Newcastle-on-tyne

The English equivalent of the Czech expression is taking coals to newcastle. the place referred to is Newcastle-on-Tyne, the biggest city, and the heart, of England`s north-East. Any modern visitor going there would find it hard to understand why, though. Coal mining, like the region`s other traditional industries of engineering and shipbuilding, now belongs firmly to history. The British mining industry, which employed a million people in 1920, now has about 15,000 workers, a figure that continues to fall.
Many other places, which were wholly dependent on mining in the past, have more or less died. Newcastle, though, hasn`t. If you go there expecting a run-down post-industrial wasteland you will be disappointed. The surprises begin before you even reach the city itself. Motorists are welcomed by the statue known as. “The Angel of the North”, 20 metres high and made of 200 tons of local steel, while if you arrive by train you are treated to a fine view of the city` famous bridges over the River Tyne.
The city centre is another surprise. While it si true that some of England`s industrial cities are no great beauty spots, this is not true main thoroughfare, is a glorious street of honey-coloured Georgian buildings. And the nearby Bigg Market is the centre of Newcastle` amazing nightlife, which is famous throughout Britain. Newcastle was voted one of the whole world`s Top Ten party cities not so long ago and the sight of the Bigg market on a Saturday night is something that nobody who has seen it will ever forget. Tho local dialect, Geordie (the people are known as Geordies too), is also unforgettable, mostly because it is so totally different from any other English you will ever hear anywhere.
Down by the river many former industrial buildings are now enjoying new lives as cafes, bars, and restaurants, as galleries and museums, and as shops - Newcastle is a well-known shopping centre - and here you can also find the newest marvel of the region, an elegant bridge known as ” the Blinking Eye” because when it opens to let a ship through it looks like a huge eye. Just another in the long list of fascinating things about the North-East, which is a part of Britain that more people should go to; I`ve never met anyone who came back saying they hadn`t liked it.