August 24, 2008
Alnwick Castle trip
*********Warning!! Must read York trip first!!!!***********
After enduring a night of cramped and cramping leg muscles, we awoke early to make the 8:00 metro into Newcastle. Having followed what we felt were round about direction to the hotel the night before, we decided to ask a hotel employee for a shortcut back to the metro station. Now, people in England don’t identify directions by street names but instead use landmarks and left and right turns. After thinking we understood her directions, we set out to the metro station. 50 minutes later and completely lost on an early Sunday morning, I managed to find two people out for a walk. When I asked them to point us to the W. Jesmond metro they replied with “W. Jesmond? Are you sure that is where you want to go? You are only half a block from the Jesmond station”. Well, by the time we made it into Newcastle we missed the early bus to Alnwick. Finally on the bus, we rode for an hour through pastoral countryside until finally arriving at the small town of Alnwick and Alnwick castle. History time!
Alnwick castle (pronounced An-ick) is still a working castle meaning that the Duke of Northumbria (Percy family) and his family live there 6 months in the winter and then live somewhere else in the summer so the castle is only open for tourists when the family is gone. It was built in the 1300’s as a medieval fortress and is one out of two of the largest castles in England.
While there, we toured the grounds, state rooms, viewed the Roman artifacts recovered in the surrounding areas, and the large china collection, and enjoyed some fun time dressing up and
playing some of the children’s games. We also enjoyed a birds or prey show and I got to pet a small owl! When we first entered the main gate, I spotted something soft and black in the grass. 
It was Bunyip, the Duke’s large and overweight black and white cat sitting there greeting visitors and enjoying being petted. I would later see him walking the grounds perhaps making his way to the catnip patch in the gardens.
The gardens themselves were another completely amazing experience. They are a rather recent creation being part of the vision of the Duchess of Northumberland to create a beautiful garden experience out of the derelict and forgotten original Alnwick gardens. The gardens contain a water display area including a Grand Cascade down the center, a rose garden, bamboo labyrinth, ornamental
garden, the world’s largest tree house, and my favorite, the poison garden. This required a guide to take one through the garden and explain the various type of deadly plants. The garden contains such plants as belladonna, mandrake, cannabis, rosemary, and catnip.
Our legs gave out more quickly today so we decided to catch the bus back to Newcastle mid afternoon. Since today was my 25th birthday, I really wanted some icecream to celebrate (I had been good and not had any icecream or cake since I’ve been in England as I was waiting until my birthday). When we got back to the castle café, it had already closed. Back in Newcastle, we passed many icecream shops but my travel companions were anxious to get to the train station and insisted that I could get icecream at the station. Once at the station, we discovered that we had an hour to wait so I went to one store only to discover that the icecream machine was broken, next, I went to a coffee stand to get a frappacino-like drink but the ice machine was broken. As it
ended up, I never did get to have icecream or anything to celebrate my birthday. Well, that was the end of 24 years and now the start of 25 years…let’s see what this next year has in store.
Alnwick Castle trip
*********Warning!! Must read York trip first!!!!***********
After enduring a night of cramped and cramping leg muscles, we awoke early to make the 8:00 metro into Newcastle. Having followed what we felt were round about direction to the hotel the night before, we decided to ask a hotel employee for a shortcut back to the metro station. Now, people in England don’t identify directions by street names but instead use landmarks and left and right turns. After thinking we understood her directions, we set out to the metro station. 50 minutes later and completely lost on an early Sunday morning, I managed to find two people out for a walk. When I asked them to point us to the W. Jesmond metro they replied with “W. Jesmond? Are you sure that is where you want to go? You are only half a block from the Jesmond station”. Well, by the time we made it into Newcastle we missed the early bus to Alnwick. Finally on the bus, we rode for an hour through pastoral countryside until finally arriving at the small town of Alnwick and Alnwick castle. History time!
Alnwick castle (pronounced An-ick) is still a working castle meaning that the Duke of Northumbria (Percy family) and his family live there 6 months in the winter and then live somewhere else in the summer so the castle is only open for tourists when the family is gone. It was built in the 1300’s as a medieval fortress and is one out of two of the largest castles in England.
While there, we toured the grounds, state rooms, viewed the Roman artifacts recovered in the surrounding areas, and the large china collection, and enjoyed some fun time dressing up and
playing some of the children’s games. We also enjoyed a birds or prey show and I got to pet a small owl! When we first entered the main gate, I spotted something soft and black in the grass. 
It was Bunyip, the Duke’s large and overweight black and white cat sitting there greeting visitors and enjoying being petted. I would later see him walking the grounds perhaps making his way to the catnip patch in the gardens.The gardens themselves were another completely amazing experience. They are a rather recent creation being part of the vision of the Duchess of Northumberland to create a beautiful garden experience out of the derelict and forgotten original Alnwick gardens. The gardens contain a water display area including a Grand Cascade down the center, a rose garden, bamboo labyrinth, ornamental
garden, the world’s largest tree house, and my favorite, the poison garden. This required a guide to take one through the garden and explain the various type of deadly plants. The garden contains such plants as belladonna, mandrake, cannabis, rosemary, and catnip.Our legs gave out more quickly today so we decided to catch the bus back to Newcastle mid afternoon. Since today was my 25th birthday, I really wanted some icecream to celebrate (I had been good and not had any icecream or cake since I’ve been in England as I was waiting until my birthday). When we got back to the castle café, it had already closed. Back in Newcastle, we passed many icecream shops but my travel companions were anxious to get to the train station and insisted that I could get icecream at the station. Once at the station, we discovered that we had an hour to wait so I went to one store only to discover that the icecream machine was broken, next, I went to a coffee stand to get a frappacino-like drink but the ice machine was broken. As it
ended up, I never did get to have icecream or anything to celebrate my birthday. Well, that was the end of 24 years and now the start of 25 years…let’s see what this next year has in store. 
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