Newcastle on Tyne is a favourite city for football followers
We took a trip there last season to see The Famous Magpies play up and coming side Swansea City.
A great city for a weekend, we also did some walking in a seaside town nearby called Tynemouth.
The city boasts a terrific rail link system linking the airport where there are cheap low cost flights for access to Ireland from Cork and Dublin
The chances are that you will get a good flight deal or try a local travel agent to book a hotel
With either Harveys and Strand having great experience in booking football events and getting tickets, for Newcastle you can get tickets on line a few weeks before a game and they really welcome visitors try the famous Strawberry pub before the game or the Irish centre across from the ground at Gallowgate. Afterwards St. James Park is right beside Chinatown, where you can get great Chinese.
In the city lots to do with night life and music venues/
The Cluny art centre has some good bands, Theatre Royal for theatre of top quality.
Watch the stags and hens on the Big Market but down near the river side, you will find the Crown Posada for a nice ale with nice music on an old turntable, the Free Trade is famous for craft beer from around the world not far from the Cluny, for a sophisticated chill venue is the luxury Malmaison hotel, across the Millennium bridge is the Baltic Art Gallery with roof top restaurant with fantastic views, Jury?s have a hotel nearby and also Sage concert venue.
Away from the city centre for a park walk we went to Jesmond near city centre really nice along river stream, better value hotel s here too.
A walk along the itself Tyne is bracing where the river front looks really well.
Perhaps the North Wharf might be a junior version of this some day in the future, with hotels, river walks and places to go and relax.
We took a trip out to Tyne mouth the day after match for some nice sea air. A big city version of Tramore, with old Victorian architecture
Again easy to get to with the metro, a t the station they have a fine market on weekends , lots of odd stuff to buy here, good places to eat along main street and then nice caf? on the beach
We watched a wedding party all come down to the beach for pictures before heading back to the Grand Hotel of Tynemouth. This place must get really busy in summer.
There was a nice beachside restaurant too, where there was also a small bar and ice cream area, reminded one of the prom in Tramore, but we have a better climate and warmer winds. They also had a cool boardwalk area too.
The best part is the cliff walk near the old priory.
You will come across the old medieval priory taken over after the dissolution of monasteries but still a fine pace to watch ships queue up to go up the Tyne.
Look at the old gun batteries form the war
See some old Roman remains too.
The pier has a great marina where sailors were embarking
You will find also a walking and cycling trail that will bring you from the North sea to the Irish sea
A Great North walk trail. Starts in Newcastle and ends near Heysham, or Cumbria depends where you want to finish but it is up to 90 miles.
We noted a few back packers doing it in late April, when weather was fairly good but cold winds are there from the north sea usually.
Just shows the greater potential for county Waterford and the coast for walks when this alternative to the Wild Atlantic gets nailed down in terms of a good marketing slogan.
You can get some great views of the entrance to the Tyne and see some landmarks towards the city.
This is an amazing view and one can think back this river was so critical to the industrial development of England, the Japanese even came here to buy ships and one shipping merchant even built a Japanese style tower to the business building to encourage more business and make them feel at home along the Tyne. This can still be seen today.
In Tramore we will have Japanese gardens can we build a business link as well as the Geordies did in UK.
Today they have Nissan cars being built in Sunderland nearby and fast Hitachi trains being made in nearby university town of Durham.
Some of these large walks can also be done by bike another popular activity today in Britain and Ireland.
