Well, it’s story time again folks. Sometimes the simplest of situations make me think so hard about human nature. This is about my recent trip, how I saved myself money, had a good time, and had an interesting exchange with a taxi driver (coming up in Part 2 – stay tuned. All photos below can be clicked on to get a bigger view.
I was at a three day conference at the Hilton in Newcastle between 1st and 3rd Feb. 
You may start calming down immediately. I did not stay at the Hilton because I think £125/night was a rip-off.
I stayed at the ‘lowly’ and good City Express Hotel – at a cost of £135 for the whole of three nights (31st Jan – 2nd Feb). No they don’t serve breakfast – but not a problem I got that from a little corner shop for £3.50. I was very happy with the size of the room. It had a fridge, microwave, plates, bowls, glasses and cutlery for two. You almost never never get 
microwave in any of the standard rooms at the 5 star hotels.
Parking – £4.00/day just opposite the hotel. Parking in most big hotels like Hilton, you could expect to be over £10.00 per day (from experience). Total taxi fares to and fro we’re £12.50 (over three days).
It was freezing out there – between 0 and – 2 – but I took the walk back to City Express on two days, to get photos. More below.
Above is the view from on of the bridges crossing the river. On the morning of 1st Feb 2012, my taxi would have crossed the lower bridge and made it’s way to Hilton on the extreme right.
Below is the view from a balcony at the Hilton. You can see the concrete bridge to the far left from which I took the shot above.
