The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

During the holiday we headed to Lindisfarne, taking time to check out the tide times as you have to drive across a strip of land which is submerged during high tide.  

Maisie was quite disappointed as she thought we'd be driving through the water. 

 It's quite a long walk from the car parks to the actual castle, especially for little legs.

 We were one child down due to the "lurgy" although at this point we just though Ben had eaten something bad and not that it would take pot shots at us all. These 3 are hiding from the sun and probably sweating in the 15 layers they're wearing, as it was supposed to rain and we dressed them for Arctic conditions.

 To break up the walk we wandered along the beach side looking for shells, we were lucky enough to spot a seal on the walk back.

We never made it inside which was a shame but one of the necessary evils of travelling with small children, their attention span for old things is not really the same as ours. 

Lindisfarne is certainly a beautiful and peaceful pace and I'd love to return there and spend longer visiting the rest of the island.

I hope you've had a happy holiday.

Alnwick Castle

Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

The second largest inhabited castle in England, it's been the home to the Percys, the Duke of Northumberland's family for 700 years. 

The castle featured as Hogwart's in the first 2 Harry Potter films. 

It now runs Harry Potter themed weekends for children, although lots of adults seemed to be enjoying them.  They have lots of different events all year round.

Maisie, Lucas and Daddy and Ben got to do some broomstick training with the castles resident wizards.

 Maisie was a natural, getting to fly and making her broom float no problem

There's a part of the castle called Dragons Quest which if you have nervous or young children you may want to check it our first before taking them through, it's very old style haunted house. 

There was so much to do in the grounds that we never got the chance to go round the main house inside.

 There was a magic show performed by Hagrid and Harry, but my 2 were too busy with the games arena. There was a chance to dress up, make ceramic tiles, make a wizards wand, fight a knight game and drawing your own shield. All the castle helpers were dressed in period dress and really seemed to enjoy their jobs. 

 We didn't get to visit Alnwick Gardens this time as we were shattered, but will definitely make a point of going next time. 

As a family of four it cost £36 pounds so it's not the cheapest entry fee, but that price does include an unlocked ticket which allows you unlimited return visits for a year. More information on prices for The Castle and Alnwick Gardens can be found here.

 This is one venue which will defiantly be a family favourite for years to come.

Amanda.x.

Sea, sand and sickness

So for a few years now we've been taking holidays with family down south, however this year we went North instead and headed towards Northumberland.  It's not far to drive just over an hour and the beaches there are wonderful. We were staying in a grand and beautiful holiday house, they have to be quite big as it's for Sue & Dave(Mother/Father-in-Law) and their dog Fox, Claire and Lee(Sister/Brother-in-Law), their children Ben and Josh and their dog Bonnie and myself, Stu, Maisie and Lucas.

We were staying within a short drive/long walk with children from Cresswell beach, a shell finders haven, and after a week of beautiful weather I was hopeful it would continue throughout the week. 

Well how wrong was I, and the week had more in store than a bit of dodgy weather.

I'll leave the highlights for other posts but a quick run down of the week is 

Friday:
arrive to lovely house settle in, weather nice.

Saturday:
Alnwick Castle (Harry Potter day), weather nice, Barter Books, Ben get sickness bug.

Sunday:
Holy Island, pleasant weather, long walk, Lucas gets sickness bug.

Monday:
Cragside, beautiful weather and amazing place, long walks, great bridge, play the hat game :-)

Tuesday:
Farm park outing, it bloody snows, came home to 12 hour power cut, drink a lot by candle light.

Wednesday:
Claire gets sickness bug, Meal at Tree house at Alnwick, get call from solicitor to say house sale can complete, Stu and I have to drive home remove furniture from house and post keys into estate agents. Goodbye house. I start throwing up on way back, sickness bug gets me.

Thursday:
Sunny :-) Bamburgh Castle (amazing), picnic, surreal telephone call in Castle to sale house sale is completed. Onto the beach, everything is lovely. Maisie get sickness bug.

Friday:
Pack up, Stu complains of tummy aches :-( bug comes home with us.

All in all a strange and yet wonderful holiday, and in the next few posts I'll explain why.

Hope you had a great half term holiday

Amanda.x.