Thursday is our last full day in Cromer.  The weather is overcast but dry.  We took a ride east through Overstrand and then stopped at the beach in Mundesley for a look and a short walk.  Pretty quiet with the clouds but it looks like it would be very busy on nice day.

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Above the Beach

The Flag Indicates Life Guards Are on Duty

Family Fun

Remionds Me of Revere Beach in 1950

Rocky Underfoot

Snack?

Then it was back in Hi Ho for another 20 miles to our destination for the day, Caister-on-Sea, where we visited Caister Castle.  There is indeed a ruined castle here dating back to 1432, one of the first important buildings in England to be built of brick.  But the real attraction here is the antique car collection of the owner of the castle, Dr. Peter Rowland Hill.  Dr Hill, now deceased, was an avid antique car collector and he took the avocation seriously.  He bought Caister Castle in 1966 with the sole intent of making it the home for his car collection.  His son now administers the charitable trust that runs the site.

I have been to auto museums before and didn’t have high expectations of this being anything special..  But I have to say it the biggest and most interesting collections of automobiles that I have ever seen.  Plus there are buses, fire engines, motorcycles, bicycles, toy cars, and even a large collection of porcelain.  Hi Ho Peugeot was very impressed as well.  Russ Rhoades would be here all day!

There’s a lot of history here too.  For example:

The American Cadillac owned by London slum lord Peter Rachman who was friends with Christine Keeler (who recently passed away) and Mandy Rice-Davies, the two women involved in the infamous John Profumo affair in British politics in 1961.

A Lotus Formula One car driven by Jimmy Clark who died in a Formula Two race in a different Lotus at Hockenheim, Germany in 1968.  Oddly enough, I was at that race with some friends while I was stationed in Schwetzingen, just ten kilometers from Hockenheim.

An 1893 Panhard et Levassor from France that some people consider the first real car in the world.  This picture is one of their later cars from 1902.  Pretty snazzy for its day.

Lots of Bentleys and Rolls Royces.  Did you know in the 1930’s that Rolls acquired Bentley?  They still marketed both cars, essentially the same car with different nameplates on the front.  Eventually the Bentley division of Rolls Royce produced their own models.  In a messy breakup in 1998 Rolls Royce became a division of BMW and Bentley became a division of Volkswagen.

And so much more:

Outside the Huge Museum

Ah, a Woody

White Steamer

Stanley Steamer

Classic MG

Motorcycle Row

White Car Purpose Built for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Row After Row

1899 Benz

Early London Bus

1963 Mini Cooper for Janet Mehren

1988 Ferrari 328

1961 Vauxhall Cresta

1962 Daimler Dart

1927 Voisin C12

We also walked around the castle ruins.  The tower is intact and you can walk to the top.  We didn’t.  We ate our picnic lunch on the grounds before heading home to Cromer Light.  Stupidly, I circled Cromer for an extra 20 miles or so looking for a particular gas (oops, petrol, I mean) station that was not where I thought it was.  My bad!  We did finally get filled up so Hi Ho is ready for the five hour journey tomorrow from Cromer to Whitby in North Yorkshire.

Dinner tonight was a return visit to the Grove Restaurant, postponed from last night.  Once again the food and service were outstanding.  No post tomorrow, mainly a repositioning day.  Bye bye Cromer!

Sandringham is the private and reportedly favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth.  Unlike Buckingham Palace, the Palace at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, and Windsor Castle, Sandringham is actually owned by the Queens’s family and receives no state moneys for its upkeep.  (For you grammar students: Yes, monies is also correct and more common, but I have always used the acceptable moneys.)  The same is true of Balmoral Castle in rural Scotland.  The others are held in trust by and administered by the state.  Sandringham is located near the ocean, not far from King’s Lynn, a city of 43,000 in Norfolk.  It was about an hour’s drive on two lane roads for us from Cromer.

Sandringham House is open to the public only from April until October.  When October arrives, preparations begin for the Queen and Price Phillip’s arrival shortly before Christmas.  There is lots to do as the rooms open to the public are the ones actually used by the Royal Family during their stay.  It is Elizabeth’s tradition to remain at Sandringham until after February 6th, the day her father, King George VI, died here in 1952.

