Hi there!
How have you been? I have been SO busy lately & also had an action packed half term with Amelia. We decided to go & visit our Son who lives up in Newcastle & as that part of the country had already had their half term it was lovely & quiet. Amelia & I had already had the grand tour of the area when we visited Leo in the May half term holidays. You can see the Vlog of what we got up to here. This visit was more about just being there, chilling out & spending time together.
In this weeks Blog post I wanted to share what we did on one of the days. My Son lives in the Dunston Staiths area of Newcastle, just over the river from the city centre. He also lives just a 10 minute drive from the Gateshead Metro Centre & more importantly IKEA. The last time I visited I introduced him to the £1.50 Ikea breakfast & free tea & coffee with the Ikea family card. He takes advantage of this quite a bit now he knows about it & we made the most of it on this particular day too. They even do a vegetarian/vegan version!
Next stop was the Ikea creche. This is Amelias last year of being able to go into the free creche as it only caters for up to 10yr olds. BOOOOO! She loves it in their though & always has an action packed hour while we peruse the store. Lets face it, kids hate shopping. Does anyone remember when Ikea first opened & they used to have a mini cinema in the stores for the kids to sit & watch movies while you did your shopping? PLEASE BRING THIS BACK IKEA!
We then briefly popped back home for my speciality lunch of a toasted vegan wrap. I make these by spreading Aldi Morrocan houmus on a wrap, filling with Aldi Morrocan falafel, red onions, peppers & Tesco free from Mexicana cheese. I then roll & wrap and stick in the George Foreman grill for 10 minutes. They are a taste sensation. Try them!
Fuelled up & raring to go we got wrapped up, put the dogs lead on & set off down to the quayside in Newcastle. It's a 30-40 minute walk from Dunston Staiths depending on your pace but theres lots to see along the way.
Newcastle has such a rich history & you can see signs of this as you walk along the River Tyne. There is old architecture mixed in with new & some really grand bridges too.
Once we'd walked over the Tyne Bridge, we walked along the Quayside & back over the Gateshead Millennium Bridge where we stopped for a rest & to take in our surroundings.
By this time as you can imagine, we had started to feel the cold & our legs were tiring so we decided to head back in the hope that we'd escape the black cloud now hovering above us. As we neared home we stopped in at my Sons local cafe for a well earned coffee & cake. We had covered 6km by this time so thought we deserved it. The atmosphere in The Staiths Cafe was warm & welcoming with a contemporary vibe. I loved the different lighting & the green bulbs above our table in particular.
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| Decaf Soy Latte & Vegan Apple & Cinnamon Flapjack |
The view over the River Tyne as the sun was setting was so pretty.
We sat & chatted for over an hour & even had a second coffee as it was so good.
Amelia enjoyed her hot chocolate with marshmallows & she was also impressed by the views.
After our long & leisurely pit stop we headed back home. Amelia took one last look at the view back down the river towards the city where the sky was glowing red & glistening off the water.
As we walked along Amelia found a stone with a special message written on it. She was really pleased with her find & has kept it as a memento of the trip.
As I tucked Amelia in that night I asked if she'd enjoyed her day & she said it had been a good day & agreed with her treasure that "TYNESIDE ROCKS".
Are you from this area? Do you feel lucky to live in such a diverse city? Can you recommend any new places for us to explore the next time we visit?
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