A night in Newcastle and then on to Masham

We arrived in Newcastle in the late afternoon. We both had a hankering for pizza and, since we were staying in the city centre, headed out of the hotel on foot in search of a pizzeria. I think we searched for about an hour. Every pizza place Siri suggested (the iPhone assistant for those unfamiliar with this highly-touted and mostly useless feature of the iPhone) was a take-out dive. After wandering around most of downtown we decided to walk toward Quayside. It's an area along the waterfront that's supposed to be a real happening place. It was about a half-mile walk, but obviously downtown had no decent dine-in pizza places. We figured there had to be a pizza place in Quayside. We walked a couple of blocks and passed by a large indoor food court and, lo and behold, it contained a Pizza Hut! Siri never made a mention of it. We happily ducked in out of the freezing cold night and enjoyed a halfway decent pizza dinner. Perhaps it was the frustration in our pizza hunt, maybe it was the fact it was such a frigid evening, but we didn't really like Newcastle's city centre.

The next day, we set out for York. We were spending two nights in York, one of my favorite cities in England. On the way, we were stopping in the tiny market village of Masham, home to both Theakston and Black Sheep breweries.

This is the view from our hotel window in Newcastle. That's a university campus to the left on the other side of the tree-covered roundabout.

I saw this funky building as we crossed over the River Tyne in Newcastle. One side of the river is Quayside and the other is Gateshead. This place is on the Gateshead side. I did some hunting on Google. There are lots of photos of this building, but not one mentioned what it was. I think it might be a hotel. Although Steve and I weren't impressed with downtown Newcastle, I think we should give the Quayside/Gateshead area a shot before we dismiss the city entirely.

As we headed south out of Newcastle, we spotted the Angel of the North. I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a couple of shots as we whizzed by it. The steel sculpture is nearly seventy feet tall and the wings are over 175 feet across.

One of our first glimpses of Masham as we made our way down the winding road.

It's no coincidence that such a little village would be home to two breweries. Theakston Brewery has been in Masham since the late 1800s. Back in the 1980s, it was the target of a hostile takeover. Rather than remain under the thumb of an international conglomeration, its chairman Paul Theakston (a descendent of Theakston's founders) left and eventually established his own brewery. In 1991, Black Sheep was born. We toured the brewery (guided by the excellent Dave), sampled some beer, and basically really enjoyed ourselves. I apparently didn't take any photos inside the brewery or its bar/cafe. How stupid of me.

After we left Black Sheep, we had to park in the market square. Parking cost 50p and you paid here. We were honest. I get the feeling most of the people are.

We had a bit of a wait for the tour at Theakston, so we sat in the tap room.

Hops as floral decor, clever.

Steve's selection of beer, including the brewery's famed Old Peculiar. Old Peculiar was one of my Dad's favorite beers. The name harkens to Masham's ecclesiastical heritage. Back in the 12th Century, the Archbishop of York established the Court of the Peculiar in the village, which was run by The Official. This court gave Masham the right and ability to govern itself independently of the diocese.

A stack of barrels outside Theakston's. These may not actually be "barrels." Technically, a barrel holds 36 gallons (in the UK, anyway, it's 31 in the US.). It's just common practice to call containers of this shape barrels. Beer casks have a slew of fun names. Besides barrel, you have the pin (4.5 gallons UK); firkin (9 gallons UK and my personal favorite name); kilderkin (18 UK); hogshead (54 UK); butt (108 UK); and tun (216 UK). US sizes (including the gallon) are smaller because of tax reasons. It's always about the money, isn't it?

More barrels, though I think these casks may actually be hogshead. They're pretty big.

This is the tap room and visitor center of Theakston Brewery. The brewery's founder, Robert Theakston, first opened a pub near to this spot in 1827 and called it the Black Bull. That pub no longer exists, so this new version carries on the name with "paradise" signifying the success of the brewery.

It's blurry, but this is the official seal of The Official of the Peculiar of Masham. This emblem replaced a black bull as the brewery's logo in the 1960s.

It was raining when we finished our tour at Theakston's, so I could only snap a couple of quick photos of the market square.

It seemed that no matter where I went in England, something was being renovated.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Masham and its breweries. Steve fell in love with the village and wished there was a way we could live there. I think it would be rather idyllic, though a bit remote.

We said good-bye to Masham (though I strongly suspect we'll be back) and headed south toward York.