A Day Full of Surprises

Does this look remotely familiar to you Harry Potter fans?

I wouldn't know, because I am not a Harry Potter fan, but this is Alnwick castle and it was apparently featured as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films.  It is located on the edge of the town, Alnwick (pronounced Ann-ick.....I'd love to know what happened to the "l" or the "w").

But it was off limits to visitors this weekend, because the daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, Miss Melissa Percy, whose family resides in the castle, celebrated her nuptials on Saturday.  It was apparently a big celebration with Royalty in attendance, including Prince Harry, and the Princesses Eugenia and Beatrice.  All of this activity just 3 miles from where we were staying!  Fireworks were set off in celebration around 11:30 p.m., and we could hear them but could not quite see them because the roof on the house across the street was just a wee bit too high.

Today was pretty quiet in the town, where we attended Mass, then walked over to get a glimpse of this famous castle.  We did spot this "wedding" party bus dropping someone off at the corner near the entrance. 

 We had known that the castle was closed prior to visiting the town, but I just wanted to have a peek, so that I could say that I saw it.....kind of like Hadrian's wall. 

After a few photos, we headed into town to a place called Barter's books.

This is a HUGE second hand book store that is supposedly the largest of its kind in the UK. As the name implies, one can "barter" by exchanging used books for "new" used books.  There were certainly a lot to choose from, and if books weren't so heavy, I might have been tempted to stock up on  a few.

But, I resisted and we headed out the door with just one purchase:  a fly fishing book that Marty bought, which apparently offers advice on fly-tying from the fish's point of view.  Certainly sounds Scottish to me.

We jumped in the car and  headed to Bamburgh Castle,  the most "northern" stronghold in England, sitting on the coast of the North Sea.

The view of the castle upon approach was amazing.

I couldn't believe the size of it.    No wonder it was such a strong hold for so many centuries.

Off the coast, we could see the island where St. Cuthbert died.

Inside the castle, we were able to walk through countless rooms filled with items dating back many centuries.  You won't be too surprised to hear that there were some very unique items on display, because this castle was "rescued" by none other than Lord Armstrong of Cragside fame.  We had no idea when we decided to visit that there was a connection but we were so glad that we had learned so much about the man yesterday. It explained some of the unique items displayed.

The Daisy vacuum cleaner

A torch holder that looks like an arm sticking out of the wall, next to the fireplace.

Wouldn't that be a great addition to anyone's home?

The tour was great, but the weather turned for the worse, so we headed out on our way to the B&B near the airport as we return home tomorrow.

We decided to take the country roads rather than the main road, and as we were driving along, we spotted a sign for Flodden field.  Well, we both decided that was worth a visit, so Marty turned down a very narrow road, with high grass on either side, and we eventually came to the spot where a memorial stands on a hill in the distance,  in honor of the thousands of men, Scots and Brits, that died in the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

4,000 Brits and 10,000 Scots died on that fateful day, including James IV, King of Scotland.

From the stone memorial,  you can see the church which buried the dead, regardless of their loyalty.

I had just been reading about this battle prior to our trip, and I found it amusing that we could stumble upon something so significant, just by chance, but we had such difficulty finding Hadrian's wall when in search of it yesterday!

We ended up driving a good bit of the way to our hotel in the pouring rain, but it lightened up just before we reached Bridge Inn.

Our room is under the "Inn" sign on the side of the building, overlooking the canal boats in the Union canal.  We were able to enjoy a lovely dinner in the restaurant, and, afterwards, we took a little stroll along the canal where we were joined by a friend.

This place was the perfect place to end the trip, and the best part is that it is only a little over 3 miles to the airport.  

So, for now, gallivanting geismom will be heading home.  I hope you enjoyed our travels.

Until next time.....

Castles, Rhododendrons and the Hunt for Hadrian's Wall

The day began with the tour of a castle, and ended with a wall......sort of.

We're in Northumberland, England, an area that for centuries found itself in the midst of a struggle between Scotland and England.  So, how could we resist checking out one of the oldest castles in Great Britain?  And, it certainly is THE oldest that Marty and I have set foot in.

Warkworth Castle:

In 1124, David I (son of Queen Margaret and Malcolm III), gave this castle to his son, Henry. 

The Keep is an amazing structure, with arched doorways, and extremely thick walls.

Here you can see the windows that would have held stained glass for a chapel in the Keep.

The kitchen was huge, and held two ovens in addition to a bread oven.  You can get an idea of just how large the oven is by seeing Marty standing in one of them. 

