Alnwick - Day 2

---

What is it with English pillows … and showers? Actually, the pillow thing is not just English, it’s European. Everywhere that we have stayed while we have been away the pillows look lofty but, as soon as you put your head on them, they squish down to nothing. Haven’t they heard of memory foam in Europe?! So, after yet another night on a flat pillow I was looking forward to a decent shower this morning. Um, no, that was not to be. In addition to the smallest room award The Plough earns the distinction of offering the absolute WORST SHOWER OF THE HOLIDAY!! Honestly, we could have got wetter being spat on by a butterfly. And, of course, I needed to wash my hair today. Should have done it yesterday!

Breakfast is not included in the room rate, but the price isn’t too outrageous to have breakfast in the dining room at The Plough. We went down and ordered a bowl of fruit to share and then a continental breakfast each consisting of juice/coffee, cereal and toast for £19.50.

After breakfast we headed up the A1 towards Berwick-Upon-Tweed before turning off for Holy Island. It was lucky that breakfast took longer than we anticipated because we thought the causeway was opening at 8.25am this morning. It turns out that when we were looking at the tide times, we were looking at the times for the the 17^th and, of course, today is the 18^th. Fortunately, the opening time was half an hour later this morning, so we arrived in good time for that and we were able to drive straight onto the island.

We parked in the main car park and Bernie was saying that the causeway would close at 1.30pm. You have to be very conscious of the timing because missing the tide means being stuck on the island for another six hours! Still, I was thinking that between 9.00am and 1.30pm seemed a very short window. While Bernie was buying our parking ticket, I read the sign and had to point out to Bernie that 1530 is 3.30pm NOT 1.30pm!! Plenty of time. Maybe displaying the times using the 24-hour clock format is why people get stranded??? And some don’t get stranded on the island they get stranded mid-crossing trying to race the incoming tide and then they have to climb into the refuge tower and watch their car float away while they wait to be rescued.

We made our way to the Lindisfarne Priory English Heritage site. We have been thinking about whether to buy a 14-Day Visitor Pass or an annual membership. We are planning on being back over in the first half of next year so an annual pass could be the best deal? We bit the bullet and said we wanted to sign up for an annual membership. Groan, that’s half an hour of our lives we’ll never get back BUT we now have our temporary membership card and just have to flash that at any other English Heritage sites we visit during the coming week.

We had a quick look through the museum that is attached to the ticket office/shop before making our way out to the priory ruins … in the rain and, where are our umbrellas? In the car! Fortunately, we had had the foresight to put our raincoats on so, not a complete disaster. In fact, we managed to snaffle a couple of complimentary EH umbrellas inside the priory that we were able to make use of while we made our way around the ruins.

After the priory ruins, we popped into St Mary’s Parish Church so that Bernie could change his camera lens in the dry. The rain is not so bad for us, at least it wasn’t freezing cold with it, but it’s such a nuisance trying to keep the cameras from getting too wet.

Despite the weather we started walking out towards Lindisfarne Castle to take some photos of it perched upon its rocky outcrop at the eastern end of the island. When we visited in 2007, we visited the castle, so we didn’t plan to go in again, just to take some photos of the outside. Of course, we were visiting when the tide was out … again! As we looked at all the boats wallowing on their keels on the sand, we started to recall that last time we said to ourselves … if we come again, we should cross just before the causeway closes for the high tide so that the boats are bobbing on the water … Tcht!

With other places to visit – and having only paid for parking until 1.00pm – we walked back to the car. We thought about buying something for lunch before leaving the island but decided that we would wait until we were back on the mainland. Bernie programmed the SatNav for Norham Castle high is another ruin that is also administered by English Heritage. Returning to the A1 we headed north until we turned off onto the A698.

When we reached the B6470 we turned off towards Norham Castle. Ha, no money saved at this EH site as it is free to enter. In its heyday Norham Castle was a stronghold overlooking the River Tweed on the border between England and Scotland. The castle was well maintained until the middle of the 16^th-century as hostilities between England and Scotland continued. After the region became more peaceful late in the 16^th-century the garrison was withdrawn and the castle was allowed to fall into disrepair.

We continued into Norham, now looking for a late lunch. We settled on the pub, The Masons Arms. While we waited for our toasted sandwiches, Bernie sampled the beer on tap, Bonkers Conkers! It was a good choice for lunch, a really traditional country pub that made very good toasties. Well, well, well, it’s another toilet story and well, this one’s about a well … in the ladies toilet! I walked in to use the ladies to find that part of the floor was glass. Upon venturing to the edge, I found I was looking into an old well with bones (possibly fake?) in the bottom of it. That’s a bit unusual.

From Norham we made our way through Ford and Etal making quick stops at the village of Etal and the Heatherslaw Mill before visiting Lady Waterford Hall in Ford. The Marchioness of Waterford, Louisa-Anne, commissioned the hall as a school for the local children in 1860. She then spent 21 years completing a series of watercolour murals around the hall. Surely one of the most highly decorated schools in England?

With the weather having improved greatly on this morning we headed out to the coast at Bamburgh. Once again, we were re-tracing our steps of 2007. We toured the interior of Bamburgh Castle then so didn’t feel the need to visit today but wanted to photograph it again from the outside. The sun was shining this afternoon and getting lower in the sky, so we managed to take some great photos of the castle from the beach.

Continuing down the coast we stopped by the roadside to take photos looking out to the Farne Islands and then in Seahouses where we took a stroll out along the pier. It might have been sunny this afternoon, which was welcome after this morning’s rain BUT, it was very, very windy! After a bit of a navigational hiccup after Beadnell (my fault not Syri’s!) we found our way to Embleton Beach.

I had read somewhere that the view across Embleton Bay to the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle was worth the effort. And effort it was with no signposts to the beach! I said if we headed for the golf course, I thought we would be able to access the beach. Phew, I got that right and we were able to take some photos over the water towards the ruins. Last time we walked part way to the castle from the village of Craster so this time we were photographing it from the north rather than the south.

After a very full day of sightseeing, it was time to drive back to Alnwick and think about what to do for dinner. Bernie was keen on trying The Market Tavern. As we walked into town, we checked the window of Di Sopra thinking we might do Italian tomorrow night. Hmmn, not at Di Sopra we won’t - they are taking a holiday. We continued to The Market Tavern only to be told we would have an hour to wait for a table. Damn, now what?

We walked back outside the bond gate and tried the other Italian restaurant, Caffe Tirreno. They couldn’t fit us in straight away either, but indicated they would be able to seat us in about 15 minutes and suggested we pop next door to The Fleece for a drink while we waited and they would come and collect us from there. Better than their word, they came to collect us much sooner than their quarter hour estimate. Our meal was delicious. We shared a bruschetta and then both had one of their specials, the goat’s cheese and roasted pepper ravioli with a creamy pesto sauce. I sat looking at the desserts blackboard through the meal and decided that I really did have to have tiramisu for dessert. I needed dessert because we missed gelato o’clock today, ha, ha.



Steps: 18,219 (12.55 kms)

---