It's (not) Grim Up North!
Northumberland - It's Lovely!
So we're back. Well, briefly. A total of four weeks before heading off to the UAE. We spent a week at the coast and this was frankly hectic and it rained most of the time! It was lovely to see people, but grim weather wise. We stayed with Nicola's parents in Newcastle for a couple of days and then rented a place in Seaton Sluice (a small town just North of our home town of Whitley Bay) and it was so cold that we actually put the heating on!
We did get a few nice hours in the first week and a bit, but mostly it rained and was cold!
We started out with a run across the Town Moor - this reminded me of just how impressive Newcastle really is.
Early morning in exhibition park
I didn't get the chance to visit the town centre or even drive across the Tyne Bridge - we did drive past the Angel of the North a couple of times as we travelled to the passport office to renew Thomas's passport. A journey that we had to undertake twice for reasons of unnecessary bureaucracy, although once all of the pedantic form filling was completed we did get the passport in 48 hours.
This did give us an excuse to visit Durham - I'd forgotten what a brilliant place Durham is. A beautiful city with a mix of modern and ancient architecture. There are little independent shops and alongside a wide variety of cafes and restaurants. Durham market in particular is worth visit - an indoor market filled with all kinds stalls selling everything from standard market tat to artisan coffee!
Durham trying to do an impression of Penang!
For some reason I seem only to have photographed the modern bits! No idea what I was thinking.
It may have been grim for most of our visit to the coast, but we did still get the chance to do a couple of walks from our front door - I even got in a short trail run along one of my favourite routes on the coastal section of Holywell Dene.
Seaton Sluice looking South along the beach
Here's the view from those buildings looking North
And here is the view facing more inland
And here is a weird collection of art that we randomly came across!
We also got chance to have an extended breakfast with friends on the weekend, which was so nice. It felt great having people back together and fortunately on this trip we did manage to catch up with most people at some point.
Berwick Bound
After our brief time at the coast, during which we bought not one, but two cars (long story) we headed further north to Berwick-Upon-Tweed.
The weather was... Dramatic.
Big sky!
Atmospheric!
We were joined by several friends in the first week, which was nice and spent time visiting the various odd corners of the town - it has a real charm and there are a lot of people visiting and a lot of people who have moved into the area.
Gotta love a pun in a shop name!
We also went and explored some of the surroundings and took a nice trip to Ford and Etal (pronounced eetle, like beetle apparently!).
We also manage to squeeze in a visit from my great friend from my first school, Jillian, who lives in Berwick. It was so good to meet up before she jetted off to Canada.
My main regret from this trip is not getting chance to meet up with any other school friends (teacher ones, not from me as school kid) from either of my UK schools, but the summer holidays are always so hectic for teachers it's not a surprise.
Definitely something to make an effort with next year.
Paxton House
I could quite happily live here!
Or here... this is Paxton House itself - may be a bit bigger than we need.
It was a nice afternoon!
Hello Mr Wick
We also managed to get a visit to Alnwick and then to Howick - we enjoyed our Wick's!
It was one of the infrequent examples of a good day - okay I exaggerate, we did have about a 50/50 split of sun to rain and some very nice days and even when it did rain a lot there were still enough clear spells to get out and about.
Howick is one of my favourite parts of the world. The coast is amazing. Lots of cool coves and crags, but also some fairly extensive beaches. However it is not all about the coast in Howick, there was more to come later in the holiday when we went back and got in a walk along the coast and visited the hall.
Carving and Cakes
After a fairly chilled weekend we went to one of our familiar haunts in Northumberland - Wallington Hall. We have been coming here since before Thomas was able to walk and we have always measure his height against the wooden statue of a bear that stands in one of the play parks. The weather was just right for just the right amount of time to enjoy the woodlands and the walled garden.
Wooden carvings and Thomas peering over the top of the bear!
After a lovely morning spent wandering through the familiar territory of Wallington Hall we had an afternoon treat in store at the Running Fox - not in Felton, nor even Long Horsley, but in their latest branch in Longhoughton. It is housed in an old community centre and like many buildings of its type it is a simple and fairly unattractive single story pebble dashed ex-council building. However on the inside...
