A Week in Northumberland - A Jewel in The North

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Our flight from Shannon, in Ireland, was only very short but on reaching the hotel at Leith in Edinburgh I was pleased to find a fairground had been set up next door and Rob and the kids went to investigate while I enjoyed some down time.

We spent the next morning visiting Edinburgh. We caught the bus and from the front seats upstairs we had a lovely view. Along the way the kids were fascinated to hear that the mountain at the edge of the city, Arthurs Seat, is actually an extinct volcano. Every hill we seen since we now are asked by Julian “is that a volcano or are people buried underneath”, as we have seen a number of barrow burial sites in our travels closer to “home” near Bournemouth.

We hopped off the bus at the statue of Grey Friar’s Bobby and walked up to the Royal Mile and with a Piper busking on the roadside we entered Edinburgh Castle the way you should, to the sound of bagpipes.

We hadn't planned to visit the castle as the kids had voted against it, until of course we were there and they just had to visit and it was too late for us to book online. And so for the first time on our journey we were faced by a very, very long queue. We finally went in after a half an hour wait, cheered up by half price entry due to our English Heritage Membership.

At the castle we watch a demonstration by a musketeer from the civil war period, a fiercely patriotic lowlander. He was incredibly funny and informative but the English had best watch out. His musket was loud even after he had warned us to cover our "lugs". When we heard the one o'clock cannon it was further away and so didn't make us jump quite so much.

We didn't explore much of the castle, the kids really have seen so many now, but St Margaret's Chapel from the 12th Century was very beautiful and the kids liked the old dungeons. Edinburgh castle is a must see for those interested in military history.

After a very quick visit we headed to the new town to find a vegetarian restaurant we had read about, Henderson's. We all enjoyed the delicious healthy food, and I even tried a vegetarian haggis, and it was delicious. But it was time for our drive to our next destination, Northumberland.

 Our base for the next week was a perfect choice for a relaxed family holiday.  We, like the hoards of day visitors to Alnwick, chose the town as it was used to film many of the outdoor scenes in the Harry Potter films. But unlike the day trippers who, according to locals, visit the castle and leave again without so much as visiting the town, we decided to spend a week here following some good advice from the slow travel community.

Northumberland does not appear on most tourists "to do" list, but it absolutely should. Alnwick gave us a true home base, somewhere to relax, wander the streets, visit a park, sleep late, read and play games. In short it was a fabulous place to recharge the batteries.

On our first day we stayed in our pyjamas until after lunch and only decided to get dressed and go out because it was a choice of going out or starving and the kids were keen to visit a local playground. They had spent the morning putting on shows for us using the well stocked dress up box at our apartment. Having an apartment is definitely the best choice for family holidays and is often much cheaper than hotel rooms. 

First stop was a great little café a couple of doors away from our apartment in the castle quarter. The food here in the north is much cheaper than down south and we enjoyed generous portions of healthy food, by ignoring the kids menu of course.

What was left of the afternoon was divided between a local playground and a brilliant second hand bookshop. Borders Books, found in the old train station building , started out as a model train shop. When the owner met a lady friend she introduced books as a sideline for the business, which soon took over completely. All that remains of the model train business is a track that runs above your heads on the shelves holding thousands of books. We enjoyed reading in the kids book room and would have come back again for a cuppa in the tea rooms but there is never enough time for everything.

The next day was spent at Alnwick Gardens, a project of the Duchess of Northumberland who still resides with her husband the Duke, a member of the Percy family who have owned Alnwick Castle for over seven hundred years. It is a lovely place to spend a day. During school holidays activities are put on for the kids, so apart from the usual trail (this time an Easter trail with chocolate bunnies as a prize) the kids were also able to take part in craft activities which they enjoyed.

There seems to be a big focus on children at the gardens, with ride on toys and hoppers on the grass to play with, a labyrinth, a serpent garden filled with fascinating water features and a big grassed area to play on. The poison garden was very interesting, I never knew so many things in our backyards could kill you. Or perhaps it's only in British backyards and our Australian gardens could be safer, if you choose to ignore our snakes and spiders.

