. This was late September to early October and most nights the place was pretty dead, especially inside. Outside there are the usual people trying to pull in the punters and when they managed to bring in a hen party or two it really did liven the place up. We both felt that the place was let down a bit by the lacklustre dj, who seemed to tell the same tired jokes, and rarely advertised the karaoke.

Linnekars 

Linnekars is on the main bar strip, and we chose it one night when we were looking for somewhere different. Outside they had a lad and a lass dragging people in, but we walked past them straight in, tempted by their cocktail offer. I have to say this was a mistake. We sat on the terrace, which like every other bar in the area was waiter service, well I sat there while my husband went to the toilet. I was still waiting when he came back, although someone had been to wipe the table. Anyway my husband came out and said he'd go to the bar, he took ages and came out with nothing, and asked if I wanted a beer instead. I said ok so he went back in and eventually got served :). We then sat and watched the publicity people messing around on the strip, and dragging people in. They had a high turnover of people as no one stayed after the first drink. A group of 6 spaniards came in and sat at the table next to ours, after about 5 minutes someone eventually brought them a drinks menu, but that was it 10 minutes later still no one had reappeared to ask what they wanted, at which they left. Shortly after so did we, not a place I'd recommend.

Citylights 

This is another bar on the main strip, it's quite small and narrow, but we found it lively and friendly. We finally got our piña colada there, which was nice, but not the best we've ever had :). That said of the places we saw on the strip this was our favourite, they also did karaoke :).

St Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle

Newcastle Bridges

View from Newcastle Castle keep

A slideshow of my photos of Newcastle and Gateshead from Newcastle Castle Keep

The very British Resort of Magaluf

My recent holiday was late in the holiday season and me and my husband went to the Spanish island of Mallorca or Majorca.

Mallorca is one of the Balearic islands, and is in the Mediterranean sea. It's a very beautiful island, which is quite mountainous and full of plants and wildlife. The sea is a lovely clear blue, the beaches made from beautiful sand and the weather is mostly sunny.

This was our third visit to Mallorca, and the second time we had visited Magaluf, we chose it as we remembered it as being nice to visit, sunny and cheap for meals out. We mostly go self catering for our two weeks abroad as we like to be able to try different places. The hotel we chose was also cheap to stay at and the whole holiday only cost us about £350 each for two weeks in the sun. We flew with Thomson, who are a package holiday company, and the price included the flight, coach from and to the airport and the hotel. There were also holiday reps (from the travel company to help the guests) in the hotel in case we needed anything.