Durham and castles

It is October already and life still is not slowing down. Looking back we crammed so much into the summer holidays and I have not had time to divulge all on this blog.

The Ladies have been so lucky with the weather. We have been all over the place over the last few weeks.

We walked along the south bank of the Tyne via Bill Quay farm.


                  


I have been to Warkworth twice- once with the Ladies on a walk (via Topsy Turvy in the village) round the coast.

We chose the most beautiful day- with sun, a blue sky painted with altostratus and a light breeze.

and found others enjoying a plodge too. Northumberland at its best then; it is chillier now and the nights have definitely drawn in.
Our Dutch friends B&E came a-visiting; E likes castles so , explaining that historically the county had been a war zone, mainly between England and Scotland, therefore we had an abundance of castles- we headed north to Warkworth,

Dunstanburgh,

Bamburgh and finally Alnwick.

Alnwick is still lived in- Harry Potter learned to play quidditch here on a broomstick!
Depending on the weather, the Ladies get up to all sorts. In torrential rain last week we went to the Laing to admire the Quentin Blake exhibition.

This week we lazed along the River Wear on a riverboat cruise with commentary about Durham;

in fact we have visited Durham City twice of late; we walked the streets of old Durham town the week before. Like Warkworth Castle, Durham Cathedral is built inside a natural moat- a river meander; then Durham Castle has been built on the neck of the meander to protect the monkish wealth from invaders.

Harry, Hermione and Ron were first seen coming into this snowcovered cloister (alias Hogwarts) clutching their books in -was it the Philosopher's stone?

We mooched around like tourists drinking in everything as though it was all new to us. Tired, I arrived home to find D3 had brought me a gift from work

which was spiky,(or was it spikey?) modern and lasted for AGES.