We walked the grounds on this overcast day and then visited the portion of the house that is open to the public.  One really wants to take pictures inside, but photography is forbidden in the house.  (Maybe there is a dungeon where transgressors are locked up?)  Photographs are permitted on the grounds, in the museum, and in the church.  The parish church of St Mary Magdalene, Sandringham, is a country church of exceptional historic interest, with memorials to many members and relations of the Royal Family from Queen Victoria onwards. It is used regularly as a place of worship by the Royal Family and Estate staff.  The estate at one time had its own fire engine but the Queen donated the equipment to the town of Sandringham, which now services the estate in case of fire.  (Saving a buck or pound here and there.)  The Queen’s dogs are all buried here with memorial stones set in the garden walls.  (You can have a lot of dogs in a 75 year reign.)  There is also a statue of Estimate, the Queen’s Irish-bred horse who won the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot as a three year old in 2012 and returned to win the Gold Cup as a four year old in 2013.

A Little History Lesson

The house stands within a 20,000 acres estate in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The original house on the site was Georgian, constructed in 1771. In 1862, the estate was purchased for Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, as a country home for himself and his soon-to-be wife, Alexandra of Denmark. Between 1870 and 1900, the house was almost completely rebuilt in a style described “frenetic Jacobean”. Edward also developed the estate, creating one of the finest shoots in England. The house has passed through three further generations of the British royal family, with two kings, George V and George VI dying at Sandringham.

Following Edward’s death in 1910, the estate passed to his second son and heir, George V, who described the house as “dear old Sandringham, the place I love better than anywhere else in the world.” It was the setting for the first ever Christmas broadcast in 1932. George V died at the house on 20 January 1936. As the private property of the monarch, the estate passed to his son, Edward VIII and, at his abdication, was purchased by Edward’s brother, George VI. King George was as devoted to the house as his father, writing to his mother Queen Mary, “I have always been so happy here and I love the place”. He died at the house on 6 February 1952.

The estate then passed to Elizabeth II. In 1957 the Queen gave her first televised Christmas message from the house. In the 1960s, plans were drawn up to demolish the house entirely and replace it with a modern structure but these were never acted upon. In 1977, the year of her Silver Jubilee, the Queen opened the house and estate to the public.  (Bringing money for its upkeep, one assumes.)

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Stately Trees

Sandringham House Through the Mist

RIP Sandringham Slipper

RIP Candy

The Gardens Abloom

Very Pretty

Magnolia Blossem

The Queen at Home

Estimate, Gold Cup Winner

The Old Stables

Nice Ride

Prince Charles Drove This

1939 Merryweather Fire Engine

No Memorial for Dead Birds

Parish Church of St Mary Magdalene

The Altar

The Pulpits and Altar

Last Look as We Leave

After a few hours on the grounds, we headed home with a stop at Morrison’s (no Sainsbury in Cromer) for a few provisions.

Monday – Salt Marshes & Rescue Animals

On Monday, a Bank Holiday in the UK, we drove 15 miles west to the Blakeney National Nature Reserve administered by, who else, the National Trust.  We spent some time at Morstan Quay walking the Stiffkey salt marshes.  At high tide there are seal viewing trips available in small boats, but, as you can see in the pictures, we were there at dead low tide.  No boats are moving at low tide.  The salt marshes run for miles, and walking them is only possible at low tide except on some administered trails.  We walked a bit and chatted up some young kids who were crabbing off one of the few pedestrian bridges.  They use bacon for bait, and catch them just for fun in competition to see who can get the most.  In the end, the crabs all go back into the thin (at low tide) streams of salt water.  We had our picnic lunch at the tables provided at Morstan Quay.

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National Trust Sign

The Salt Marshes

On the Dock

One of Few Bridges

Elaine and Friend

Crabbing

No Boats at Low Tides

Busy Place When Tide Comes In

The Ground Underfoot

Picnic

From there we headed back toward Cromer Lighthouse, first stopping at the Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary.  At one time this was a sanctuary just for retired shire horses, a British breed of draught horse.  They are beautiful animals.  Now the facility houses a very large rescue operation for animals of all types.  Quite obviously the rescued animals thrive here.  Many will live here permanently but adoptions are also arranged.  We walked about the huge grounds and saw animals of all types.

Then it was home to Cromer Lighthouse for naps.  Dinner was at home.

Tuesday – Military Might

Having done lots of walking lately, we decided on a quiet day.  The fog and mist has descended onto the Norfolk coast once again.  We visited the Muckleburgh Military Collection, just 10 miles up the road in Weybourne.  It is the largest private collection of military gear in the UK: tanks, anti-aircraft guns, missiles, and a plethora of military gear.  You can reserve to drive a tank.  I did not.  There is a life size model of Copenhagen, the horse that the Duke of wellington rode at the Battle of Waterloo.  Copenhagen lived to the ripe old age of 28 at the Duke’s estate. Pictures tell the story.

