Day 8 Thursday 21st May 2009 Norwich to Newcastle on Tyne

Day 8 Thursday 21st May 2009 Norwich to Newcastle on Tyne.
After a 7am breakfast we set off again to walk about 1km to the train station. We caught the 8:57am cross-country two carriage train to Petersburg. The train was almost full. Sitting across the aisle from us was a man and his large friendly dog. The dog was very obedient and waited for his owner to put his blanket on the seat before, on command he jumped on to the seat. Once again we were soon out into the same beautiful country; this time we saw some large pig farms; the pigs ran free in large soil fields and no grass with lots of small pig shelters arranged in neat rows; each shelter had 4 meters separation from another. We changed trains at Petersburg and boarded the national express from London which finishes at Edinburgh. This train is ever so smooooth as we glided through the beautiful countryside. It has power for my computer and wireless internet. I was able to collect my e-mail and view pictures of our new front fence which is being slowly constructed while we are away. At one stage we went through an area where there were about ten or twelve of what looked like power stations. They all had about five or six huge chimneys. Someone commented that one was a nuclear station. We arrived at Newcastle at 12:57 and checked in at the Thistle Hotel right opposite the station. After leaving our heavy bags in our room we hurried back to the station to buy a return ticket from Berwick-Upon Tweed to Edinburgh. Our Brit Rail ticket would cover us as far as this station but not for the journey to Edinburgh. You see we were off to meet Fay’s niece; we boarded the train at 1:51pm and arrived in Edinburgh at 3:22pm. When we crossed the Scottish boarder we started to see more hills, some with lots of in bloom gorse and broom. Their bright yellow flowers stood out against the rich green of the grass. From the station we took a taxi to the address and found Fay’s niece waiting on her doorstep. We spent a pleasant four hours with her; Fay was catching up with her family history and after a splendid Scottish meal she led us back to the train station where we caught the 9pm back to Newcastle arriving at 10:32pm.