Newcastle

This is Newcastle on a nice sunny day. I'm flying close to Baltic Art Centre with the river Tyne below me. The closest bridge is the Millennium Bridge, the one further back is the Tyne Bridge. You can just see the Sage Music Centre under my back foot.

Baltic Art Centre is in the old Baltic Flour Mill which was built in the 1950's. The flour mill closed in 1981 and was converted into the art centre in the 90's. There's a few floors showing art and at the top is a viewing gallery withgreat views. If you don't fancy the art you can go straight up to the viewing gallery in a lift without needing to go in any of the galleries.

The Millennium Bridge was opened in November 2000. It tilts to let boats go under and looks pretty good when it does, looks like a blinking eye. It takes longer to walk across than you expect because its very curved, which gives the space for boats to go under when it 'blinks'.

The Tyne Bridge opened in 1928. It looks a lot like Sydney Harbour Bridge. I expect thats because it was built by the same company, its just a bit bigger. A lot of kittiwakes live under Tyne Bridge. They are very noisy and make quite a mess underneath it, I usually fly over it rather than take the chance.

York

Back to York and a meeting with the Emperor Constantine. He was declared Emperor by his fathers troops close to this spot, the Roman barracks is under York Minster (strange place to build a barracks). Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, it's Istanbul not Constantinople now, though the city was called Byzantium at the time. Naming it after himself shows how modest he is.

More Whitby Abbey

Here's another photo of me at Whitby Abbey. I suppose I'm 'in' the abbey here. It looks all very dramatic. If it was cloudy or there was a storm I could make the photo black and white and it would look even more dramatic. But I would get wet and thinking about that I've gone off the idea. I've had a bit of a look round but didn't find any vampires. Lots of people taking photos but no vampires. Might be a bit sunny for them.

Whitby Abbey

This is Whitby Abbey, well the ruins of Whitby Abbey.

Whitby is on the Yorkshire coast, not that far from York. I'm resting my wings here after the short flight over from York. Its a lovely site. Very popular with photographers, film makers and Dracula.

The first monastery was founded here in 657 by Oswy, the Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria.They had funny names back then. This monastery was destroyed by the Danes. It was rebuilt during the time of William the Conqueror. This time it lasted until Henry VIII and his Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1914 it was shelled by two German battlecruisers. They were aiming for something else, but it does seem to attract trouble. I don't think I'd live in a cave here, don't know what would happen. Though I think the Danes and Germans are less prone to attacking Yorkshire now.

St Mary's Abbey, York

This is St Mary's Abbey, well what's left of it. Founded in 1088 it was one the richest Benedictine monasteries in England. That was until Henry VIII and his Dissolution of the monasteries came along in the 1530's. Over the years the buildings fell into decay. Now the ruins are in York Museum Gardens and its all very lovely.

Merry Christmas

As its Christmas I thought I would dig out an old photo. Many years ago I was flying along and three men with beards started following me on camels. I flew for miles but they wouldn't leave. In the end I asked some shepherds where I could hide from these men. They panicked at first but after I said I wasn't going to eat them or their sheep, well maybe a little nibble, they calmed down and suggested a stable nearby. They said I could get something to eat there as well. So I flew off and found the place. I landed and found some people with a baby and thought it would be nice to give them some gold from my hoard as they obviously had no money. Then who should burst in but the men on their camels followed by the shepherds. One of the bearded men didn't have anything with him so gave the baby my gold I had already given him, cheek! They claimed to be wise men, didn't seem that wise to me following a dragon and then pretending my gold was his. I had a camera with me and got one of the shepherds to take a photo of us. Obviously back then we didn't have digital cameras so I've scanned this in from a print I had done later in Rome on the way back to Wales.

Clifford's Tower in York

I'm standing in front of Clifford's Tower. Its part of what's left of York Castle. Originally built by William the Conqueror the castle has been changed over the years. The original wooden tower was burnt down in 1190 and rebuilt. In the middle of 13th C Henry III decided to knock it down and build an entirely stone tower. Wooden castles aren't really that useful, especially against us dragons. For people that can't fly (I don't know how they manage) there are steps going up to the tower. The path used to wind round the mound up to the tower, which sounds more fun than the straight steps there now. Nobody knows why its called Clifford's Tower - they could tell you that before making you climb all those steps to read the information inside the tower.