In a nutshell

An excursion dedicated to discovering Newcastle, one of the main cities in England located along the northern bank of the River Tyne. A surprising combination of history and modernity, a city where ancient buildings and monuments alternate with futuristic structures and bridges, which must be visited on foot to fully grasp its dual soul.

Main stops

Newcastle historic city centre: Elegant Victorian buildings, Grey’s monument
Mosley Street, the first in the world to be lit by electricity in 1881
Anglican Cathedral and Newcastle Castle
Historic bridges across the River Tyne
Stop for photos at the Angel of the North, a steel sculpture

The programme

We set off from the port of Tyne and head by coach to the city of Newcastle, located on the northern banks of the River Tyne in the English county of Tyne and Wear in Northumberland not far from the border with Scotland.
The city was founded in Roman times with the name of Pons Aelius as a strategic outpost for Hadrian's Wall. The name changed to the current one around the year 1000, when the new Norman castle was built (new castle). The city then developed during the Industrial Revolution to become an important centre for the extraction of coal as well as a leading hub for shipbuilding and trade with Scandinavia. Nowadays Newcastle is a great University and business city with a busy trading port featuring a shipyard of great relevance for the entire territory.
We start our tour with a walk around the historic city centre, where we admire some elegant Victorian buildings and pass in front of Grey’s Monument, erected in honour of the famous Liberal PM who modernised the British election system is now nowadays probably better known for the tea named after him.
We continue along the famous Mosley Street, the first in the world to be lit by electricity in 1881.
We then reach the impressive Anglican cathedral, built in 1448 in the Gothic style and dedicated to St. Nicholas, and Newcastle Castle, known as Castle Keep and inaugurated around 1168 by Henry II and where the city got its name. The castle has towering walls and huge halls dating back to the most ancient traces of Norman architecture.
We end our walk along the banks of the River Tyne where we can admire some of the city’s historic bridges such as the High Level Bridge and the futuristic Millennium Bridge.
We get back on our coach headed out of the city , where we stop to take a few pictures of the extraordinary Angel of the North, a modern steel sculpture depicting an angel with outstretched wings towering over the surrounding scenery at 20 metres tall.
The time has come to go back to our ship, and we do it driving through the charming countryside surrounding Newcastle and once brimming with coal mines, to which the city owed large part of its development in Modern times.

Good to know