Amanda and I love Alnwick - which explains why we kept returning during the course of this holiday. We stayed in a cottage in Alnwick back in 2007 so we could get in and out of the town on foot the last time - I remember spending rather a lot of time in Barters Book, which is a massive second hand book shop in the old railway buildings. And I bought so many books that the exact amount has stuck in my memory ever since - THIRTY-FIVE!!!
It snowed all week - it was early February - and we spent a lot of time trying to keep warm. Other things I remember include taking two hundred photos in Alnwick Gardens, even though there was nothing in bloom! Mainly because they have some beautiful sculptures and fountains and we were playing about with new cameras and seeing what they could do. And sausages. We had sausages every day - either for breakfast, packed lunches or dinner. And the one day we DID go out and eat in a pub, rather than cooking for ourselves at the cottage, we both had bangers and mash! That holiday brings back lots of laughter-inducing memories!
Alnwick hasn't changed much since we were last here - the off licence selling mead has disappeared, which was a bit disappointing. And we couldn't get into the Alnwick Gardens or the Treehouse Restaurant because of the boys. But on the whole, it was pretty much as I remembered it. Lovely little town - very bustling and workmanlike, exactly how I like my towns.
We were pleased to see that the wool shop was still in the market place! We had googled wool shops and knew that there were two wool shops within fifteen miles of our cottage and, as it turned out, there were actually three - bonus! We did think there should be another wool shop at Wooler. Fancy having a name like that and not having one - it's almost against the Trades Description Act! Amanda and I already had a conversation about wool on day one of the holiday - we had shopping lists for things we wanted to make for Christmas so had an idea of what wool we needed. (Amanda and I came up with another business plan - a mobile pattern library/ wool shop - and people could ring us up when they needed wool urgently and we could drive to their work place or village - we figured we could become the UK's sixth emergency service.)
We spent some time in Barters again - well I did, Amanda was a little underwhelmed this time. The weather was shocking and we both got soaked - and Barters is known for its comfy sofas, real fires, coffee and cake, so the world and his wife were taking cover in there. I think Amanda turned tail and fled out of there. There were lots of people sitting around on the big sofas and there were lots of very well behaved dogs in there too - I just wish that Finn would settle enough to take him into places like this.
Only two books bought this time though - one on my shopping list and one Christmas present. Perhaps I'm learning a bit of restraint at last!
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