For the last few years we've sneaked an early holiday in, last year was a very wet week in North Wales, this year would be another week high up the Northmberland Coast at Alexandra Cottage in Beadnell; our fourth visit in the last couple of years.
On a couple of occasions on the long drive north we have stopped off at Beamish to have a look around the famous open air museum, this time however we decided to detour over to Hartlepool and see the HMS Trincomalee, the oldest fighting ship afloat - 200 years old this year. And the name, it was built in Bombay in 1817 and the name was taken from a place name in what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
After a visit to the market to pick up some fresh vegetables before setting off, we left Dinnington around 10am and by around mid-day were parked up in Hartlepool dining on some potted meat sandwiches that Donna had made before we set off; we certainly live the high-life. The weather had changed abruptly just north of the M62, beautiful clear skies then a hard line in the sky as we hit a massive bank of grey cloud which was to stay with us the rest of the day.
The first 20 minutes of the visit took the form of an audio-visual tour of what it would have been like aboard the ship in it's heyday, not a bad life for the likes of the Captain, but less so for those below deck many of whom had been press-ganged into life fighting in the Royal Navy. Not a life I would have chosen! Lots of original buildings around the dock, many now converted into museum exhibits showing what life might have been like around the quayside.
At around 1:30pm we went on the tour of the actual ship, amazing just to see it and walk around it, so much history. Well worth the £11m spent restoring it. What amazed us both though was just how low the decks were, we had to walk around the ship with our heads dipped down all of the time, it just shows how much smaller people were 200 years ago.
After a quick cuppa in the cafe aboard the nearby paddle steamer, we headed north, through the centre of Newcastle to rejoin the A1 and head north. By the time we had stopped off for some shopping in Alnwick and unpacked at the cottage at was gone 5:30pm. And relax....
On a couple of occasions on the long drive north we have stopped off at Beamish to have a look around the famous open air museum, this time however we decided to detour over to Hartlepool and see the HMS Trincomalee, the oldest fighting ship afloat - 200 years old this year. And the name, it was built in Bombay in 1817 and the name was taken from a place name in what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
After a visit to the market to pick up some fresh vegetables before setting off, we left Dinnington around 10am and by around mid-day were parked up in Hartlepool dining on some potted meat sandwiches that Donna had made before we set off; we certainly live the high-life. The weather had changed abruptly just north of the M62, beautiful clear skies then a hard line in the sky as we hit a massive bank of grey cloud which was to stay with us the rest of the day.
The first 20 minutes of the visit took the form of an audio-visual tour of what it would have been like aboard the ship in it's heyday, not a bad life for the likes of the Captain, but less so for those below deck many of whom had been press-ganged into life fighting in the Royal Navy. Not a life I would have chosen! Lots of original buildings around the dock, many now converted into museum exhibits showing what life might have been like around the quayside.
At around 1:30pm we went on the tour of the actual ship, amazing just to see it and walk around it, so much history. Well worth the £11m spent restoring it. What amazed us both though was just how low the decks were, we had to walk around the ship with our heads dipped down all of the time, it just shows how much smaller people were 200 years ago.
After a quick cuppa in the cafe aboard the nearby paddle steamer, we headed north, through the centre of Newcastle to rejoin the A1 and head north. By the time we had stopped off for some shopping in Alnwick and unpacked at the cottage at was gone 5:30pm. And relax....
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