The place was filled with all sorts of interesting rooms and cubbies, but this one was probably Marty's favorite.

The view from this castle wasn't bad, either.

The tour was great,  but it was time to travel to our next destination for the day.

We headed out of the town to a place called Cragside.  This is the huge estate that belonged to Lord Armstrong, and it was the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectric power.  This place was amazing.

The house sits on the side of a crag with thousands of rhododendrons on the estate.  Lord Armstrong was a self-proclaimed inventor, and in the 1880's this house had hot and cold running water,  central heat, telephones, a Turkish bath and a hydro elevator for the serving staff to carry food from the kitchen up to the serving rooms...all designed by Lord Armstrong.

And, the most famous of all was the incandescent lights that transformed beautiful vases into lamps that still sit in the house today.

Now, I ask, how is that for clever?  A great use for something that would otherwise just collect dust.  

The house was huge and had some very unique decorating.  Here you see tiles on the hallway walls.

Loved this set of stained glass windows

The kitchen reminded me of the one in Downton Abbey

And this fireplace in the drawing room was really a bit too much.

I could go on and on.....but I won't.  Instead, I want to know just how many of you knew that a man named Thomas Crapper invented the first 1 piece pedestal flushing toilet?

Am I the ONLY one out of the loop on this one?  Marty seemed to think this should be common knowledge.  Really? 

 I'm holding out on my friend, JoAnn, hoping that she's on the same page with me regarding this one.

And, I bet that my friend Rebecca knew this.  Because she always seems to know this kind of stuff.  I'll be interested to hear the feed back on this.

Back to the Armstrongs.  They apparently loved Rhododendrons.......so much so that they planted thousands of them on the estate. 

So, you think I exaggerate?

 We drove along 6 miles of road on the estate, and everywhere we looked, we saw them in bloom.

You can even see them on the edge of the lake

Ok, so you get the point.  We were lucky to have visited Cragside when we did, because next week the rhododendrons will be bloomed out and the magnificence of the grounds will be considerably less.

It was time to head off on our quest to see Hadrian's wall, the main purpose for us venturing south into England.  We both figured that it would be an easy feat.  The wall is clearly marked on the map....running parallel to a little road.

Find the road, and we'd find the wall......right?

I didn't want to see mounds of green.  I expected to see fragments of a wall.  We stopped at an information center, and were told to drive west (the opposite direction of our B&B) and that we'd see it in its full glory.

Well, we drove for quite awhile, and spotted another info center.  Then, we realized that we might never actually view it from the road.  We would need to park the car, pay & display, then pay a fee to walk quite a bit from the road in order to actually get a first hand look at the wall.

The wall that we had seen when we first got on the highway was on a hillside next to a road where there was nowhere to pull off to view it in the fields. It seemed to be "pay and hike" or "forget it."

Well, it was getting late, we'd been driving a lot already, and we had dinner reservations near our B&B which was nearly an hour away.

So, we took this quick shot of Marty at the info center with the wall in the background.

On the way back to the car, Marty convinced me to take his picture  with a lamb in the pasture,

but the lamb got scared and bolted before I could get the shot.  (It was probably the red jacket, don't you think?)

Then Marty got the brilliant idea that I would take  photos of the wall from the car  while he was driving.  Let's just say that a LOT of the photos were rather interesting, but this one wasn't bad.

And, here he was actually able to pull into a drive, when I popped out of the car, took the shot, and jumped back in.

This was NOT the historical experience that I had anticipated.

But Marty seemed OK with just being able to say that he saw Hadrian's Wall.  

And if he's happy, then who am I to argue with that?

33 Years and Counting

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary.  The longest day of the year....and yes, we've surely heard jokes involving the two coinciding.

Does it seem like 33 years?  Nope!  Our anniversary may fall on the longest day of the year, but I'd say that our marriage is far from dragging on.

Never did I think that we'd be in Scotland celebrating the day, but with Marty gone so much of the time in this last year, we decided that it would be great for me to come along on this trip.    

We have ventured out of Scotland into Northern England and we are not far from Hadrian's Wall.  We are in the town of Newton-on-the-Moor, which can claim a pub and a post office, but little more.  It really is a beautiful little English town.

It took a little longer that I anticipated for us to arrive due to an "urgent" call from Marty's boss that involved us sitting on the side of the road for over an hour.  