Cocktails and dinner at home once again.  On the way home I stopped at the Rocky Bottoms in Cromer and bought dressed crabs for appetizers.  Yum!  Dinner was beef bourguignon.

We awoke Sunday morning to beautiful sunny skies and they stayed sunny all day.  It was quite warm when you were out of the wind, and we decided it would be a good day to give Hi Ho the day off and walk into Cromer for a look around.  We started by having a nice breakfast of eggs, ham, and toast at home.  The eggs here are fantastic – delicious with bright orange yolks.

We walked into town along the cliff, slowly descending to beach level in Cromer itself.  We just walked around checking things out.  I had a brief glimpse into Cromer Church (Anglican, of course) where Sunday services were about to start.  Then we went out onto Cromer Pier for a looksee.  There were lots of people dropping crab pots into the sea and getting plenty of crabs.  Cromer is famous for its crabs.  Midway on the pier there is a theater where they have live productions.  It is famous for its summer show, but that’s not until late June and only has two performances.  (A production of Sister Act is playing now.  At the end of the pier is the RNLI Lifeboat Station.

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Starting the Walk

Looking Down to the Beach

Along the Way

Rest Stop

A Famous Lifeboat Captain

Cromer Anglican Church

Cromer Pier

Joe at the Pier

Again

The Pier

Hotel de Paris

Again

Elaine on the Pier

Family Fun

A View of the Beach

The Cromer RNLI Lifeboat Station is manned by 300+ volunteers, and a good many of them were on hand to welcome visitors and collect donations for the station.  We chatted with many of them and enjoyed the visit.  I bought an RNLI hat pin for my baseball cap.  On most Sundays there is a practice launch at 10:30, but they skip it on long weekends, and this was a long weekend – Monday is a UK bank holiday.  It would have been fun to see.

The Lifeboat

The Launch Ramp

Elaine with the Crew

Kids Dressing Up

The Back of the Boat

After that we walked about a bit more and stopped for a Cromer crab sandwich before returning to our lighthouse.  The walk back was a bit more strenuous as it is all uphill back to the top of the cliff.  I had a rest midway to contemplate the North Sea.

Viewing My Realm

Cromer Crab Sandwich

Kitty Kitty

After a nap and an indoor cocktail hour, we got ready for dinner at the Grove Restaurant.  It’s only a two minute drive from the lighthouse.  We had prosecco in the bar where we placed our orders for dinner before being taken into the dining room.  I had mackerel for my appetizer while Elaine had delicious soup.  We both belly of pork for our main.  For dessert Elaine had three chocolates while I had a cheese plate.  The wine was a pinot noir from Chile.

Soup

Mackerel

Wine

Pork Belly

Ah, That Was Good

Then it was home to bed after a long day.  Elaine’s new Sony camera has a panorama feature where you can shoot panoramas. The camera does the work that usually requires post production software of stitching the shots together.  Here are three examples of the Cromer seafront.

Click each to enlarge or you’ll miss the best views.

First, a gallery of some shots from Elaine’s camera during our stay in Craster:

Gimlet at Craster Rocks

Dunstanburgh Castle

Lambs on the Castle Grounds

Passing a Bike Race

Looking Down

Looking Down the Spiral Staircase

A Lager

School Group Has Lunch

On a Craster Walk

Dinner with Geoff & Dorothy

Friday morning Elaine took her last walk to Dunstanburgh Castle with Dorothy.  Actually, they cut the walk short as it was windy and rainy.  At 8:00 we had Hi Ho all loaded up and Meghan, our SatNav girl, was programmed for the six-hour ride to Cromer in Norfolk.  It was a tough drive, partly on the M1 and partly on county roads.  It rained for about two hours of the drive and traffic was heavy most of the way.  We stopped once at a motorway rest area to use the facilities and for me to get a Diet Coke.  And we stopped again along the road to eat our lunch of sandwiches and chips.  In the next town over from Cromer we visited our favorite grocery chain, Sainsburys, to get supplies for the coming week.

It was still overcast and very foggy when we drove up to Cromer Lighthouse, our home for the next seven nights.  We unloaded and had a look around.  The lighthouse keeper’s cottage is very nice inside, and we will be very comfortable.  Unlike most lighthouse’s, this one is about 200 yards from the North Sea, so there are not great sea views from the house.  But there are great paths along the cliffs, and we are adjacent to the Royal Cromer Golf Course.  The 17th (I’m guessing) green is practically at our doorstep.

