Alnwick - Home of Hogwarts

Friday, June 15, 2012
Alnwick, England, United Kingdom
On Friday afternoon, we got a ride from some of the staff at Nether Springs to Alnwick (pronounced Ah-nick, by the way) where we were staying at one of the self-catering cottages at Alndyke Farm, which also has a B&B. Our plan was to be there from Friday until Thursday so we could spend some time in Alnwick and tour the surrounding area. Then Michael, Janet, and Pam would leave for South Carolina, and Bill and I would leave for Amsterdam. Some parts of our plan worked just like clockwork; others, not so much. 

The first glitch happened as soon as we arrived to check in. We pulled into the driveway of the B&B, unloaded all of our luggage, and rang the bell. I suppose we should have known something was wrong when the owner came to the door with a quizzical look on her face. It seems she wasn't expecting us because she had us down for the next week! The cottage we were to say in was all ready to be occupied - by someone else. Fortunately, the cottage next door was available, so the owner quickly got it set up for us, and we moved in. This begs the question, of course, of why we couldn't just move in to the already-set-up cottage that we had reserved since the other people weren't there yet rather than the owner frantically scurrying around while we waited outside with all of our luggage. No matter. We were just grateful not to have to try to find another place to accommodate us all at the last minute. It might have been better if we had, though. Things did not really go so well at that place. Nothing disastrous happened, but enough little things did so that even though it was a beautiful setting, it is not a place I would stay at again, nor recommend to anyone else.  

By the time we had checked in and gotten settled, we were hungry, and it was close to dinner time, so we decided that we would go into town to eat and find a grocery store to stock up on food for breakfast. Our cottage was about a mile and a half from town and right on the bus route so taking the bus should have been easy. It wasn't - not then, anyway. Alndyke Farm isn't on a scheduled stop, but if the bus driver sees someone standing by the side of the road, he/she stops for pick up. This means that there was no specific time on the bus schedule for where we were and the schedule was not user-friendly at all. Try as hard as we could, we could not figure out when the next bus was due to come by, and it seemed ridiculous to stand out on the side of the road for what could have been an hour, so we decided to walk to town. A mile and a half is no problem for people who are ambulatory. Pam, Michael, and Bill were fine, but at that point, I was walking with a cane and still in pain, and Janet was not much better off, so that mile and a half seemed like the long and winding road to us. That is why we decided to eat at the first place we came to. I cannot tell you anything about it. I didn't have my camera to take a picture and was tired and cranky enough not to care about the name of the place or to even remember what I ordered. All I remember is being grateful to have a place to sit, that the food was OK, and that it was more expensive than I would have chosen otherwise. The latter is why Bill chose not to eat there. He decided to do some recon of the area instead and find a cheaper place to eat. Before we were finished, he came back to tell us that there was a Lidl (grocery store) just a little way up the hill and that the town was charming. After dinner and a quick breakfast shop at the Lidl, we caught the bus back to the cottage, lit a fire in the wood stove - it was not much warmer there than in Edinburgh - and settled in for the night. 

The next day, we asked the owner of the B&B to decipher the bus schedule, which even she had a difficult time doing. But she did, and once she did, and we knew when the buses would come past our place, going back and forth to town was really easy. Well, except for the times the bus passed me by and didn't stop. And the other time when the bus went a mile too far before letting me off. These things didn't happen to anyone else. I had bad bus karma for some reason. Other than that, it was a piece of cake.

Anyway, once we found out how easy it was to go to town, we went back and forth a lot over the weekend to get our fill of Alnwick before we started touring other places. 

Saturday we spent some time walking around getting oriented to the town. I took photos of the Harry Hotspur statue and the Alnwick Market Cross as well as a few of the street and the Alnwick Castle. (Harry Potter fans might recognize the castle. It was used in the first two films.) I did not get a lot of shots that day, though, because it was raining on and off, and I don't like to have my camera out in the rain. So I am sorry to say that there is a dearth of around town pictures. There are plenty of pictures of Alnwick on this site, however, if you are interested in seeing more of the town.































  
When it came time for lunch, we went to Carlo's for fish and chips. I mean, what is a visit to the UK without fish and chips, right? While we were at Nether Springs, one of the other guests told Bill that the best place to get them in Alnwick was Carlo's so we took him at his word. We didn't try any other places to compare so I don't know if they were actually the best, but I cannot imagine having any better so they were the best as far as I was concerned. If you are ever in Alnwick and have a craving for fish and chips, by all means go to Carlo's.  

After lunch, we decided to walk to Barter Books. Located in an abandoned train station housing approximately 350,000 books, Barter Books is one of the largest secondhand bookstores in Great Britain (follow this link for floor plan). Considering that three out of the five of us are either current or former English teachers and the other two are certified book nerds, this was a no-brainer. Besides, it was cold and the sporadic rain had turned into a steady one, so the warm atmosphere and lit fireplaces were a welcome respite. We spent hours browsing and reading. The only thing that pried us out of the place was the fact that we had to go to the grocery store before catching the bus home. On the way out, I happened to glance over at the water fountain and saw dog bowls full of water. There were no dogs in there that day - who would want to take their dogs out in the rain? - but it was cool to realize that they'd be welcome.


