Newcastle
Newcastle Upon Tyneis the ideal destination for a UK city break, situated in the North East of England with about 260,000 inhabitants. The city is close to River Tyne, and the North Sea Coast and is often known as the Toon. It is easily accessible by train air and bus, with a flight to Newcastle from London taking under an hour and the fastest train gets from London Kings Cross in 2 hours 40 minutes. Newcastle has been reinventing itself in recent years due to the collapse of the traditional industries of the North East, Coal Mining and Steel works.
An exciting place to live, work, visit, shop, study and do business in, the transformation is just about complete. The diverse range of people descending on Newcastle come for a variety of reasons including the culture, history, art, music, entertainment and nightlife. The oldest part of Newcastle is the Quayside, which was until the nineteenth century, the commercial hub of all Tyneside. This once run down riverside area is now a must to visit with many modern chic restaurants, bars and nightclubs. The city is ranked 8th as the "party town center worldwide" and the 2nd most social city in Europe.
There are a number of accommodation options to choose from within the vicinity of Newcastle, from top class hotels such as the Hilton, Copthorne and Malmaison to budget hostels.
The river Tyne is spanned in Newcastle by seven bridges, the most well-known is probably the Tyne Bridge built between 1925 and 1928, which was world-wide trailblazing for the Design of bridges. The High level Bridge, which was sketched by Robert Stephenson, the first bridge around the world of its kind as it was a split level bridge with the top course allowing trains to travel across and a road running underneath allowing cars could drive. Cars are not allowed over the bridge any longer due extensive repair works that have been carried out in recent years it was felt that to extend the lfe of the bridge only buses are allowed to drive across. Beside the many bridges and the Quayside area there is still a lot more to see in Newcastle, for example Grey' s Monument, which was built in honors Lord Grey in 1838 and whose statue overlooks the city standing at 41 meters high. St Nicholas Cathedral and many museums is.
