Bridges of the World Series - Newcastle upon Tyne

A quite dreadful day here in North Yorkshire. Strong winds and driving rain so there was not much urgency to get out and about. We even forwent our planned walk. Now, that's unusual.

So, after a very lazy morning we decided to head north to Newcastle to visit the Biscuit Factory gallery to see some contemporary art. Thr gallery turned out to be very interesting with a range of items on display from paintings, photographs, jewellery, ceramics, glassware to mention just a few, there was some pretentious stuff to be sure but most of it deserved serious attention.

The same could not be said for the scone in the cafe. Probably the worst I've ever experienced or tasted. Doughy, salty (this was a fruit scone) and layered. Only scored 20 on my scale. The cafe prided itself on its afternoon tea (not available today but costing £18 pp) but if they were serving scones like these we sampled today I wouldn't be impressed.

From the Biscuit Factory to the Flour Mill, the Baltic Flour Mill in Gateshead. I'd been there for a conference some years ago, so knew the place but apart from this view from the 5th floor the Mill failed to impress. Probably because they were between exhibitions. We saw one minimalist display called "Drawn" but I thought the "artist" should have been hung and quartered as well, it was dreadful. We watched an arty film on bees which was a little better but that was the sum of the Baltic Flour Mill. I was surprised that the gallery decided to clear 2 floors at once and so put 40% of the building out of use. It even put the outside viewing platform out of use too.

This shot summed up the day weatherwise, grey, but at least it wasn't raining. As we approached the cottage at the end of the day the rain was still lashing down. It must have rained here all day. So every cloud has a silver lining.