I had my first holiday in Newcastle last September after ten years living in uk.
I come from Italy but I have always lived in the south east or south west of the island discovering London , Bristol ,Bath , Somerset , Wiltshire , North Devon and Cornwall and all the surrounding areas thanks to my hikings.
But this year , because of this lockdown and travel restrictions i have decided to give a look at the north of England .
I decided to travel by coach from Bristol with National Express and Megabus
Traveling by train in England can be vey expensive due to the bad organisation wanted by the Tories .
A Return travel by train from Bristol to Newcastle can cost up to £250 !
Absolutely expensive and ridiculous.
So i prefer traveling by airplane or coach .
During my long travel towards the north i stopped in Leeds a large city in Yorkshire full of universities but poor of interesting history .
After a night in a central hotel i arrived in Newcastle in less than three hours welcome by the large sculpture called the Angel of the north .
Newcastle is a very elegant city , with history, cultural events , night life , two universities and beautiful people .In some moments i forgot to be in England and believed to be in Stockholm.
I enjoyed every single day of my holiday discovering the Norman and haunted castle ,
The seven bridges on the river Tyne ,
The cathedral,
The art centre called Baltic
and the elegant art galleries in the city centre .
But i wanted to discover also the surroundings of Newcastle and decided to visit the beautiful Durham cathedral built by the Normans and now a Unesco site.
It is easy travelling around Northumbria by train and the costs are quite cheap .
Durham is just 15 minutes by train and a return ticket is just £8.
But being an Italian i wanted to visit the famous Hadrian wall called in Italian “Il muro di Adriano”
built to protect the wild north-west frontier of the Roman empire .
You can travel from Newcastle by train to Hexham, a nice town with an interesting cathedral.
It is about 40 minutes by train and the ticket costs around £15 .
Once you arrive at Hexham, you wait for the bus AD122 just outside the station, doing a circular tour among the most important archaeological sites of the area.
Check properly the timetable because in Spring and Summer there is a bus every hour but in winter it can be less frequent.
You can choose to walk along the wall or pay a ticket to visit the roman ruins.
I took the bus to arrive at Housesteads Roman fort, about 40 minutes from Hexham.
You can see on this site how the people working for the roman colonies were living and enjoying the spectacular views of the rugged landscape.
Do not forget to wear several layers because in a second it can be summer and in a second winter ! Four seasons in a day ! And lots of wind around .
Another site i suggest visiting is Chesters Roman fort and Cord bridge roman town.
You can buy a day ticket with the AD122 bus for £10 or for more days, spending a bit more…it depends on how you want to plan your visit and use this bus.
The area is perfect also for hiking of a day or more days .
You must understand and speak English if you wish to travel alone in this region otherwise i suggest booking a guided tour that can be found easily online
Do not book your travel through booking.com
I found an unpleasant surprise in Newcastle .
I paid £156 for 4 nights to sleep in the Room inn hotel
But booking.com charged me £130 for taxes – practically misleading behaviour to get money easily from me!
Thank you for reading.