Nice!
And the afternoon tea...
I don't think the pictures do the scale justice, but for context sake, the three afternoon tea's lasted us THREE DAYS! The pies, sandwiches and traybakes were outstanding. The cakes were good, but I'd seriously recommend going for the pastry products over the cakes - the cakes are good, but the pies and traybakes are amazing! They do the best Mars Bar crispy I've ever had and the Bakewell tart is brilliant.
I think we are still trying to burn through the calories from this outing.
Henges and Bays
Following Wallington and the Running Fox we had a day checking out some bits of Berwickshire we had never encountered before. We did two henges -one wood and reconstructed, one stone and original - and one also one Scottish bay we had not previously explored.
The wooden henge was part of a free to access tourist trail set on a small sight in the village of Milfield - the Maelmin Henge and Trail, which according to Google is a museum. It had informative boards telling you about the history of human settlement in the area - it was actually very interesting. There was also a reconstructed iron age longhouse. Really very impressive given that it is in the middle of nowhere and we only happened across it whilst casually searching stone circles of Northumberland to show Thomas that it's not all about Salisbury when it comes to henges!
One reconstructed wooden henge
One actual stone one!
The Stone Circle at Duddo was impressive given that it was just in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere. There was a group of people who were... singing/chanting/meditating/communing with the Earth or something. The music they were piping through their hand carved and all natural iPhones did add to the overall atmosphere, but meant getting a clean shot of the whole circle was not easy. This is the best I could manage.
From here we went to Coldingham Bay. This is just around the corner from St Abbs, where we went last year. St Abbs is a well know diving and general tourist spot and has had more recent exposure as the location that was used for the exterior shots of New Asgard.
Coldingham is right around the corner and is a well known surf spot. There is a cafe, beach huts and surf shop. It is life guarded and very well organised and clean. It's clear why it's a bit of a destination for tourists.
That's St Abbs over there in the distance.
Very impressive - you can see why so many painters chose to come to Northumberland.
Howick Again
A few days later we managed to organise a meet up with one of Nicola's friends and some of mine to indulge in a little coastal walk and a typical British summer fete at Howick Hall - it was discounted entrance to the gardens and a chance for Thomas to experience his first ever country fete! It even had a tombola and a splat the rat - perfect.
The gardens were a highlight - Howick is definitely worth a visit even though it is privately owned I think it is worth the entrance fee. Of course the coast is always impressive, as I said earlier it is one of my favourite places on the planet!
The hall is very impressive!
After my friend Dan pointed out that the fete was like the one from the first episode of Father Ted I couldn't take it seriously (although I'm not sure you are meant to take them seriously). On the plus side Thomas won a nice woodwick candle which he gave to his grandma as a thank you for letting us use the caravan - so that was nice.
The real highlight was just getting to hang out with friends in a fantastic location and this ended up being nearly the last opportunity for this.
Goodbyes and last minute catch ups
We had a few days to ourselves and to do a bit of last minute admin and shopping. We got down to the coast, had haircuts, did some archery (becoming a bit of a yearly ritual) and all too soon it was time to pack up and leave the caravan
After this we relaxed on Saturday, tidied and cleaned the caravan, packed for what felt like the 100th time in a month and readied ourselves to say a fond farewell to Berwick, which really has become a little haven for us during the summers.
Looking back at the past four years it is strange how life has progressed, but my love of Northumberland is rekindled every time we come home. It never ceases to amaze me just how lucky we have been to have had (and are still having) these adventures, but still have such an amazing place right on the doorstep.
Berwick still had some drama to throw our way!
Heading back home we got the chance to do another breakfast catch up with the last of our friends, some of whom we hadn't seen yet. It was a very nice way to finish up our adventures in Northumberland and it was great to see friends and their families, but a sharp reminder of what you miss out on when you move away.
And finally...
So this brings us to the end of our adventures in Northumberland. In the last few days we did a few more things, but that is a story for another post.
The next few items from the blog will likely be from the deserts of the Middle East!
Until next time - take care!
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