Bright and early on our Sixth Day we went to Alnwick, to Barter Books for Breakfast. Their Station Buffet is excellent and we enjoyed two Bacon Baps and hot delicious Coffee. I love the story behind these rooms. As it says on their website; "Back in 2008, the Shop Manager of Barter Books, David Champion, went scouting around to find room for more badly needed office space. And he not only found it, he found a whole room - a room no-one really knew existed. David slid open the heavy door to reveal a room in such disarray it seemed untouched by time since the last train had left Alnwick Station almost half a century before. But the room also revealed two wonderful surprises: clinging to the far wall was a magnificent green fern miraculously alive after all these years thanks to water from a nearby leaking drain pipe and light from a totally unexpected source, a large glass skylight. "Look", said David, one hand gesturing around the room, "office space!" "No", said Mary, looking from the fern up towards the skylight, the sun streaming into the lost room even then conjuring up something she had wanted far longer than a desk, a chair, a lamp: "Forget the office! This is our Buffet!"
We then went back to Alnwick Castle as we wanted some better photos as it was quite overcast the day we originally went - thank goodness we go the annual passes! The Castle look amazing against the Blue Sky and made the building really shine.
We also took a walk around the Castle and ended up near the Alnwick Gardens so got to see their most excellent tree house and purchase a rather lovely print by Sarah Farooqi. Her work is beautiful and it's already adorning a wall in our Living Room.
We went back into Alwick and saw the preparations for the Olympic Torch Event - there really was a carnival feel to the market town with a Fair, Stalls and lots and lots of bunting!
Then it was time to head to the Coast. We wanted, no, needed to return to Holy Island. We just had to see the Priory. This time, as we were driving over the Causeway, we saw to rather large Gulls flying towards the Car. We watched them and noticed one had a Fish in its mouth - just as it went over the car, it dropped it, and boy did it make a thud on the car! Me and the boy just kept exclaiming "we just got hit by a fish!".
The Priory was stunning and we were there all on our own. It was so Peaceful and beautiful. I just can't imagine the violence that this place is reported to have seen with the Vikings landed in 793. I did a course in my second year at University and read plenty of sources about it, but being here, you just couldn't imagine.
By now it was about 4pm so we headed up the Coast to Berwick. As we were driving into Berwick, there were a lot of people buzzing around. We got closer to town and there were even more people and a band and lots of flags. Then we worked it out - we were really close to the seeing the Olympic Torch. We parked up and headed back down the hill to join the crowds. We bought a flag and waited. Then we saw the runner, Scott Richards, as we later learnt and the crowds cheered with joy. It really was most spectacular and well worth stopping!
We saw this in the window of a shop in Berwick and it made me smile!
We still wanted some more Coast time, so we carried up further North into Scotland to St Abbs, a small fishing village. There rock promontories which jutted into the sea - so dramatic. I love this type of Coast. I love wandering around Harbours - seeing Lobster Pots, the Boats, checking out the names of said Boats and just watching the waves - I sometimes think I need to be by the Sea as often as possible.
I then thought we would turn back for the Caravan, but the Mr decided the view were so spectacular that we could continue up the Coast further and we ended up in North Berwick. He made such such such a good decision as we got to see Bass Rock - you could just about see the Seabirds. It's really amazing. But boy was it windy! We had Hats, Coats, Jumpers on and were still cold! But it was totally worth it. The North Berwick Law was pretty spectacular too complete with its Napoleonic lookout ruins.
By this point it was 8pm and we were hungry. We started on the route home and about an hour later we came across a town called Duns, that had a Chinese Restaurant where we ordered some takeout and found somewhere more rural to stop and eat our tea. Whilst we were eating, two Deer came out onto the Road, so we got pretty good entertainment whilst we ate. Then we were back on the road to Wooler. However, we saw a sign to the Flodden Battlefield, so just had to stop. It was a long way up, but the sunset and view was totally worth it. There was still so much light considering it was ten at night. It was so silent up there and beautiful that you just couldn't imagine the carnage that took place.
We got in about 11pm and fell straight into our beds as it had been a very long and completely special day.
