a bridge too far

Saturday 27 February

Today combined my love off all things industrial and all things sea, as we explored the bit of the East coast between Middlesborough and Hartlepool - a first for me.

But first the lovely Darlington with it's grand buildings from the great age of the train. The once terminus of the world's first pubic railway - Stockton and Darlington Railway

and a trip to the covered market

Then a winding tour up and down the many little gennels

Then back in the car and onward to Middlesborough and a bridge lover's heaven.

Not sure which one this is (the Tees Newport bridge maybe - repainted?)- but loved it

and had to venture across

But finally to the gem of them all - the beautiful Tees Transporter Bridge.  There really can't be many of these left in the world

and lucky for us it was open 

so we waited for the cradle to swing across and load us onboard

bought our ticket

and swung across the River Tees in style

SO exciting!!

The next bit of the day was inspired by this great Guardian article written in 2014, celebrating the opening of new bits of the NE coastal path - read here for more

Soon we were at the Tees estuary where it meets with the North Sea

An incredible juxtaposition of nuclear power stations and oil processing plants, alongside beautiful sandhills and beaches - very Daliesque.  Wonderfully surreal.

and after that lovely blast of sea air, onward to Hartlepool, the old Quay area and a quick peek into the Maritime Museum

Next we drove on to 'Headland' in Hartlepool which is an amazing peninsula of Georgian houses and tales of shipfaring and coal.

with a highly recommended and as fresh as you could get, fish and chips at Mary Rowntree's en route round the Headland

But time was cheating us, the light began to dim and it soon became too dark to venture onwards north up the coast to Sunderland - next time ........

So it was sort of sad to leave the adventure when we'd only just found the disused pier on the front of the Guardian coastal walk article - but we'll definitely return to this spot and continue north some day.

To see what we did on Sunday - last day of this fab holiday and another lovely walk - just click here.

If you missed the start of this birthday weekend then just click here.