Traveling in Northumbria to discover Newcastle , Durham and the famous Hadrian wall .

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 surrounding of Newcastle and decided to visit the beautiful Durham cathedral built by the Normans and now an Unesco site .

It is easy traveling 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 nice town with an interesting cathedral .

It is about 40 minutes by train and the ticket costs around £15 .

Once arrived at Hexham , you wait for the bus AD122 just outside the station, doing a circular tour among the most important archeological sites of the area.

Check properly the timetable because in Spring and Summer there is a bus every hour but in winter can be less frequent.

You can choice to walk along the wall or paid a ticket to visit the roman ruins.

I took the bus to arrive to Housesteads Roman fort , about 40 minutes from Hexham.

You can see in this site how the people working for the roman colonies were living and enjoy the spectacular views of the rugged landscape .

Do not forget to wear several layers because in a second can be summer and in a second winter ! Four seasons in a day ! And lots of wind around .

Another site i suggest to visit is Chesters Roman fort and Cord bridge roman town.

You can buy a day ticket with AD122 bus for £10 or for more days spending a bit more…it depends how you want to plan your visit and use this bus.

The area is perfect also for an 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 to book 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 a misleading behaviour to get money easily from me !

Thank you for reading.