Towards Polaris

Our class ventured north to the formerly industrial city of Newcastle upon Tyne, not far from the Scottish border. Prior to departure I had a bit of time to look around King's Cross, which has been so familiar to me from reading Harry Potter books. The real item was significantly more contorted than I imagined, a little less monumental, but no less intriguing. Our train from Platform 4 made good time as we left London but was seriously delayed halfway along by a failed train on the line ahead of us. My table played a game of hearts to pass the time, and the sandwich and yogurt I packed kept me fueled without resorting to the dining trolley (which served no pumpkin pasties).

We arrived, took taxis to the Tulip Inn and more taxis into the town of Gateshead, Newcastle's neighbor across the river, taking a brief look at the Gateshead Sage before heading over to BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, which, like the Tate Modern, occupies a respectfully refitted industrial building. Work at the BALTIC is pretty edgy (one work is currently being investigated for breaking child pornography laws), and some of it I found to be unpleasant, but even many of the unpleasant pieces had sufficient thought, insight, and/or wit to be worth a serious look. Although not what I perceived to be the deepest work, Kendell Geers Irrespektiv will probably be the most lasting memory for me. The massive room full of artifacts of riot and protest included police lights, spiked fencing, and a still burning wreck of a car. The building itself seemed to attempt to be as generic as possible, providing little more than a series of large vertically arranged rooms. The narrow west edge of the building was the only one that seemed to have seen significant alteration, being mostly glazed, therefore allowing a rather impressive view to occupants of its two glass elevators.

From the Baltic we walked across the famed Gateshead Millennium Bridge into Newcastle upon Tyne. We ended our walk on Grey Street, voted "best street in the United Kingdom" by public radio listeners. The street was indeed beautiful, curving gently down the slope towards the water. Since we were most unfortunately without our guidebooks, we found food and drink by wandering alone, and both the food at Coco Mos and the atmosphere at Bar 38 was disappointing. I did finally getting around to trying a Strongbow, which I hadn't realized was a cider. The Strongbow I could recommend.