Day 70: Boring day.. shall talk about day one of Scotland trip~

Liverpool~Newcastle~Edinburgh

Finally, finally.. this is so long overdue.. I know many people have been waiting for my Scotland tales.. hehe.. this technically isn't Scotland yet, just on the way to Scotland.. but be patient, and you shall be rewarded.. :)

First day of our trip~ jumped into our hired car, (which arrived late from the car rental place incidentally) and began our journey to Edinburgh, Scotland with a short stop in Newcastle on the way.. Most of the pictures are of the great view you can see when driving on the highway.. The scenic routes in UK are really really scenic if you ask me.. @.@~ Whats more, the roads are really winding and pass through very secluded areas that have wild birds and rabbits on the road.. (those birds are really stupid, i think its cos they seldom see cars.. one actually bounced off our windscreen, hope its recovered by now..) Sometimes you really wonder whether you're really on a highway or not..

We call these windmills, but i'm not really sure what they are..

Great weather for driving..

Passed by some secluded castle place..
plenty of castles in uk, so doesn't matter if we miss one, hehe..

Lots and lots of green hills and slopes to be seen on UK highways..

Those white spots are actually sheep..
Lots and lots of sheep and cows, even pigs to be seen as well.. :)

Little house in the middle of nowhere..

more landscape

and more hills..

after winding up and down (really very winding, at one point i thought i was going to be carsick, haha) through the hills for quite some time, we finally see a sign :

Destination: Newcastle

The sun still shining brightly when we arrived around 8.30pm..

First place we went to- The Sage Gateshead, which is centre for concerts/conferences

First thing we did was to look for some toilets cos everyone was almost bursting, haha.. our poor car met with some disfiguration while we were there.. boohoo.. but small matter...

got chased away from the first place we parked.. 5 cars in the disabled parking area a bit too conspicuous?? haha..

Then ended up parking at Mecca, which is a bingo club, if you dont know wat that is, its a club where mostly senior citizens go to play bingo games.. haha.. what to do, hard to find places to park for free..

We then walked back to The Sage Gateshead cos its located conveniently by the river where there are lots of things to see.. One little fact: Newcastle upon Tyne is actually the full name for the place we call Newcastle, Tyne refers to the river that cuts through the city..

First building I noticed, i think its a church..

River view at dusk..

Same view, different feel..

The Sage Gateshead.. Interesting architecture..

Inside the building..

The main attraction was this:

Gateshead Millenium Bridge
Its special cos it changes colour because of the lights on it, and it emits some kind of sound which is different at different parts of the day.. Sounding like a ships horn when I was there..

Many other colours, but I couldnt quite hold the camera steady cos of the strong (and cold) wind.. Not my hands shaking k, but the bridge was kind of swaying :* but luckily we managed to take a great group photo cos Mr Photographer had a tripod! :)

Link here to see the pic:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=30591681&op=3&o=global&view=global&subj=587218365&id=1057779282
Photo courtesy of Mr Jack Lee :)

and of course, compulsory touristy pic.. proof that i have been to Newcastle, haha...

Spent more time than we should have tho, cos we started our journey to Edinburgh much much later than we were supposed to, and ended up arriving at our accommodation in the city centre quite late (late being 3am :S), mainly cos one of the roads was closed and the stupid GPS system couldnt give us any alternative routes.. >.< ended up circling the area near Backpackers Hostel for quite some time until we managed to find a way in.. Luckily the hostel was quite nice, with a super comfy bed, nicer than the one in my room right now..

and thats the end of Day 1 of our epic Scotland trip.. Nothing much cos we only left Liverpool around 4pm.. Day 2 in Edinburgh next..

PS: new flavour of the week: The Fray-Syndicate~ My fave band right now!!!! :)