 
We left the bookstore and went next door to the LIdl to stock up on food for the week. We tried to time it so that we finished shopping and got to the bus stop at just about the correct time for the next bus, but we finished early and got to the bus stop with about twenty minutes to wait. Unfortunately, it was just at this time that the steady rain turned into pouring rain. So, here we were with our newly purchased books and grocery bags full of food, huddled under our umbrellas waiting for the bus. It was then that I realized that my normally reliable rain jacket had lost its waterproofing. By the time we got on the bus, the part of me that had been outside the umbrella was sopping wet outside and in. Thank goodness Bill had chosen to walk home rather than wait for the bus because by the time we schlepped our wet, bedraggled selves into the house, he had a fire blazing in the wood stove. We quickly changed out of our wet clothes and cozied up to the fire with hot coffee or tea and books. We spent the rest of the night in pleasant warmth and companionable reading silence. (Well, not total silence. There were five of us after all.)


On Sunday, we attended church at St. Michael's, the Anglican parish church for the town. The current church was built in the 15th century, but there are remnants of original church, which was built during the Saxon time. Somehow we mistakenly arrived about an hour early for the service we wanted to attend and found that the early service was still going on so we couldn't go in. Well, I suppose we could have busted in on the service, but we decided not to appear to be total uncouth barbarians and waited outside instead. This gave us plenty of time to take pictures of the outside of the church. We also had plenty of time to take pictures inside since we went in as soon as the early congregants left. So getting there too early was a blessing in disguise. (Please excuse the blurry inside photos. They were taken with my iPhone, and the church was not that well-lit.)  















































 
















  
 
 
After church, Janet, Michael, Pam, and I decided to tour Alnwick Castle, which we had taken to calling Hogwarts. Bill wanted to go to an antique show so he left us at that point and said he'd meet us back at the cottage. Alnwick Castle has been the home of the Dukes of Northumberland for 700 years and is still the home of the current Duke and his family. They graciously leave the castle and go to one of their other homes in the summer so that the inside of the castle can be opened for tours. As in many places, no pictures are allowed inside. However, outside is another matter. If you have seen the first two Harry Potter films, you will definitely recognize the area in which the first years were learning to control their brooms. One of the current attractions for children is "flying" classes. You will see one being held in one of the photos.  











  
That night, we decided that having eaten what had been described as the best fish and chips in town, visited the fabulous Barter Books, attended a service in a church built during Saxon England, and toured Hogwarts that our time in Alnwick was complete, and we were ready to start visiting some of the surrounding towns.

Let me digress a moment. When we got home that evening, it became apparent we were running out of toilet paper. Since that had been listed as one of the amenities of the cottage, Bill went across the street to the B&B to advise the owner that we needed some. Now, considering that she runs a B&B and must have had toilet paper on hand, you'd think she would have sent some back with him, wouldn't you? But, no. She said she'd bring some the next day. I'll come back to this later.

So, the next day, Monday, Pam, Janet, and Michael went to Bamburgh Castle. I cannot write about it because I did not go. At some point on every trip, I pick a day to stay in and rest, and Monday was my day. I do this so that I have a chance to regenerate and not end my vacation drained and exhausted. I had also been walking a lot and my knee needed to rest. So, all I did was hang around the cottage and read. Well, that's all I had planned to do anyway. As it turns out, I ended up doing one other thing. 

Bill decided that between Nether Springs and Alnwick, he had spent enough time in Northumberland and was ready to go on to Amsterdam. So, early Monday morning, he went into town to the tourist office and found out that there was an overnight ferry leaving that afternoon from Newcastle. I, on the other hand, didn't want to leave yet. There was one other place I wanted to go, and we had planned to go there on Wednesday. So, we decided that Bill would go ahead and leave, and I would take the same ferry on Thursday and meet him in Amsterdam on Friday morning. He packed up and caught the noon bus as it went by. 

While I am not afraid to travel alone, even in a foreign country, I am not quite as comfortable as Bill - that's a big understatement - with just taking off and not knowing things like when the ferry actually leaves, where it leaves from, and if an advance reservation is necessary. So, the unplanned thing I did that day was gather the necessary information and make reservations for my trip on Thursday. It should have been simple but turned into kind of an ordeal. When we had checked in on Friday, the owner gave us the password to the wifi connection but told us that it might not work since it was located in the B&B across the street. She then told us that if it didn't work and we needed to use the Internet to just come on over and use it. Pfft. Talk is cheap. I tried three times to go over there and use it, and all three times, the door was locked and no one answered when I rang the bell. So, I finally decided that I should go to town to use the one available computer in the small computer store, but that didn't work, either, because for whatever reason - maybe a new driver - the bus did not stop to pick me up, not once, but twice. After the second time, I gave up and went back to the B&B. Miraculously, this time, the door was standing open so I went into the parlor with my iPhone. After about an hour, the owner of the place happened to walk by, and in a quite testy voice asked me how I got in and what I was doing. I explained the situation and told her that I was using her wifi. She still didn't seem all that happy about it but told me to just be sure to shut the door behind me when I left. Fortunately, I had just finished making my reservation for the ferry right before she came in so I was able to escape and spend the rest of the day doing what I had planned - resting and reading. 

Michael, Janet, and Pam got back from their day around 22:00, and thank goodness, brought toilet paper with them. I had used the last of it about an hour before. (And, no, the owner had not brought us any yet.) They were all quite tired so they went straight up to bed. 

In the morning over breakfast, we made plans to go to Warkworth for the day.


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