Just returned from a birthday trip oop north to Newcastle and Durham (where my other half went to university).  What a beautiful part of the country, I must say.  Newcastle and Gateshead both felt very new and young; the Sage is a great venue; the Baltic had some so-so exhibits and a restaurant that isn't as good as it should be but was a great art space.  Lots of things to make and do.

But where was everybody?  Granted it was a week day, but half the place seemed deserted.  We even tromped around that enormous MetroCentre (which could have been flown in in its entirety from, say, Minnesota) searching in vain for an internet cafe and hardly saw anyone.

After a sojourn down Hadrian's Wall (including a stop at the temple of the best named god ever: Brocolitia), we spent a few days in Durham, which is a lovely as Bill Bryson raves.  Beautiful cathedral especially, even if it is teetering dangerously into the Wear.  All in all, a great part of the country, with the single complaint that the hotel industry we encountered could best be described as "mildly resentful".  Still, everyone else was friendly.