Apologies for slow response. The toon was smashin'.
Quayside market and perambulating by the river in the sunny intervals on the Sunday lunchtime/afternoon. Later on, some of the suggested (on here) eateries stopped doing food at 7pm but it was about 6.40pm before I realised, d'oh! Went cheapo near the hotel which was fine. Espresso Martinis might have contributed to a shockingly bad night's kip. Nowt wrong with the bed which was comfy enough.
Magda's Salt n Pepper greasy spoon as suggested on here was qualiteeeee Monday morning. Then tried to get parked near the Discovery Centre but gave up - either two hour limit or no spaces combined with v limited patience, so back to the hotel then got the bus into town. There had been a rain warning and indeed it lashed down pretty much all day but wasn't cold. Went to Laing's Art Gallery and the very fancy library over the road including an exhibition about public toilets in the toon (of which since 2018 there are none, fact fans). I like a library, me.
More wandering, ended up at the 'pop up' open air cinema at NE1 in Eldon Square. Shopping centres are not our usual thing but there was some good freebie stuff on and the kids would have liked some of the activities if they had been with us, so it diverted us for 10 minutes. I looked for the music shop down a basement on the east side of Eldon Square where I bought my drums back in the late 80s (which I still have) but it is long gone. I also could not find what was Ronnie's Drum Shop which I'm sure was on Grey Street.
Back in the day I used to often visit Pet Sounds the record shop (also a basement) down near the railway station, but didn't get chance to search for that. I suspect it is long gone too. Great name for a Geordie record shop. There was another record shop in a terrapin hut near (if memory serves) the bus station but I didn't get chance to look for that either. I can't even remember what it was called. I want to say Reckless Records but might be getting mixed up with a used record shop down that London.
Wandered about a bit more and ended up in Grainger Market where we had excellent 'street food' including Masala Chai at a little eatery there called 'snackwallah'. We recognised several of the market eateries from their presence at the Sunday Quayside Market. I only later noticed the snackwallah Indian street food is all vegan (observation skills lacking due to sleep deprivation?). Quite a small menu all cooked on the day AFAICT (some stuff was all sold) - v nice and v reasonably priced. Eyed up some other eateries to try the next morning while there. Nice market with only a few empty slots and plenty peeps milling about which is a pleasant change from many markets which are often nearly empty.
Tuesday morning cooked brekko at Grainger Market and another wander about including the Mining/Engineering Building near the rail station. What is the horizontal man sculpture intended to represent? Down to the quayside again, over the swing bridge and along the south bank (been to the Sage before, not enough time that day anyway, Baltic closed) then over the Millennium Bridge and a wander along the north bank including some sculptures. The mobile coffee gadgey on the north bank (highly rated on google) was just closing up or we'd have tried his wares. Back to hotel car park, then drove back via Hexham which reminded me what a lovely wee place it is, although we only had an hour there.
All in all we didn't do much but the aim was to take it easy without the kids; which we did,
Thanks for the suggestions, much appreciated although we'd have needed a week+ to fit them all in.
