St Nicholas Cathedral

For breakfast I chose the continental option which was delicious. Afterwards, we returned to the Cathedral to appreciate some of the things that I had learned about in the guidebook I purchased the previous day. Some of the Cathedral’s features were now temporarily covered over for a student graduation event. It was lucky that we had visited the day before because I would have missed out on the new guidebook and getting my pilgrim passport stamped.

Alnwick Castle

We drove to Alnwick. Mr C wanted to visit the castle because of current interest in the Wars of the Roses. Despite having to book a time slot, the castle seemed a lot busier that I remembered it on previous visits. Visitors were asked to keep a respectable distance from others but many people ignored this. One woman was herding me along, almost in my pocket. I stepped to one side to let her go in front. She muttered an apology and someone else got herded along.

Alnwick Castle

Mr C visited the military museum in one of the castle’s turrets. I chose to wait outside soaking up the rays. The castle shop turned out to be disappointing and Mr C didn’t find any books on his subject. We had hoped to have lunch in the café but it was shut due to staff shortages. The only food outlet at the castle was a concession that sold Greek kebabs. The teashop next to Alnwick Garden was limited to mostly cake, the main café being inside the garden which we had decided not to visit. We had a quick look around the shop before heading into town for lunch. We found a takeaway sandwich bar where I chose a chicken and stuffing roll, which when it arrived was enormous. I enjoyed the delicious sandwich sitting on a bench next to the market square.

St Lawrence Church Walkworth

By the time we had finished our lunch it was too late to visit Cragside (as I had hoped) for its formal garden and pleasure drive. Instead we headed off along the ‘coastal route’, eventually stopping at Warkworth where we found a teashop that had a piece of raspberry Bakewell tart with my name on it. Before leaving Warkworth, we visited St Lawrence Church and explored its treasures.

The Castle, Newcastle

The carparking area around the hotel was in utter chaos when we arrived. Mr C grabbed the last pay and display space rather than struggle to see if a space could be found on the hotel carpark. After we had parked we learned that the reason for the chaos was due to some students having their graduation celebration in one of the hotel’s function rooms.

Safely back in the room, we freshened up before dining in The French Quarter, Arch 6, the arch being one of the arches under the railway viaduct. We found that the French cuisine was served in a Spanish Tapas style and whilst we perused the menu we enjoyed a glass of bubbly Prosecco.

2 Comments CherryPie on Sep 26th 2021

2 Responses to “Newcastle & Durham – Day Three”

  1. Newcastle is in my bucket list, can’t believe I still haven’t done it yet.
    Passed through the town couple of times on my way to Edinburgh though.