Cambridge 2010: Three Months On The Trot

For your information: In response to some e-mails requesting more information, especially history, of various places I have visited, I have went back in the entries and linked a lot of places to a corresponding site I thought credible. I also formatted the links to open in a new tab/window, instead of taking you away from the blog. Thank you for your continued readership.

This morning, we loaded up the bus and left Scotland to come back into England. Today we visited the Lindisfarne Priory, on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and a few castles nearby. There is a really cool thing about this island. The tide comes in twice a day and covers the road leading to it. They have little refuge places set up for people to take cover in because people not from the area can sometimes get caught in the tide. Dr. Hogg showed us the priory ruins (Did you know that monks brewed beer?), brought us into the church to show us some different things, had us to explore the museum, and then let us loose to explore the island for a bit. I went to go eat lunch since I was really hungry. I got a brie (surprise, surprise) and bacon panini. It was really good, and killed the lunchtime munchies. I also got a Magnum ice cream bar to curb the dessert munchies. Like most UK things I compare in the food/drink area with the US, here goes the saying again...it was like a brown cow, but in the way a brown cow never knew it could be.

We loaded up the bus and visited various castles in the area. We went into the town of Alnwick to allow the Harry Potter fans to explore Alnwick Castle (used as Hogwarts in the films), while those who chose to do otherwise went into town to grab a bite to eat or shop a bit. I went into this one little boutique-type store to look around and found the most perfect gift for my mom. I got us both something from the Radley line. If you visit the site, you will totally understand why this was so perfect.

I looked for the post office so I could ship some stuff home, but could not seem to find it, so I slowly made my way back to the bus. I stopped in a bookstore on the way and they had real cheap Nicholas Sparks books, but I had just made a purchase, so I chose to leave it. I get on the bus and we set off toward our hotel. We arrive at the hotel and it was just beautiful. It is located right on the water, has a pretty stone bridge in view, a well-maintained garden with little bunnies hopping around, an outdoor chess set (the pawn was longer than my leg), sauna, steam room, jacuzzi, and pool. The best part was that I had my very own room, with a huge bed, looking over the garden beside of the river and bridge through my corner window. It was a little bit of Heaven. I made myself a cup of tea and watched the sunset from my window.

I went down to dinner, which was wonderful, then I tried some new dessert that had a meringue base with ice cream and different stuff on it. After dinner, we all migrated into the next room to watch some 25-year-old guy sing soundtracks to elderly people who were attempting to dance like teenagers. The music was a little loud for me (read: I lost 1/2 my hearing in just 5 minutes), so I went back to my room and relaxed.