A birthday in Newcastle

March 31 was my 49th birthday. My twin sister and I haven't spent the day together for some years, mainly because I was living in Maine for 10 years between 1997 and 2007. We decided to spend the day together this year. The weather wasn't conducive to a garden visit, which is how we tend to spend the majority of our time together these days, so we decided to go to Newcastle.

It's a couple of years since I've been to the city, despite living only 10 miles away. Our first stop was the Hancock museum which has been transformed from the old dusty and rather frightening museum of my childhood. I enjoyed the exhibits, particularly the Roman and Egyptian galleries.

On our way to lunch we stopped to look inside the church of St Thomas the Martyr which occupies a prominent position in the Haymarket and which has some very nice stained glass windows which are becoming something of a passion of mine.

We then went to the Laing art gallery and I'm ashamed to say I've never been there before. Holman Hunt's magnificent and poignant 'Isabella and the Pot of Basil' was wonderful to see, as was a gorgeous Turner, "Snow Storm Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps". I so want to go to the Tate again!

We had a nice Italian meal for lunch with a free glass of champagne in honour of our birthday. Fortunately the rain just about held off, we were lucky as the day before had been truly foul.

To end our day we visited the marvellous cathedral church of St Nicholas, again a building I'd never been inside before. Although I'm an atheist, I absolutely love these historical buildings. I chatted to a helpful guide about Charles Kempe and some of the other windows in the church. I would like to go again and spend longer looking at them. A magnificent wooden screen and reredos in the centre of the church certainly warrant more study.