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Welcome Hamper at Cromer Light

Elaine in the Galley Kitchen

The Lighthouse Helicopter Pad

Cromer Light

For dinner we had home cooked Indian food – a Sainsbury complete meal in a box complete with naan.  Good eating.

We got up Saturday morning to a clear and bright day.  That’s the forecast for Sunday as well before cloudy skies are predicted to return for most of the week.  Elaine walked along the cliff paths all the way (maybe about a mile) into Cromer town.  I did a shortened version and took some picks from the cliffs.

Along the Cliffs

Cromer Beach Down Below

Telephoto

Looking Toward Cromer Town

Royal Cromer

The 17th (?) Green

Pheasant Walks the Golf Course

Our destination for the day was the Blickling Estate, a National Trust property Alysham, about 15 miles away.  Blickling Hall has passed through many hands including the Boleyn family and is noted as the birthplace of Anne Boleyn in 1501 (or maybe 1507 depending on which research you believe).  In 1940 the then current owner, Philip Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian, died and bequeathed the estate to the National Trust.

Blickling Hall

Wisteria

Up Close

Hot Chocolate & Scones

During World War II the estate was requisitioned by the government as billets for RAF personnel who flew from nearby Oulton Air Base.  There is an RAF museum on the estate staffed  by former RAF officers, and we spent an interesting hour there.  RAF Oulton was the home to bombers, including four US B-17’s later in the war, whose main mission was flying with radio jamming equipment to upset German military communications.

Then we had a walk through the beautiful gardens.  What’s a British estate without beautiful gardens!  The house itself is home to the largest collection of books under the care of the National Trust.  There is currently an art exhibition named The Word Defiant throughout the house that highlights the importance of books and the threats posed to them from around the world.  The exhibits were created by the award-winning theater company, Les Enfants Terrible.

The Gardens

The House

After the house we had our lunch at a picnic table on the grounds.

Picnic

No Parking Except for Horses

Then we headed back to Cromer, but detoured a bit to visit yet another National Trust property, Felbrigg Hall. home of the Windham/Wyndham family back to the 1600’s.  Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer had no heirs and donated the house and gardens to the National Trust in 1969.  We toured the impressive home but skipped the gardens as it was getting late.  One tends always to think, “Oh, another National Trust estate, more of the same”.  But each one tells a unique story and all are quite impressive.

Interesting Bath Tub

Great Stuffed Bird Collection

Nice Copper Cookware

Dinner was at home again.  Sainsbury pies (shepard’s pie for me, leek & chicken for Elaine).  On our way back from Felbrigg we stopped at a roadside stand and bought fresh locally grown asparagus and strawberries.  The asparagus was delicious with the pioes, and the strawberries made a fine desert.

Our Fireplace

Leek & Chicken Pie with Asparagus

Shepards Pie with Asparagus

Wednesday was Bird Day

Very cool and misty morning today, and not much in the plans except for a pub lunch somewhere.  Oh, and also a stop in Embleton to pick up Elaine’s new phone.  Her Moto G has been acting up, off and on, for awhile, refusing to take a charge when it doesn’t feel like it.  So today it will be replaced, via Amazon UK, with a new Moto E.

Elaine took her obligatory constitutional with Dorothy at 6:30 am.  Then after a leisurely morning around the house doing a load of wash, we decided to visit the Hauxley Wildlife Discovery Centre run by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.  The wildlife here is birds.  We’ve mentioned how the Brits love their gardens and their cuppa (tea).  Well, they also love birds.  Clearly people here set up in the “hides”, small wooden buildings with benches and slit windows that open for viewing, and stay for hours on end in the odd chance of seeing a Lapwing or a European Spoonbill.  We saw lots of birds and geese.  We actually saw a rare pink footed goose.  Yay!  They are usually about only from October to March and spend the rest of the year in Iceland or even Greenland.  A birder told us this one had probably been shot (legally in season) but not killed and was unable to partake in the long journey to his homeland.

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Visitor Center

After our fill of bird watching (an hour or so), we headed for Rennington Village for lunch at the Horseshoes Inn.  Pints of beer all around – I tried locally produced Farne Island Bitter.  We visited the Farne Islands last years and viewed the huge colony of puffins (and other species).  The appetizers were excellent: deep-fried crispy-coated Camembert with homemade onion marmalade and local Craster smoked salmon with salad and buttered farm bakery bread.  Elaine had a magnificent (and huge) fish and chips and I had beef and chicken strips in barbecue sauce (meh!).  I should have had the fish and chips, but I did get a bite or two.  Forgot to get a picture of the fish and chips – I would have needed a wide angle lens to get it anyway. 🙂

The Appetizers

See the 3 Bears in the Yard? Weird.

