In my last blog entry, I was just about to leave Newcastle, after four full days of wonderful explorations around there. I was bound on the Wednesday morning for my next destination: the North York Moors National Park. I was excited.
I planned to do my journey there in two stages, to be able to stop off in Middlesbrough along the way, and explore this little known northern industrial city for a couple of hours, before taking another train deep into the North York Moors on the horizon. My first train thus took me from Newcastle 40 miles to the to the city of Middlesbrough. I was hoping upon arrival at the train station to find a facility somewhere, to not only leave my backpack which was getting heavier with souvenirs, but also my Saxon sword replica, and its rather unwieldy cardboard box. The lady in the information office looked at me surprised though, as if she had never been asked that question before, and stated that there hadnt been anything like that in the station for years. I quickly gathered that tourists in the town were few and far between!
me was in fact perfect, as I believe I mentioned, I love exploring places, and Middlesbrough seemed certainly this. Middlesbrough is a fairly sizeable city of 140,000 inhabitants, though if one includes its neighbours Hartlepool and Redcar amongst others, the metropolitan area contains nearly 400,000 people. Middlesbrough, like Newcastle, is the centre of its own metropolitan county area – whilst Newcastles is often known as Tyneside, or Tyne and Wear, Middlesbroughs often goes by the name of Teesside, or Cleveland. Together they are the base of the local independent television channel of Tyne Tees, which made an impression in my childhood memory for some reason. It was certainly a place I had heard much about, so I was eager to explore.
A quick Google search prior to my arrival revealed that along with Newcastle and Sunderland, Middlesbrough is also another city famous mostly for its football team and stadium, so a visit to the Riverside Stadium for me was a must. It is also famous for its quite spectacular, and very unusual, Transporter Bridge, crossing the River Tees. I was quickly learning that cities of the are famous for river bridges and football stadiums. I
thus planned my walk through the city to include both these places of interest, starting with heading 500 metres north out of the train station towards the River Tees.
My first stop was the Transporter Bridge, although unlike the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, and the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland, it didnt carry a road or a rail track, but was rather like a cable car which was pulleyed between two tall towers on either side of the river. It was most unusual, and I often wondered why they simply didnt build a road or rail bridge instead The Transporter Bridge is the citys icon, appearing on city logos throughout town, and was built in 1911. The cable car carries both vehicles and pedestrians, but during my visit it was for some reason closed due to the situation. Its visitors centre, which looked interesting, was also closed, but there was a nice little viewing area just underneath the tower, for really great views of this amazing structure. It was apparently a really construction in its day, as before this, to Middlesbroughs important industrial centre from the north bank of the Tees had to make
do with irregular ferry crossings, in which fights often broke out to gain the last seats, as workers wages were docked if they arrived late. A fellow who took my photo there also told me of how his father used to travel with his grandfather across the bridge on their way to the football at the nearby Riverside Stadium.
