retiredmartin

June 2025. Newcastle-Corbridge.

In 1995, on our first visit to Newcastle, we stayed in a rambling country house in Corbridge with the largest free standing bath in the UK. And the Corbridge stand-out, apart from (I think) having all six pubs in my first GBG, was a curry house directly on the station platform which seemed to be attracting well-dressed Geordies travelling the half hour just for their biryani and bhajis.

And now, thanks to Blackpool Jane’s meticulous planning, we were heading their on the curry train from Newcastle, but only after I’d ditched the shorts and bought something more suitable. It took a funeral to force me into Marks & Spencer to buy my first suit post-retirement.

I left Mrs RM with Jane’s half-finished cans of Vault City, and legged it to Northumberland Street.

Walk to Primark– 1 minute

Choice of trousers (£10) and polo shirt (£6) – 45 seconds

Trying on of garments and nod to assistant – 2 minutes and 15 seconds

Queueing and paying – 3 minutes

Walk from Primark to the Spoons next to Town Mouse – 1 minute

Finding the Gents in Spoons – 17 minutes

Changing into new gear – 2 minutes

I necked the sours, and we dashed back to the staton,

where Karen and Jane were already receiving tickets and menus from The Valley’s “uniformed escort”.

That afternoon in the Grainger Market Gavin had told us that the Passage to India” was worthwhile, and it had been on a Top 100 Bucket List (No. 344) for 3 decades, but in truth the journey was a little less exciting than the rail journey back from the Taj Mahal to Delhi in 1997, and a less than chilled Cobra was hard to score on Untappd.

We didn’t really need a five (5) course feast either, though you couldn’t fault the food, just the volume.

The biggest let-down was the dessert,

which turned out NOT to be the hoped-for Punky. Life is cruel

Luckily, the view over the Tyne would make up for that disappointment.

But what about the Corbridge pubs ?