Travel Spot: Newcastle, England

I have had the privilege and opportunity to go on some amazing travel adventures over the last several years, and I thought I would share a few things from some of my favourite cities. I will spotlight each city in a post and the challenge is to share my favourites as follows:
1. The Eatery 2. The Touristy 3. The Non-touristy

Here we are at Newcastle, England!

The Touristy: Grey Street
The year I first visited England, Grey Street was voted the most beautiful street in the country. Can you see why? It curves slightly uphill toward the shopping district in Newcastle, and the facades of all the buildings are absolutely beautiful. This area is full of everyday business people and a lot of visitors, too. Many fine retail shops are here, restaurants, and a Waterstone's bookstore (which is where I was heading). The metro stop is near the Earl Grey Monument (the tall, skinny monument you see here commemorating the real person Earl Grey, who invented one of my favourite teas). I took the metro on several occasions. A few times out to the North Sea, which I will have to share another time.

The Non-Touristy: City views from the Castle Keep
It seemed to me that most visitors to Newcastle go to the shopping district, leaving the Castle Keep pretty quiet. I visited this castle built in 1168 and almost had the place to myself, which was a little creepy inside, almost alone, I will say. But the views up here were beautiful. The Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas dates from the end of the 12th century, but was damaged by fire and repaired in the 13th century. It is beautiful inside and out. Looking across the River Tyne into Gateshead, the Sage is the bean shaped mirrored building. It's the modern convention hall where my brother Jason was working all those days we were there (both years we were there). He was stuck inside while I got to wander around the city and beyond....

The Eatery: Oddly, I do not have any photographic evidence of anything I ate in Newcastle, so I am going to cheat here, by showing some items I bought while exploring one day. Back at the hotel I set it out on the table. Book purchases, Scottish water, some coffee or hot chocolate, and it looks like a Gregg's bag from a hot meat pastry lunch (those were so good. I wish we had those here). You can see what I spend my money on. Books!

To visit San Francisco, click here.
To visit London, click here.
To visit Oxford, click here.
To visit Providence, click here.