We have had a crazy few days in Northumberland, visiting a part of England none of us really knew before. We were staying with a friend, who kindly gave us use of their house for our holiday. It was only five days altogether, but with the journey each way taking the whole day, we had three days only to see everything - so we basically made six day trips in the space of the three days, and went out each evening as well. I have been reminded that while my idea of a holiday is to relax in a beautiful place, eat well, and see some of the local sights, (without stretching yourself) Dan's idea is to rest for not one single moment, but to go go go go go and see everything there is to be seen, and eat if there's time on the way...
If I show you in pictures what we saw, you will get an idea of the amount of ground we covered...
Northumberland is the north east corner of England, with huge sandy beaches, rolling farmland, moorland including the Pennines, Hadrian's Wall built by the Romans to keep the Scottish hordes out, and many many castles, built over the centuries to protect this exposed coastline from the Scots, the Vikings, and the French in turn... It has so much going for it, including the lovely seafood literally jumping out of the sea into your frying pan (lobsters, kippers, prawns, salmon and much more). Its islands have some of England's beautiful but rare wildlife: seals and puffins. You will know how excited I was to see them, the puffins especially.
 |
| A medieval gateway in Alnwick - the road drives right under it. |
 |
| Alnwick Castle, home of the Nevilles if you read Tudor historical fiction! Also used as Hogwarts ... |
 |
| Lindisfarne Priory, built in 635 AD as one of the first Christian sites in England, it was raided so often by Vikings that in 875 AD the monks fled from it with the coffin containing the bones of St Cuthbert and the famous Lindisfarne Gospels (which we saw in Durham). Although the priory was later restored, it was closed by Henry VIII as part of the dissolution of the monasteries, and the roof was ripped off then. |
 |
| Lindisfarne Castle - built by Henry VIII to protect the coast from French and Scottish invaders. |
 |
| Called Holy Island, it is joined to the mainland by a causeway so you have to choose your time to drive over. and back, or you'll get stuck... The islands around are the home of seals, who make an eery high-pitched moaning sound which we could hear the whole time. |
 |
| Bamborough Castle, a Norman castle right above the beach. |
 |
| a chance to swim in the sea. |
 |
| A boat trip to see the puffins, at Coquet Island off Amble. Frodo was allowed on the boat and found his sea legs!! |
 |
| A puffin??!!! |
 |
| Our photos were hopeless, so this one is from Google... but they really do look like this, they are beautiful and funny! |
 |
| Again a lifted photo as it was quite dark when we were there... but this is the Tree in the Gap on Hadrian's Wall, - you might recognise this from the Robin Hood film Prince of Thieves. It is a beautiful spot. |
 |
| Our family at Hadrian's Wall, including Canis Canis Frodoensis. |
 |
| Frodo visiting Durham Cathedral. |
 |
| Another "borrowed" picture, of the Lindisfarne Gospels, made on Lindisfarne in the 700s AD. When the monks fled with it and Cuthbert's coffin, it fell into the sea, but was undamaged. They all ended up at Durham Cathedral, (as did the tomb of the Venerable Bede.) It was trimmed and re-covered by the Victorians. But the illuminations are incredible, original and unspoiled. |
 |
| Durham |
 |
| A medieval street in York. With quite a few tourists in it... |
 |
| ... and a ghost |
I actually feel as though we did "English History 101". It was amazing. And slightly exhausting...
No comments:
Post a Comment