“Full English Breakfast” was promised in the holiday blurb. I’ve never seen a fuller one! All the usual suspects, plus black pudding, veggie sausage, properly cooked large mushrooms, fried eggs (as well as scrambled)… more than 10 items in total. The continental selection was more limited, but was still quite generous. We won’t be going out hungry on our excursions!!
Today completely changed our picture of Northumbria. The tour, plus an incredibly good Blue Badge guide, Tom Keating, showed us that this is an exceptionally scenic and historic part of the UK.
We began with a guided coach tour of Newcastle itself. Everything of interest pointed out and described in detail (relevant detail); not the usual “I looked this up on Google last night” rubbish that often comes over the mic.
We then made a brief stop in Tynemouth. We’d always imagined it to be a slightly shabby industrial town were the Tyne meets the North Sea. So, so wrong. It’s a pretty little town with an ancient ruined castle and sea views. What a surprise!
Next on to Amble. A pretty little fishing port greeted us with a range of quirky shops around the habour. One (on Tom’s recommendation) served “Geordie Bangers”, a sausage roll but filled with various “sausage” styles. One, for example was Pork & Black Pudding. We shared a “Cumberland” which was, without question, the best sausage roll we’d ever tasted. (We shared it because it was of epic proportions!!)
A sharing food incident… We know seagulls like chips and attempt theft. It seems North-east starlings like Bangers. Within moments about 20 appeared round our feet seeking crumbs. Two of their number were more aggressive and flew at Margaret grabbing beak-fulls before being driven off.
Hygiene an issue, Margaret went back to the stall to ask for use of a knife to trim away the nibbled end. Northern hospitality… “Nasty little buggers, those,” he said and replaced the Banger at no charge. Remarkable!
Our next stop was Alnwick Castle and Gardens, amongst other things, where the Quidditch scenes in the Harry Potter films were filmed. It’s breath taking and still the home of the Percy family who actually live there in the winter half-year when it’s closed to the public. No photography indoors, sadly, but it’s knee deep in art by the likes of Caravaggio and Titian, and many other treasures.
Most remarkable are two cabinets owned by The Sun King, Louis XIV of France, bought at auction after La Revolution. Priceless and so important that recently the French Government claimed they’d been stolen and demanded their return. Sadly (for France) they’d kept the receipt!
What made the Castle so special were the Room Attendants. Tom had said, “Talk to them”. We’d did, and every one of them would describe, answer any question, point out something in which you might be interested and spend as long as you wanted chatting with them. We’ve visited so many stately homes (etc) in the UK, Europe and Russia. Perhaps, because of this, we’d suggest than Alnwick Castle ranks as our #1 place to visit.
And I haven’t even mentioned the gardens, littered with fountains and water features. Just go there!
Amoungst the very best excursions we’ve been on.