Outside the main part of the gardens is a wonderful tree house we enjoyed exploring but choose not to visit for lunch as it appeared a little pricey. Perhaps we should have splurged here as our cafeteria lunch at the gardens was fairly average.

We had chosen a combined entry ticket with the castle, which allowed unlimited entries to the castle for twelve months. So we decided to see the inside of the castle as the afternoon was growing cooler. Alnwick Castle is the only privately owned castle we have visited and the difference was noticeable. Rather than the usual museum that most great houses appear, Alnwick has all the splendour with family photos, bean bags and big screen TV's thrown in. One of the state rooms we visited, the library, was the most attractive rooms I have ever seen. The walls are lined with a vast collection of priceless books, but there is also a table soccer game and fluffy bean bags showing the room is regularly used by the family who are in residence when the house is closed from November until April. Sadly no photos allowed so I can't show you this one.

One day we explored down as far as Hadrian's Wall at Housesteds  Fort, a little over an hour away. On the way we took a pit stop at Cragside, a National Trust property that appeared en route at an opportune moment, which turned out to be a great place for a visit that lasted a couple of hours.

Rather than visiting the Victorian House we stuck with the adventure playground, had a picnic lunch on the lake and got wonderfully lost in the labyrinth.

The labyrinth, rather than the usual man made structure, was cut out of the wilderness and filled with timber sculptures reminiscent of Narnia or Middle Earth. The kids loved it and I grew concerned we would never make it to Hadrian's Wall so it was time to go. Only problem was finding our way out again but eventually we did and we were on the road again.

The road took us past Rothbury and through a number of lovely villages. The scenery was mainly pastoral with sheep everywhere. The sheep are different from those at home with longer coarser looking wool, and we sang baa baa black sheep many a time along the way.

Emma doesn't feel the best on long, winding, hilly car journeys, something we don't have at home, so she slept the last part of our journey and missed the first glimpses we had of Hadrian's Wall. We woke her up at Housesteds and while she complained at first about being made to get out of the car, but she told me as we were coming back to the car that she really loved it. I must admit I did indulge in a little bit of "see mum knows best".

We walked across paddocks filled with sheep, who looked about ready to birth their lambs. On the way we took a look in the little museum that gave us information on the Roman occupation of England, mainly relating to how and why Hadrian's Wall was built. There were also a number of interesting artefacts. The kids as usual dressed up and this time fought mock battles against each other and other kids that came along.

 Then we tramped up the hill to climb on the Wall and look through the remains of the fort. There were also wonderful hills for rolling down and on a distant hill we could hear a piper. We couldn't believe our ears but zooming in with the camera we could just see the piper. It was something to remember.

 Another day we decided to travel the scenic coastal drive up as far as the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. The passing scenery was spectacular and the everyone kept laughing at my attempts to take photos. Every time I attempted to take a photo, what I had seen would be quickly replaced by a hedge or a tree that would magically appear on the screen.

 

We stopped along the way in Bamburgh for incredibly good sausage rolls for breakfast and a quick view of Bamburgh Castle. Frankly we are pretty castled out and didn't even think about a visit though it looked more than spectacular.

We were conscious of the fact that Lindisfarne is only accessible depending on the tides. It is always important when travelling with kids to not create false expectations, but for the life of me I thought that you had to walk across the causeway to the island. I blame Tony Robinson. I'm sure my preconception of Lindisfarne is heavily influenced through his Walk Through History, we could even see the posts he followed when he walked across. In any case I had grumpy disappointed kids who wanted to walk but soon discovered that it was such a long way that if we had walked we would have ended up stranded or very very wet.

 We had limited time on Lindisfarne but time enough to enjoy the museum and visit the Abbey ruins. We enjoyed a lovely picnic on the grass in the sunshine within the Abbey with views of Lindisfarne castle. It was lovely and peaceful with not too many other visitors to spoil the tranquillity. Love the serenity darl!

