Castles and Capitals 1: My adventures before the break

With the rush of mid-semester schoolwork it has been difficult for me to find time to write about my most recent adventures and experiences abroad, and for that I apologize! I hope all I am about to write, and all the pictures I will post, will make up for it.

The first thing I wanted to revisit was my excellent day trip with my friend Annamarie through Timberbush Tours out of Edinburgh. We visited a few castles and saw the beautiful northeast coast of England in what was once called Northumbria, when the region was its own medieval kingdom. This was my first time properly into England, and I thought it was interesting that the only mark of passing the border was a small turn out along the road with two flags, one for St. George’s Cross and the other for St. Andew’s, adopted by England and Scotland respectively. Our first stop was a little island off the coast called Lindisfarne, or the “Holy Island” for its monastery and production of the Lindisfarne Gospels, which had a beautiful ruined abbey and castle. The area had been hit by a wind storm the evening before and so the power was out in all the cafés and shops, and the wind kept coming – I have only ever felt this powerful a gale since the Pali lookout on Oahu! Driving in and out of the little coastal community involved a knowledge of the tides, which would cover the road at various times of the day. 

Driving in, the tide crept onto the road a bit

The ruined abbey with Lindisfarne Castle in the back

The castle a little closer

The coast from the castle

We continued along to another castle called Bamburgh and stopped to take a quick picture before reaching the highlight, Alnwick Castle (pronounced like “Anick” but with the a like “apple”). This place appeared in the first Harry Potter movie as the location of Harry’s first flying lesson with his class and Madam Hooch! When re-watching the scene from the movie, it was really fun to be able to recognize the castle exterior. 

Myself at Alnwick Castle

A picture from the movie...

...and the place where it was shot!

 After exploring the grounds and the inside, we continued on the tour to a field known as Flodden where James IV of Scotland was defeated by the English in the early 1500s. Annamarie and I grabbed a nice pot of tea and some cake at a shop in a little town called Coldstream. After that we enjoyed a relaxing ride back up to Edinburgh!