Castles, Castles and More Castles

The next part of our trip we went into Northumberland, a castle lovers' dream. Our first stop was Warkworth Castle. It looks over the river Coquet and the village of Warkworth, with the North Sea in view in the distance. My favorite part was all the blooming daffodils surrounding the castle.

We made Warkworth a quick stop, to leave plenty of time for Alnwick Castle. It's home of Harry "Hotspur," famous medieval knight in the times of Henry IV, but to be honest, we were more drawn by its association with Harry Potter. It was used in the first two Harry Potter movies. In honor of its movie ties, they have Harry Potter tours and a Harry Potter magic show, which we thought was very well cast and a lot of fun. The castle itself is still in use by the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. I'm in love with their library, but unfortunately no cameras are allowed inside.

If you like your castles in ruins overlooking the sea, then Dunstanburgh is the castle for you. There's a beautiful walk approaching the ruins leading through fields, a golf course, and a path overlooking the sea.

We didn't go inside Bamburgh Castle, but instead enjoyed a beautiful walk approaching it along the beach and through the coastal dunes. It's a beautiful beach all by itself. Add the medieval castle in the background and it makes a breathtaking walk. 

Whew. You may have got tired of looking at all these pictures of all these castles, but we sure enjoyed every minute of visiting them.

Along the Way

When Mike mentioned to people at his work that one of the towns we were staying at was Hull, they were quite mystified. Apparently, it was featured prominently in the book Crap Towns. In fact, it took the top spot. I didn't know that when I booked us there. I was more interested in taking advantage of some super bargain hotel rates I found, and this happened to be along the way of our route North. The town has since done some revitalization. The downtown really has some promise, although it is eerily deserted. When we were leaving town and saw this lot, we couldn't resist taking a picture for Mike to share with his colleagues who were skeptical of our vacation choices.

Less than a half an hour's drive from Hull is the town of Beverley, where we found some good places to eat and nice town walks.

Hull does have a really nice aquarium. It would be worth visiting just for that. I had hopes from walking the semi-desereted streets of Hull that we'd have the aquarium to ourselves, but not so. That's where we found all the missing people.

Another day we were in the town of Alnwick. If ever visiting Alnwick, you must visit this used book store. It's in an old train station and features a model train running through the store, an open fire, cosy seating and a huge supply of books.

North Yorkshire

If a vacation day happens, but no one is there to photograph it, does it really count? Sadly, Mike put this to the test on our beautiful day in North Yorkshire, as his camera battery was dead. As you can see, we weren't completely without the ability to take pictures, as we had Camille's point-and-shoot and our camera phones. Still, Mike had to fight off a little dark cloud from ruining his day, imagining all the pictures he'd like to be taking.

Starting in Farndale there is a famous walk that goes along the Dove river where wild daffodils bloom in the spring. We timed it just right to catch the flowers in bloom.

The weather was a little misty and wet, which I decided might have been a blessing - we had the trail to ourselves for much of the time.

Somehow, the stars must have been in perfect alignment, for our girls were completely in the spirit of going for a country walk. These are the sort of fun family times we imagine we should have but generally don't, as either one will want to make sure we are all aware how much she dislikes walking or our girls have flatly refused to come at all. But how fun to have cheerful, enthusiastic girls along!

Misty and foggy Yorkshire. It's simply beautiful driving through the North York Moors National Park.

Cute little Yorkshire village.

And this is quite close to how I imagined the moors from reading my English novels as a girl.

You could really devote a full day, or really weeks, to walking in Yorkshire; however, we didn't want to test our girls' patience. On to our next destination - the seaside town of Whitby.

Whitby has several famous fish and chips shops. I do believe there is a world of difference between the best fish and chips places and the fish and chips you can get on every corner anywhere. We tried out Quayside and really enjoyed them. But Anya stuck with a good ol' American hotdog.

Whitby is filled with cute streets and shops.

 Walking the hill up to Whitby Abbey.

The town of Whitby is featured in the novel Dracula. Can you see why Bram Stoker was inspired by Whitby? Here's a selection from the novel: "Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey...It is a most nobel ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits." 

Here's where Mike was really lamenting not having his camera. You'll just have to trust him, that with his proper camera, his photos would be wonderful.

But camera or no camera, we had the most beautiful day in North Yorkshire.

Lincoln

We unexpectedly abandoned our first planned activity of our vacation and needed to come up with a Plan B. The city of Lincoln was on the way, so we decided to stop by for a visit. I'm glad we did - what a great town. 

First thing Anya spotted a man offering horse carriage rides. I could see her heart was set on it, and the price was pretty reasonable, so we gave it a go. It turned out to be a nice introduction to the town. He took us on streets I wouldn't have walked on and pointed out all kinds of details I wouldn't have noticed - two-foot wide former mental asylum rooms, hooks on the city walls for hanging bodies, and a TARDIS look-alike garden shed, just to name a few.

Lincoln has the cutest little shops and streets. Each building is just a little different architecturally from the next. With many of the streets too narrow for cars, it makes a fun and walkable city center.

Lincoln is probably most famous for its cathedral. Frankly, we were feeling a little too cathedraled-out for a full indoor tour, but enjoyed walking around the outside, and especially checking out the carvings. The monkey was added to honor the masons, who were referred to as monkey masons because of all the scrambling across roofs they had to do. Or so our horse carriage guide told us. And possibly that dragon is not part of the cathedral, but the city wall. I still like him though.

This old bishop's palace next to the cathedral has fallen to ruins since the Dissolution. It has views of the cathedral and is perched on a hill overlooking the city.

Lincoln has a little bit of everything an American is looking for in an English city - old architecture, cute shops, narrow streets, ruins, a cathedral, and a castle. All it's missing is a moat and some sheep grazing in the background. We felt that day one of our trip was a success.

Country Houses

We've just returned from a little trip up north to Lincoln, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Scotland. All in one week! It was a whirlwind tour, but we very much enjoyed it. We enjoyed it so much we ended up with hundreds of pictures. While Mike gets started sorting through those for me, I thought I'd share some of the cute little houses we saw on our trip.

It was kind of killing me a little inside that we had to pass by so many amazingly cute places without taking a picture. Inevitably, they'd be located on a road with absolutely zero shoulder or place to pull over for miles. So these first houses are located in the town of Lincoln where we were on foot.

The original Roman arch completes the atmosphere, don't you think?

This is a continuation of my fascination with skinny houses. What do you think home 60 1/2 looks like inside?

I think these next houses are in Yorkshire.

One day Mike and I visited Holy Island. It has a smallish castle, which was renovated in the early 1900s as a holiday home.

It fits my image of what an English country home kitchen might look like.

I'm sad I don't have more pictures of all the beautiful country homes we saw. Maybe someday I'll be back doing a lot more walking, and a lot less driving, and then I'll get my chance.

No Snow

Want to know the very top thing on Anya's list of good reasons to move to England? Having a snowy winter. So I've been sad for her that that didn't happen. The best we got was a couple of frosty mornings. Frost is a bit exciting for California girls, but not snow.

This past week though, we got a second consolation prize. In between some great stretches of sunny, warm spring weather, we got two hail storms. Anya had fun making some modified snow cones and throwing a couple of modified snowballs. Better than nothing!