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Published: October 13th 2011
I went on another trip today. As you might be able to guess from the title it was to England and consisted mainly of castles. Our first stop was actually an unofficial stop that was not supposed to be on the tour. We went over to Holy Island. Holy Island is a tidal island. The road over there is only uncovered when the tide is out. We got there just after the shuttle went up to the castle so I ended up walking up there. I didn't go into the castle since it cost money (and there were still 2 castles to come). I did however walk up and look out from above. I got back down to where the bus would take me back at 10:49. The bus was supposed to leave at 10:50, it left at 10:48!! That was annoying so I made the 20 minute walk back to the 'town'. I then went up to the Lindisfarne priory ruins to take a few pictures.
After that we continued on to Bamburgh Castle. It was good I walked around the grounds and then through the rooms. At least the ones on display. Bamburgh and Alnwick are living castles, which
The Flats to Holy Island
He was just sitting there waiting for someone to take his picture!means, people live in them. Our guide was explaining that these dukes who inherit the land and wealth have to pay taxes on it and a law that was introduced was that they could instead open up their castle to the public, which is why you can visit many of these castles now.
I have been to Alnwick, the Castle where scenes from the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed. Although I thought that there was a main entrance with a staircase that split and curved down both sides of the room and there was a big table in the middle of the room. Either I am thinking of a different place, they renovated and removed it or I just couldn't find it. It was probably the first choice. I did not have time to explore the gardens at Alnwick (I also didn't want to spend an extra 7 pounds, since there was not enough time). I did have a quick walk to town and went to the largest secondhand bookstore in Britan!! They converted the old railway station into the bookstore. We also saw the Wallace monument, just as it was getting dark, before making our way back
The Flats to Holy Island
The ruins of the priory on Holy Island. to Edinburgh. A long but satisfying day.
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Dad
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Robin on the way to the Castles
Hi Maryanne, Nice to see your blog again. Sounds (and looks like) you had an interesting trip. The first bird in your photoset is an English Robin - the Robin redbreast of children's nursery rhymes. I'm so jealous. Now you have a bird on your lifelist that I haven't seen yet. Maybe we'll see on in Paris on our way to a castle :-)