July 25, 2014 – Edinburgh – Lindisfarne – Alnwick Castle – Durham.
From my journal:
Drove Elyse & Emma to the train station and left Edinburgh from there.
Drove to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. It was a fairly brief visit. First we went to the Abbey; went through the museum, then the the ruins.
At Lindisfarne, you can only drive to the Island at low tide; at high tide the sea covers the causeway. Given the time limit with safe crossing, we decided not to rush to the castle.
Drove to Alnwick, which is certainly one of the best if not the best castle we’ve seen. The staterooms were splendid, with better art and furnishings than we’ve seen elsewhere. The Italian chests were fantastic. I even liked their china collection, which not really my thing. There were performers. A couple of small museums. Really great.
Also, I finally scored a postcard for Scarlett, as the interior and exterior of Alnwick was used for Hogwarts in the movies.
We drove on to Durham, where it turned out we had our own room at the hostel. We walked around the town center and ate at an Indian restaurant again.
The Free Range 