 Of course all good things must come to an end and the arrival of other kids who also liked to roll down hills meant our quiet lunch soon turned into noisy fun. Before we knew it we had to get going to the car before the tide came back in.

 On the way back we stopped for some time at the beach at Bamburgh. It was only about eleven degrees (Celsius) but the beach was packed with people, you could tell it was school holiday time. There were fabulous sand hills for the kids to race up and slide down. Unfortunately we were ill-equipped and we really needed a huge piece of cardboard or a toboggan.

 Emma made friends with a girl from Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. When Julian came over to where we were sunbathing (wearing heavy winter coats and thermal everything) we asked him if he knew where Emma's friend was from. He told us "far, far away and  they speak a different language", though Emma apparently didn't even notice her very strong Scottish accent.

Emma and Rob went to investigate rock pools but Julian preferred to make sandcastles and we all enjoyed our afternoon. We eventually convinced the kids it was time to leave with promises of afternoon tea at the tea room in Alnmouth, always a good way to get the kids moving.

Alnmouth

With school holidays in full swing when we next visited Alnwick Castle we were able to join in with a number of school holiday activities. The kids enjoyed making magic wands and throwing bean bags at Rob in the stocks, with Emma choosing to dress up first of course.

Alnwick definitely play up their connection with the Harry Potter movies. While we were there we took part in broomstick training which was hilarious. We were instructed to "fly" across the field with the instruction to choose a sounds to make as you fly, such as brrrrrmmm or putputput etc. Everyone raced across making silly noises while Rob pranced slowly across singing 'du dudu du du du dudu du" from the introduction to "Singing in the Rain" and had everyone in stitches.

We were then taught the secret of how to really fly on a broomstick and we picked it up pretty well.

 We really enjoyed a show put on by a Hagrid and a Harry Potter impersonators, which was really terrific and even Julian, who hasn't seen the movie thought it was great fun.

 We could have spent much longer in Alnwick but all too quickly our time ran out and we needed to head for London. We needed to drive to York and catch the train down. We were all really looking forward to staying with our friends Rog and Jules in London again. En route to York we turned off for a quick drive through Durham and see the cathedral.

A word to the wise, if you set your TomTom to go somewhere make sure you pay close attention to where it is sending you and what the signs are saying rather than blindly following the verbal instructions. It appears that when you drive through Durham, right up to the cathedral (where we were chased away by a guard), you are required to get out and pay a toll inside an office somewhere. Well we didn't and I'm sure any minute we are going to get a fine sent to us via Hertz who are bound to bump it up a little. 

At least we were able to take a brief peak at Durham which looked like a place well worth returning to one day , and as it is so close to Alnwick in retrospect we should have had a proper visit when we were there. Alnwick really is a fantastic place to base yourself, you can reach so many special places easily.

York is a favourite place of mine, I spent three nights here many years ago, and really wanted to visit again. All we managed was to pick up a bite to eat and wander through the Shambles before heading off to catch our train. 

 

Having booked our train tickets in advance I was able to book first class which included a food service and cost very little more than the standard train ticket. The only problem is that the kids are now obsessed about catching first class trains, which I am not sure would ever be as good as this one on East Coast Trains. Food and drinks, even grown up ones, were all included and we had a lovely vegie curry, sandwiches, scones, crisps, and fruit. The service was kind and attentive and even the free internet was pretty good. It was the fastest two hour train trip I have ever experienced. It certainly made the Eurostar we caught the next day look pretty shabby.

We arrived in London and spent the evening in pleasant conversation with our friends. In the morning we indulged in our favourite London activity, feeding squirrels in Hyde Park and then we were off again for our last leg of our three week school holiday, this time in Netherlands and Belgium. 

Pheww that really was a marathon effort and if you have made it to the end, well done you. And now I'm off the gym I hope you all have a lovely day.