My wife and I had a few days in Newcastle last week. We went up on Tuesday night. I got into a bit of trouble as I was late from work. We actually went to Durham first, but the hotel she had booked was locked up! There was a note on the front telling us to ring a number, but there was no answer. It was just before midnight when we arrived and we ended up booking another much nicer place to stay (my wife got her money back about the stay).
Come the morning, we saw some of the sights of Durham as we went to Newcastle for her conference. I had to do a little bit of work and we checked into the amazing room she had booked. It was a club room, which meant that we had access to the Club Lounge. We appreciated that on Thursday morning as breakfast was packed and the lounge served breakfast as well. Not as good as that in the main restaurant, but a good one and one where there were no queues. I spent Thursday exploring Newcastle and I was going to explore the Keep when my wife called me and I walked back to the hotel to have lunch with her instead.
On Friday, I did get to explore the Keep. While it was a bit pricey to explore it, it is in essence a historical charity and I thought the experience was worth it, and much better than seeing the Black Gate, which was also included in the ticket price. I was concerned that I would not understand people there as I have had some bad experiences with the accent, but once people listened to me talking, they dropped out of Geordie. And they were so nice there. If it was not so cold and wet, it might be a nice place to live! I say that as we are spoiled living in Colchester which is much dryer than most of the country.
The kids were glad to see us, as was Leia who has been a lot more clingy as she was left at the dog sitters over this time.