three

I got up and went to the bus stop with Shayne. I left Swindon at 0840 am and got to London Victoria at 1120 am. I had to sit in the terminal for an hour and a bit and then the bus left and I went all the way to Newcastle. It was a nice day going along the highway past all the towns along the way. I got there at 1920 that evening having travelled 441 kilometers from London.

I was so excited to see my Aunt Anita, Uncle Ken and Cousin Cheryl-lee. My other cousin Sean was busy working for McDonalds. The poor guy has to eat their food if he gets hungry while he is working.

Once I got to Newcaste I went straight onto South Shields by car. South Shields was founded by the Convent of Durham in the 13th century. It was a centre of the salt and glass industries in the 17th and 18th centuries.

My Uncle had to drive the long way round to their house because Jon Bon Jovi was playing there. I was a bit upset that I missed him, but then I probably would have not been able to pay for the ticket in any case! I met their dogs, Dumbo and Denis. I eventually fell asleep and had my first good night sleep since I got to England and was most grateful!

We went to into town (South Shields) and went for a walk around the place. It was full of see gulls. They have a very big problem with them. While I was there people were debating over whether to shoot them or not. We also went for a walk along the beach, South Shields is right next to the sea! Other than that I just relaxed outside and tried to catch an English tan!

Thursday the 25th we did nothing. I sat outside again in the huge garden and tried again to catch a tan.. nothing I was still white as when I got there. At least the sun shone!!! I had been so busy when I was with Shayne that I needed the break!! I got to bed late though as I sat talking to my cousins.

I woke up and we went for a drive that took most of the day. We first went to Morpeth as my Aunt had won a family portrait photo and they had to go for the shoot. Morpeth is a small market town. It stands in open countryside on the River Wansbeck, midway between Newcastle-upon Tyne and the Scottish Borders. The town grew up around Morpeth Castle, a Norman fortress guarding the river crossing on the main east coast route to Scotland in the north. Only the castle's 14th century gate house remains.

I didn't get to see any famous sites really. I did see the clock tower, but can't seem to find any information on it at all.

We then left this small town and went further north to Rothbury. Rothbury, the capital of Coquetdale derives its name from Anglo-Saxon, times when it was called Routh Biria meaning `Routha's Town', but the history of the surrounding district goes back into even earlier times, as proved by the evidence of numerous ancient camps, cairns and stones, in the neighboring countryside.

The people of Rothbury in former times were among the wildest and most uncivilized in the county. For fighting, gaming and drinking they had a worse reputation than the inhabitants of Tynedale and Redesdale. Very little regard had the good folk of Rothbury for the laws and their love of venison frequently led them into trouble.

There is a lovely River on the lower part of the town called the Coquet River. It is also very pretty. We sat under a tree and ate food, sweets and drank coca cola with many bees buzzing around. I took a couple photo's and then my cousins took me into the town which is just a couple streets. It was so hot that we bought some more to drink.

We left Rothbury and went onto Seahouses. Originally the harbor was used for shipment of large quantities of corn. In 1846 over 1000 tons of it was shipped out from there. In the 1770's quarries of limestone was the in thing and then in the 1860's it was fishing for Herrings. Now Seahouses caters for it's tourism and survives on that mostly. You can take trips to the Farne Islands as well which you can see from the harbor. I didn't get to do that as it would cost money and I wasn't there at the correct time to get a ride.

We then went onto Bamburgh Castle, but we just drove past it and didn't go inside. After all this we went home. I was pretty tired by the end of it.

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