Friday 3 June 2022
Today was spent in Alnwick, after breakfast we walked to Alnwick Castle, it was only just behind our hotel.
We didn’t bother with the broom stick flying lessons as we didn’t see anyone else actually manage to take off, but we did look round the state rooms which were all very impressive, especially as the owners, the Percy family live there for half the year. As well as the state rooms there are museums housed in some of the towers.
After lunch we had a guided tour of Alnwick Gardens which is also owned by the Percy’s but is overseen by Mrs Percy, Duchess of Northumberland. The centre piece of the garden is the water cascade with its multiple fountains and jets.
There is also of course the very famous poison garden which houses some of the worlds most poisonous plants, not a place to rub leaves and sniff. We followed this with a short wander round town before heading off for dinner.
I must mention the Dining Room in the White Swan. It is completely wood panelled with all the wood coming from the cruise liner, The Olympic as did the front revolving door and the main stair banister.
Saturday 4 June 2022
An early start with the coach leaving for Bamburgh Castle at 8-15am so that we could arrive at Bamburgh before the castle opened to the public. This meant that we would have a guided tour while the castle was empty.
Bamburgh Castle is owned by the Armstrong Family well known for engineering including the Armstrong Siddeley car, Large field guns, hydraulic power systems including Tower Bridge. After our visit we carried on along the coast to Seahouses for lunch.
After lunch we went North again to visit Lindisfarne or Holy Island, To get to the island you have to cross a causeway that gets covered by the sea for 4 hours twice a day, they do have a notice by the carpark so you know when you need to leave as the time is different every day. I understand that there are a number of cars every year who don’t quite make it.
One of the things on the island is Mead tasting, a product that use to be made by the monks on the island before the Abbey was ruined. As this was included in the trip we all had a sip of mead, which doesn’t come from bees kept on the island. I am not sure why it was served by a Viking? but it wasn’t to my taste.
The Abbey although all in ruins was much better than Whitby, you could get a feel for what the place was like. There is also a church right beside the Abbey that is still in use.
On the headland is a lookout post which has been restored, this gives a very good view over the ruins and the church. I must say I found the island a very enjoyable place to be. Below is the view looking back across the sands to the mainland. This was probably low water with the tide out.
We returned to the coach in good time to clear the causeway before the tide came back in and it all disappeared under the waves. It was just as well we met in good time as our tour guide had to go and find 2 of our party who had not come back on time. Out of the four coaches there, we were the last away.
Back in Alnwick we had a bit of time before dinner so we visited The famous book shop, Book Barter I have seen this on TV and it is housed in the old disused Alnwick Railway station and even has 3 model trains running round above the book shelves. The place is huge
We had a final walk around the town, we were staying at the White Swan but just along the road was the Black Swan, a smaller establishment but with an interesting history.
This was our last night, Sunday morning and the coach was there to take us to Alnmouth Station, to catch the train back to York where our holiday ended. As we had open return rail tickets from Harrogate to Lowestoft we stayed on the train all the way to Peterborough, to say it was packed was an understatement. We had seats booked from Alnmouth to York but no further, however there were two seats in the carriage reserved from Edinburgh to London which were empty, so we moved into them before the train reached the next station. At Peterborough we caught the train to Norwich and then the train from Norwich to Lowestoft getting home at about 5pm.
Below is a map showing our travels, clicking it takes you to Google Maps where it can be seen in more detail.
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