The Geordie Tourist.

My family and I took a little day trip to Hexham. Well everyone except my brother Nathan, who was off gallivanting at a cottage in the countryside. You can see the first part of our trip here.

We ended a nice day looking around the gardens of HexhamAbbey or Hexham Parks as it is also known. If you’ve never been to the parks before what are you waiting for? Go; go now, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

We just seemed to have stumbled upon them by chance, as with the Abbey really, we didn’t know where we were going or if there were any real tourist type things to see in Hexham. Turns out there are, and they are pretty awesome.

Hexham Parks is made up of four different areas: Hexham House Grounds, the Sale, Cowgarth, and the Abbey Grounds. We started off in the actual park bit I think. By that I mean there was a band stand, benches, a skating park off to the side and you could also see a play park in the distance. My mam and Geoff sat for a minute whilst I tried to take pictures of my converse amongst the daisies (as you do.)

We moved off and you could see the Abbey in the distance through the trees. Even the trees at this place were glorious. Mixtures of pink blossom and deep red leaved ones. It was like a few different seasons mixed together in one spot.

We passed little streams, castle style walls. Then we came across the bowling greens. The sun was out and it was a glorious day anyways. The added surroundings were a bonus. You could see people occupying the benches at the side. It looks like it’s the popular spot for lunch breaks and things. How amazing it would be to sit in a nice garden instead of a bland staff room.

There were grand looking buildings with flowers growing up their sides. The whole place was absolutely gorgeous. I could have spent a full day just slowly walking around and taking it all in. The neat flower displays, the overhanging branches, there was just something royal and perfect about it all.

There was a pretty little sensory garden part too. Honestly it was actually amazing. Not just a park, but different well thought out garden spaces, all with their own unique touches to them. I'm a bit of a nature freak anyways so this just ticked all of the boxes for me.

The only thing that could have made this better was if we had brought a picnic, maybe a book and sat and chilled for a good few hours just enjoying the sunshine and being surrounded by such beautiful trees and flowers.

I'd definitely go pack to Hexham parks, its the kind of place that I bet looks good even in the winter covered in frost.

Have any of you been to Hexham Parks?

Yesterday a few of us were off so we decided to take a little trip to Hexham. Poppy my pooch was at doggy day care (it’s a thing.) So myself, my mam and her husband-to-be (Geoff) jumped in the car and headed over.

I’ve never been to Hexham town before. I think I’ve been over once for a car boot sale, but never to the actual town to look at the actual shops and sights and what not.

As soon as we were out of the car I had my phone out snapping away. (I mean at this point, would you expect anything else.) I like quaint looking streets and a nice looking doorway. I go mad for a pretty coloured door. (I’m weird I know.)

Everyone was hungry so we hunted around for a little café to get some grub. We went passed so many cute looking places. I’ve made a note of them so that I know where to go when we go back. We ended up going to a little place that I wouldn’t have picked myself, but when you're with other people sometimes they get to decide. I mean its only fair right? I just got a tuna roll. Not the nice bit of cake I imagined having but never mind.

After that we had a look around all of the different charity shops. My mam’s going on holiday soon and has nearly got a full wardrobe together from charity shops. I find them boring. Not because they are charity shops (how many times can I say charity shops in one sentence) no, just because I’m not a big massive shopping fan to start with. I went in with them though and I had a look at the crockery. I’d love to come across a vintage tea set or a lovely teapot or jug.

After a while though I was uninspired, where were the sights? I mean I couldn’t write a post showing just the fronts of different charity shops.

We walked some more and I spotted a church. As we got closer we found out it was an Abbey. It was free to go in so we thought we’d have a little look around. There was a man going in at the same time. He worked there and he was very welcoming and friendly.

Hexham Abbey is a place of Christian worship dedicated to St Andrew. All I know is that's it's amazing. The outside is grand looking and regal. The inside is even better. The high ceilings, the stained glass windows, it was all quite breathtaking. I wasn’t sure if I could take pictures, but I sneaked in a couple. They had an interactive part to it too. You could smell different things and do rub drawings. Remember those where you rubbed a crayon over a raised surface and it brought out a picture. Definitely more for kids, but that never stopped us from having a gander. After all we are all big kids at heart are we not?

There's a cafe at Hexham Abbey too. If we hadn't already eaten I would have liked to have checked it out. At least it's another one I can add to the list.

The Abbey really is gorgeous. It was worth the visit to Hexham just to see that alone. In fact I would have been happy just leaving after looking around it. Where we went onto next was even better though. The Abbey grounds, or Hexham Parks. That's all I'm going to say for now... 

Have any of you been to Hexham or the Abbey?

Know any other great places to visit?