We stopped for a bathroom break, and I thought I"d have a quick snack while waiting for Marty.  I was enjoying a biscuit, looking at the fabulous view, when I looked up and saw this guy.

I took this photo from inside the car, because there was NO WAY I was going to continue to munch on a biscuit with him nearby after the meat pie story!

We finally made it to our B&B after stopping at the nearby coaching inn and getting directions.  There really are only a few houses in the town, but the owners had been outside working on the lawn, and they were right in front of the sign!

The place is lovely, and we enjoyed a delightful cup of tea while looking over the gardens.

Well, for the record, I enjoyed a cup of tea while looking over the gardens, because Marty was working in the bedroom.

Hey!  Somebody might as well be having some fun......right?

Yvonne was kind enough to take our photo prior to us leaving the Dunedin.

So, here we are.....33 years later.

Not too bad if you ask me.  So, what do you think?

The Sassy Seagull

When we were at the beach early in the month, Marty commented that it was nice to see a non-Scottish Seagull.

I asked him what in the world he was talking about.  After all, a sea gull is a sea gull......right?
Marty insisted that Scottish seagulls have an attitude, unlike American Seagulls.  I, of course, found that to be quite funny.  Now, how in the world could a bird have an attitude?

This past week has opened my eyes to the difference in Seagull personalities.

When I was in Dunfermline, I watched a sea gull go ballistic, screaming and swooping down towards a man who was walking by carrying a bag of groceries..  The gull kept dive-bombing this man until the fellow rounded the corner.  I picked up my pace, because I was very concerned that I'd be the next victim, but the gull made no attempt to come after me.

In the meantime, we've been hearing the gulls screeching and carrying on into the wee hours of the morning.  There really is no explanation for their tirade.  It sure makes it tough to sleep though.

And, just the other day, one of the B&;B patrons asked Yvonne's husband, Les, what was going on with the sea gulls at 3:30 a.m. Well, Les didn't have an answer to that question, but he went on to tell the story about how he had been out the previous afternoon and had not yet eaten lunch.  So, he went into a shop, bought a meat pie, and was enjoying it while walking down main street.  Lo and behold, a gull swept down, grabbed his meat pie AND bit his finger!

Soon after I heard the story, I was sitting at the train stop and this gull landed and began to stare at me. Luckily, I had no food or I'm sure I'd have been taken out.  You can see it in his eyes.

So, perhaps Marty is on to something.....

In the meantime, today was once again a lovely day and I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to get out and enjoy it.  So,  I  walked into Dysart, which is a lovely Coastal Trail walk, which,unlike yesterday's trail, is well marked.

Now, here's what you're supposed to see when you walk the Coastal Trail:

• Every now and then, there is a bench for your viewing pleasure.  I did NOT come across any benches yesterday.

• Posted signs showing that you are on the trail.  Now, without a sign, this "cave" would look kind of scary to attempt entering (at least to me it would), but the sign says that it is part of the trail.

Well, you can actually see the light at the other end when you enter it, so that made it much less scary as well.

Walking through this tunnel made me feel like I had stepped back in time to a little fishing village.

I went to the Harbormaster's house, and stopped in the Bistro for a scone and a latte.

Great decision on my part!

Then, I decided to go through the little museum that just opened up downstairs that told the story of the Harbormaster, as well as info regarding the Fife  Coastal Trail.  Well, it turns out that yesterday's section of the trail is considered to be one of the more difficult sections of the trail and it can be tricky to follow.  No kidding!

Do you remember how Marty had mentioned that I probably shouldn't follow anymore of Yvonne's suggestions regarding "lovely" walks? In addition to yesterday's adventure,   she had suggested that I take a bus into Elie as the walk there was" just fabulous with outstanding views".   I could walk part of the trail, then have Marty meet there for dinner.

Well, let me show you what she had suggested:

Guess what?  I probably will NEVER have enough of the horizontal, thank you!  Rocks, chains, and worrying about the tide do not bide well with my psyche.  

That would definitely fall under the "don't do anything crazy" category.

Since I wasn't so concerned about being lost in the wilderness today, I did manage to get some beautiful photos of the landscape:

Near the beginning of the Coastal Trail just north of Kirkcaldy:

Ravenshead Castle in the distance

Dysart Harbor

And the view from Ravenshead Castle

As you can see, it was quite a lovely day.

As far as sleeping is concerned, I spotted these two on the way back from dinner

They were already warming up their vocal cords.  Here's hoping that they decide to perform in a different neighborhood tonight!