Sunday

The house is finally practically almost empty of all food, so a quick trip this morning to the market for bagels, smoked salmon and cream cheese was in order, but not until I had finished my large cup of coffee and had a nice hot shower, followed by hot towel dry off.

I was alone on my walk down the block to the market. Not a single person on the street and very few cars. The 10 minutes it took to run this errand helped clear out the cobwebs and gave me an injection of energy.

Once home, I set up the breakfast table and waited for my small flock to come down to eat. By this time is was around 10:30am and I was feeling a bit anxious as we planned to go into Newcastle to a museum today. The museum closes at 4pm and I wanted to have enough time to see and do lots of cultural things. We ate up, made our final choices and left the house to catch the number 20 bus down into town. We walked up the hill to the train station and caught the next train out.

 There are trains to and from Durham to Newcastle almost every 10 minutes. You never have to wait long and the journey only takes 12 minutes. I love it! Culture and excitement of the big city when I want it. Unlike Nice, I have the choice of over 100 galleries and museums to go to. These places are usually free and always have children programs in association with the exhibitions. Families can drop in to the Learning and development area and make all kinds of things with their kids, again free of charge. The people who work there are helpful, engaging, kind, active and never rude, to you or your kids. Again, unlike in Nice!

Today we went to the Seven Stories Childrens'  Museum. It was located in an old Victorian seven story warehouse on the edge of the city center. It is in an area called Byker, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byker, a housing estate that was rebuilt in the early 60's with the residents specifications for community living. It is like a large artist colony of sorts. It has its own farms, garden and cafe as well as many ,many artist studios and galleries. Seven Stories is one of them.

The gallery lies on a canal and is surrounded by a small animal farm and vegetable garden. Once inside, you are greeted by books, books and more books! Plus friendly staff. The lobby alone makes you feel exhilarated and excited to explore the other 6 floors. It is meant for children, but adults feel at home as well. Each floor is dedicated to something different. The "attic"  is for watching and listening to story tellers, trying on costumes from many of the popular children books and acting out stories. The " basement" is the art studio. Today Zelda made a crown from Narnia and a puppet from Cinderella. There are two other floors which house exhibitions related to books and authors, one floor with a cafe and a floor that explains the idea behind collections of books and how it all works. The entrance level houses the large book shop. The exhibitions change and there are activities all year long for children. I just loved this museum and would love to work there.

It could have been Brooklyn. Downstairs in the art studio the most popular sound was the American accent! Not just any accent, but New Yorker-Jewish. Yes, truly amazing, but while I was sitting on my own with Zelda a woman leaned over and said in a way only a Jewish NYer could, well in this case, as it turned out, from Connecticut,  Can I ask you something, I am curious, do I detect an American accent? Immediately it was like we were old lost buddies. She spilled the beans that she was Jewish, so did I and next thing you know I am being invited to the reformed temple in Newcastle. The rabbi of which is from California and a woman.   We exchanged numbers and I now have yet another new potential friend.

 This could not have happened in France and most definitely not in Nice. I feel at home. It's just perfect.