Vacation part 5, Holy Island & Castle
Tuesday morning we got up and I made a big point of making sure the tide was going out.
That photo makes it seem lighter than it was.
We got up and got on the road about 6 on the first full day or spring.
We set off south again.
We eventually turned off to a smaller road that was not well marked.
The road leads down to the water, and then out across what is a road a low tide and the ocean at high tide.
And, as it was low tide, across we went.
As Dreamwidth doesn’t seem to like the GIFs I made, I’ve got a much longer Youtube too…
https://youtu.be/unMiSaKiSEg
And, we were on the island.
As the road is underwater at high tide, it is VERY important to make sure you know the tide tables. It was just before 9, so the tide was going to cover the road in about 3 hours.
The public bathrooms on the island have graffiti that is not the standard kind of stuff I see in most public bathrooms.
Then, we pondered the castle.
When planning the trip, I had not realized we could not drive all the way to the castle. But, when you get to the island, you are expected to park in the public lot at the entrance and walk everywhere else.
No shuttle bus, at least in March.
It was more than a mile walk. While Google says it is only 20 minutes, my hip was bothering me and the path did not look dry.
And, that tide clock was ticking…
And, across the bay was another castle that was on the mainland, without the tide restrictions…
So, we decided to look around the abbey for a while, but skip the castle to make sure we got off the island on time and do the other castle.
And, the abby was just as interesting to me as it was the site of the raid that kicked off the viking age.
The island has it’s own library.
It was still early so the only store open was the liquor store.
Then, back to the car and across to the mainland before the tide returned.
We did see a train go by, but then back to the road to the other castle.
Bamburgh castle is very impressive. They make a big deal of it being in the book/tv series Last Kingdom, but that isn’t why we went. We went because a bunch of folks said "don’t miss it, it’s great!"
https://www.bamburghcastle.com/
And, the views from it alone are great.
There was a deer running through the long grass of the dunes. It was hard to catch in a photo.
But, enough of the deer and the hills, we had a castle to see.
We explored the inside as well…
My hip was bothering me a lot, so I made my way outside, found the cafe and got a scone while my wife explored some more.
Post scone we took our leave and headed south again.
My wife is a fan of the show Vera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_(TV_series) ) that is filmed in the area, often in Newcastle.
So, we went to Newcastle where many are filmed. The intention was to see a particular bridge there that shows up in a bunch of episodes.
But, the parking lot the GPS led us to was for monthly subscribers only, the others seemed closed or full, so we drove around for a bit, then continued on.
At one point the GPS did steer us down a bus only route. Hope I don’t get a ticket for that.
Then, back south, passing a big statue on the way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_the_North
We were heading for Lincoln which has a castle, cathedral, and old bridge my wife wanted to see. It’s not on the motorway.
The GPS got confused about where it was and started bringing us in loops about it.
I got mad at the GPS and turned it off and drove back to where I thought it was.
Everyone was happy we found it.
We checked into the hotel, ordered take away from the Indian place across the street and walked (limped) around until the food was ready.
It had been a long day, and we were happy to get to sleep that night.