On our holiday to Scarborough earlier this year we stopped by for a look at the North Bay Railway.
Scalby Mills station
Unfortunately it was far too wet and late to have a ride when we arrived. And then on the Sunday we left it was far too nice a day to spend sitting on a train. Typical.
A set of carriages at Peasholm Station
The North Bay Railway runs from Peasholm Park to Scalby Mills - and there are miniature golf courses at both ends of the line!
Peasholm Station
A brown tourist sign at the bottom of the hill to Scalby Mills Station
A view of the North Bay from Scalby Mills Station
The carriages awaiting an engine at Peasholm Station
We do enjoy visiting miniature railways and have been to a fair few on our travels over the years.
Playing the Landmark Golf course at Wolsingham Sports Hall in County Durham.
On the way up to Newcastle upon Tyne last Friday we called in to Wolsingham Sports Hall to play the pop-up Landmark Golf course.
The course had been set up for the week and was proving popular. Some groups were finishing their rounds as we arrived and so we had a clear run at the layout.
Emily playing hole 8
We received a nice welcome at the leisure centre and from the chap at Landmark Golf. After Ian from the course had explained the rules and tee-off points we set off on our trip around the world in 9-holes.
The tee on hole 1
It's brilliant when a course has a wow factor and the Landmark Golf course certainly did with the Statue of Liberty. In fact each of the holes had something interesting about them.
We've played a number of fibreglass courses on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour and this was certainly one of, if not, the best so far. We really liked the corner pieces that allowed for rebound skill shots to be played.
Back in London!
In our match-up I managed to secure the win with a round of 18 to Emily's 22.
Standing tall after my victory
We've been following Landmark Golf on social media for a while and it was nice we were able to time the trip to Newcastle with one of the Landmark Golf events.
Hole 7 - the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty
Hole 8 - some large tools!
Hole 9 - the Taj Mahal
It was really nice to see a portable minigolf course set-up indoors at a sports hall. As we were leaving another couple of groups came in to play. It'd be brilliant if more leisure centres and sports halls had pop-up events like the one in Wolsingham.
Following its busy stint at Wolsingham Sports Hall the course moved up to Newcastle for a run at a hotel.
Emily playing hole 2
Speaking with Ian from Landmark Golf he told us that they create a number of different configurations with the course and obstacles and so the layout can be different each time. They've also got one of the 'letters' Crazy Golf courses which spells CRAZY GOLF when set-up. Hopefully we'll get to have another game of Landmark Golf in the future.
Each year there are two annual 'days' to celebrate the game. The first of the year is National Miniature Golf Day which is on the second Saturday in May - you'll next be able to celebrate that on Saturday 9th May 2020.
It's always brilliant to see different courses around the world.
Hopefully we'll get to play the course on a visit to Oregon in the future. Laura lives in Portland and tells me that the city is full of dedicated gluten free places!
You can find the Wizard of Oz themed Mini Golf course at Troxel’s Rock Garden at Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
The French street artist known as Invader has invaded London, Manchester and Newcastle. On our trip to the World Transplant Games in Newcastle last weekend we were able to add to our tally of Invaders spotted.
Clockwise from top left - NCL_21, NCL_19, NCL_20, NCL_14, NCL_25, NCL_05 and NCL_06
There were originally 25 Space Invaders in Newcastle and Gateshead. Made during the INVASION of Newcastle in 2006. One has since been destroyed. We've found the remaining 24, with seven of these 'Newcastle Invaders' over the border in Gateshead.
NCL_05
NCL_06
NCL_14
NCL_19
NCL_20
NCL_21
NCL_25
You can find them at Gateshead Interchange, on the approach to the Sage Gateshead and at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
To date I've managed to find 120 Invaders, worth 3040 points on the Flash Invaders app. At the time of writing I'm ranked 13640 in the ever-changing world rankings. Emily is 34485. The person at the top of the leader-board has found 2544 of them!
A look at the Miniature Railway and Petanque Club at Greenhead Park in Huddersfield.
Earlier this summer we had a nice day out in Huddersfield. While driving home we saw a sign for the petanque club at the town's Greenhead Park so stopped for a look.
We enjoy a game of petanque and the Huddersfield Petanque Club has one of the nicest venues we've ever seen
When we parked up we also saw there was a miniature railway. A double-hit for two of our interests.
Since we moved up to the North West we've found quite a few miniature railways. There are three in Stockport borough itself!
