Alnwick Castle and Northumberland

The weekend following spring break was another busy weekend. On Thursday night we went to the local pub for quiz night. We had the help of a couple of Brits on our team so we were actually able to win! On Friday we went to the Musselburgh race course with a group of students from the house. Musselburgh is a coastal town not too far from Dalkeith and they have a horse racing track there. Having never been to a horse race before we weren’t really sure what to expect. A few of the students placed some bets and some were even successful. Eventually, though, the students just resigned to betting between themselves, using food as their currency! They were betting each other apples, digestive biscuits, and spaghetti-o’s and one student in particular was making out with quite a stash of food! Drew and I opted to just sit back and watch the races without betting which I guess takes some of the excitement out of it. It was definitely a new experience and I’m glad that we went.

The following day we headed to Northumberland in northern England to stay at Alnwick Castle. We took a group of 31 people with us…the group was composed of students, some of their family members who were visiting and some members of the staff. I had planning the trip for quite some time and was really looking forward to taking the students on a trip that I had put so much time into. Alnwick Castle has a study abroad program much like the one here at Dalkeith. Students from St. Cloud State University stay at the castle and take classes for the semester. Drew and I’s friend Niki actually studied with this program for a semester so we were excited to see where she had spent her time as well. Most of the students signed up for the trip because Alnwick Castle is actually used as Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft in the Harry Pottery movies. The castle has also been used in many other films and, apparently, there is a huge movie that is being filmed there this summer. In order to get to the castle we had to take a train from Edinburgh to a small station outside of Alnwick. Unfortunately, the stop for the Alnmouth station that we wanted to get off on was never announced on the train and by the time we realized our stop was approaching we didn’t have a lot of time to warn students to start gathering their belongings. The train pulled up to the station, stopped and Drew and I hopped off the train and pushed students to do the same. Unfortunately, a group of 31 people doesn’t always move too fast and only five students made it off the train before the doors shut. I yelled down the platform to the attendant that we had a group of 30+ people on the train and that the doors needed to be opened back up before the train could leave. He refused to let the group off the train and waved the train out of the station so I stood there on the platform and watched as the train sped off with all the students inside, looking out at me, wondering what had happened and what they were supposed to do. Thankfully the program provides students with mobile phones so I was able to communicate with those still on board the train and direct them as to what their next step should be. They got to ride the train all the way to Newcastle where they were able to get spots on a train back to Alnmouth free of charge because, apparently, this problem happens all the time. Eventually the remaining members of our group made it back to the station, got off the train successfully then caught the bus to Alnwick and enjoyed the rest of the day at the castle.

We were able to take a tour of the castle that had just opened for public tours a few days earlier. The Duke of Northumberland still lives at the castle so, as the tour guides remind you, it is still very much a family home. It is so hard to tour a building like that and think of it as a family home. To me, a family home is comfy…I think of my parent’s house where the walls have dings and scratches from years of carrying hockey bags up the stairs. Instead, this family home had silk wallpaper…no dings there, stuffed dogs and knick knacks that were so expensive I would be afraid to ever touch them. The only indications of a family living there are a few family pictures here and there. I really wish we were able to see the rooms that the family actually spend most their time in to see if you get more of a homey feel from them. Anyway, what we did see of the castle was pretty amazing and really neat to see. After exploring the castle and taking a tour of the grounds as well as a tour of the movie-making surrounding the castle. We then headed to the Alnwick Gardens on the property of the castle. The Gardens are very extensive and have one of the largest poison gardens in the whole world where the plants can actually kill you. There is also a huge fountain that does different water shows throughout the day. Drew and I had a lot of fun rediscovering our inner child in the bamboo maze. It was a pretty dense bamboo forest and Drew kept running away from me to hide. I would chase after him, giggling (it was really mature). I was pretty embarrassed when I turned a corner, in the middle of a giggling fit, and almost ran over a little thirteen year old boy. Then it just became hilarious as the little boy decided that he wanted to join in on our game and took off chasing Drew through the maze. I was laughing too hard and had to stop running but I think the boy eventually caught Drew and Drew and I decided we should stop creating such a ruckus in the bamboo maze.

The next morning we hit the road again and headed first to the small village of Seahouses on the coast in northern England and, from there, we took a cruise around the Farne Islands. On the cruise we were able to see tons of grey seals, puffins and lots of seabirds. We were also able to spend an hour on an island that is a protected seabird sanctuary. After our cruise we went to Holy Island/Lindisfarne Island. It is a tidal island so there is absolutely no access to it when the tide is in. We went right after the tide had gone out so it was pretty busy because everyone had been waiting to get to it. On the island we were able to visit the Lindisfarne Priory which is where St. Cuthbert served as priory and it has many ties to the introduction of Christianity to this part of the world. After our time on Lindisfarne we were on our way back to Dalkeith. For the students our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks with lots of schoolwork and final papers due. For me, our return marked the beginning of a crazy couple of weeks since my supervisor, Patty, was back in Minnesota on holiday for two weeks. Things around the house were very busy but the house was still standing when she got back so it all worked out!