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July 02, 2008
Arbeia, Angel of the North and Beamish
Today was a busy day.
We began by visiting Arbeia, a Roman Fort near Hadrian's Wall in South Shields, England. It is an active archeological site which has also done reconstructions of some barracks and the West Gate. Very near the site was a spectacular view of the North Sea. Here we saw an offshore oil drilling platform that had been towed to port for repairs.
Next up was a visit to the Angel of the North. The Angel is a public art display in Gateshead that was initially met with much resistance when it was built in 1998. It is Britain's largest sculpture and is extremely popular with tourists. All of us felt pretty insignificant standing at its' base.
Lastly, we visited Beamish, an open air museum set on over 300 acres of land and somewhat similar to Williamsburg, VA. It demonstrates life in North England in the early 1800s and 1900s. The first stop in Beamish was a performance at the Methodist Chapel in the Colliery Village. Space was a bit tight for the choir but the acoustics sounded very nice and Richard Hill commented that he thought it was the best rendition yet of the Ave Maria.
The group had lunch and then split up to explore. The first stop for most of the group was the upper deck of a double-decker tram that circled the property. Other attractions on the property included exploring an old mine, wandering down an old Main Street into all the shops (such as an old fashioned candy shop, a general store, a bank, a freemason's hall etc). There was also a Colliery Village, a manor house, a farm and a train station.
Posted by webmaster at July 2, 2008 10:52 PM