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At Durham Marriott hotel: 147,099.2
At Beamish: 147,120.2
At hotel (the George Hotel, Chollerford) - 147,193.3
We were woken up at 6.30am by the fire alarm - a false alarm, but by the time we found out it was too late to get back to sleep. Apparently the roof was leaking and water had gotten into one of the fire alarms, triggering the alarm throughout the hotel. (They were not very apologetic about it, either. I know it wasn't their fault, but it wasn't ours either!)
We packed and left the hotel early (about 9am) and as it was sunny but cloudy we drove up to Beamish, the Victorian village. I thought it was great, far bigger than it looked on the map and in the guide book. I now have a year long pass, too (when you buy entry, you can convert it to a year's pass for free!).
+ Loved the authentic trams and buses to take you around
+ Giant pig! And she posed for photos
+ Lots of ponies!
+ Staff were all very friendly and helpful, can't fault them at all - helped that it wasn't too busy (probably due to the predicted rain) so we had time to talk to them, especially the man in the bank, the young lady in the Freemasons lodge, and the lady with the pigs
+ Going down the reconstructed mine (though it was pretty small)
+ Looking at steam trains, a man overhearing said about his experiences on working on a freight steam train from Chester to Carlisle, eg going with his Dad on the footplate, warned that there were kids playing on the tracks, so they heated up a poker from the fire and nearly branded the kids with it as they went past - kids pooed themselves and ran off, probably didn't play on the tracks again! (lolol.)
+ Mini steam train ride on one of the first steam trains invented (used for moving coal).
+ the Freemasons Lodge, just because it's so interesting!
Only downside - Dad went ahead while Mum and I stroked a lovely horse that had ran over from the opposite side of the field to see us (probably wanted feeding), we then went to catch him up.
It turns out that some of the cottages on the edge of the museum they don't own - they are privately owned and lived in by locals. (We didn't know this at the time.) There were signs to a mill, so my parents and I walked down. My Dad went on ahead and my Mum and I followed behind. While we were walking towards the cottages (again - we assumed this was part of the mill exhibition as there were lots of other cottages you could look round), we were walking up the footpath towards it, which had bushes along both sides of it and fields beyond those on both sides. While we were walking along, a sheepdog suddenly appeared, barking and snarling at my mother and I. I started screaming and got quite hysterical (which I admit didn't help, but I was terrified and couldn't help it) as the dog jumped up at us and tried to bite, my Mum tried to keep me calm and said to just back away, which we did. A group of kids were in the field (it was on a slope so we could see them), we could hear them calling a name so it appeared to be their dog - they had heard me screaming and were laughing. They began to stroll round the hill, still laughing at us who were still being attacked and threatened by their dog, me still hysterical. Eventually we'd backed enough away and the dog stopped following us, but continued to bark and growl viciously. I was absolutely terrified - I am usually not scared of dogs, but this one was really aggressive. (Even thinking about it now is making me shake.)
I shouted at the kids over the bushes (who were not at all bothered, made no effort to come and get their dog, did not apologise, didn't even come over, just laughed and ignored us, carried on messing around in the field) to keep their dog under control, it just tried to attack us (as they well knew! They could hear it). Their response was basically "well it's just a puppy, you probably scared it, it's your fault, you shouldn't be here anyway, it lives here, it can do what it likes", and we could hear them still laughing. (If it was a puppy, it was certainly almost full-grown! It was huge!) The kids were about 10-12 years old, so still kids, but old enough to know that their dog shouldn't behave like that (and if they don't, they shouldn't be left in charge of it!).
I was really upset and their reponse to it had made me worse, I was shaking and crying and still quite hysterical. My mum rang my Dad who came back quickly after hearing what had happened, he'd been speaking to a woman who lived in one of the cottages who explained about the houses being privately owned, but that the land around them and the footpath was all museum owned. The dog was equally aggressive to him (he hadn't gone past it originally, he'd gone a different way), and tried to bite him - he managed to stare it down and eventually it backed off, though this took a while and he said he was surprised at how aggressive it was. It turned out that the mill was all boarded up anyway, apparently the museum are going to reconstruct and repair it but they haven't yet, so it was a wasted trip anyway (this isn't mentioned in the guide book or on the map signs!).
Later, we saw the kids and the dog again, as they went into the museum town nearby to buy some sweets. They then got on one of the trams (the same one we were on) to go back to the cottages. The staff obviously know these boys as they were chatting to them. The boys had recognised us, and kept staring at us and whispering to each other and laughing. When we got off the tram, they had stood by the tram exit and as I walked past them they were smirking and laughing at me, and deliberately put the dog on the side closest to me (which nearly made me freak out there and then, actually! - I was still very much shaken up). They obviously were not at all sorry for what had happened to us!
(I may complain to the museum - even though it wasn't their fault, the land we were on was owned by them, and they should put signs. I may also complain to the local council and Police as they should have restrained the dog, under the Dangerous Dogs Act.)
On the way to the hotel, we stopped at the Angel of the North (near a town called Harlow Green, how funny!), got a few photos before it started to rain. (At least that was at the Angel of the North, and not Beamish!)
The hotel is nice, I have a four poster bed and a large flat screen TV!
Labels: holidays