The Horseshoes Inn

After stopping to pick up the Moto E, we went home for a quiet afternoon.  I got a good nap in and we did some more laundry.  Full from lunch, we skipped dinner.  Of course, we didn’t skip cocktails.  It was too chilly to sit outside.  Then a little TV and off to bed.

Thursday – A Walk Around Craster

Thursday was quiet.  We drove into Alnwick in the morning to get cold cuts, water, and petrol for Hi Ho.  Sandwiches for lunch at home.  In the afternoon we took a walk from Craster Rocks through town and out along the cliffs to the south.  Not much more to say except show the pictures in two galleries.

The Beginning of the Cliff Walk from Craster

Elaine with Gorse Along the Walk

Cliff View

Another View

Lamb Enjoying the Grass

Just in Case

Elaine with the Lambs

Gorse on the Cliff

Craster Harbor

Lots of Don’ts

Patterns Along the Walk

Dinner tonight will be at the Jolly Fisherman with Geoff and Dorothy.  Tomorrow morning (Friday) we will pack up Hi Ho and leave early for Cromer, about a six hour drive to our next week-long stop at Valonia Lighthouse.  No posting tomorrow.  Be back on Saturday night.  See you then!

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Dinner Monday night was at the Craster Seafood Restaurant with Geoff and Dorothy.  They have been coming to Craster for holidays for 25 years and are well known in the restaurant.  We met them two years ago, and Elaine and Dorothy have become fast friends.  Dinner was grand.  Elaine had salmon.  I enjoyed kedgeree with smoked haddock.  Delicious.

On Tuesday we did something a little different under rainy skies: a 20 minute drive to Almouth where we caught the express train to Edinburgh in Scotland.  It’s about an hour drive, and in first class we enjoyed a nice breakfast snack: bacon sandwich for both of us.  Elaine had hot chocolate and I had tea.  (The English love their cuppa!

Well, Edinburgh was hopping!  I can’t imagine what it might like on the weekend or next weeks’s school break week.  We had pre-booked tickets for entry to Edinburgh Castle, just a 15 minute walk from Waverley Station.  We arrived just as the Changing of the Guard was happening.  Good pictures were impossible because of the throngs of people.

On the Train

Street Piper

The Royal Mile

A Pub

Changing the Guard

Changing the Guard

We had a good walk about the castle grounds, visiting the Great Hall, the prisons, the regimental museum of Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, the Scottish National War Memorial (no pictures allowed), and Mons Meg.  Capable of blasting a 150kg gunstone for two miles, Mons Meg was at the cutting edge of military technology in the 1500’s.  We skipped visiting the crown jewels (long lines!) as we have seen the even larger collection at Buckingham Palace in London.

Two Royal Scots

View from the Castle

Ode to War Horses

Military Bagpiper

Ship Model

A real Royal Scot Guard

The Great Hall

Armor

Mons Meg

After the castle, we wandered down the Royal Mile.  We stopped for a nice lunch of draft beer and pies: I had steak and ale pie, Elaine had chicken, leek, and bacon pie.  I tried a lager beer that I had never heard of –  Innis and Gunn – it was excellent.

Edinburgh Castle as We Leave

Along the Royal Mile

Street Entertainment

Lunch (Mirror Image)

A Close (Alley)

A Street Shoot

British Phone Booths

After lunch we had a look around St Giles Cathedral. Pictures with no captions.:

Then we went to the Real Mary King’s Close where was had tickets for the 2:45 tour.  No pictures allowed in here.  Mary King’s Close is a historic close located under buildings on the Royal Mile, in the historic Old Town area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It took its name from one Mary King, a merchant burgess who resided on the Close in the 17th century.  (A close is a residential street without through access; basically it’s an alley – there are bunches along the Royal Mile..)  The guide we had through the close was excellent and it was interesting hour.

Then it was back to Waverley Station for the ride home.  We had a home cooked fish stew from Sainsbury’s for dinner.  Oh, the rain had stopped by the time we reached Edinburgh, and the sun was shining brightly when we left Edinburgh.  Back in Craster it was overcast and quite cool.

Some Shots from Elaine’s New Camera

Sunday

Another good day, weather wise, although cloudy in the afternoon.  Elaine and Dorothy did their walk to Dunstanburgh Castle at 6:05 AM.  The castle is 1¼ miles from our front door.  I made tea, had some yoghurt, and planned the day.

Having been here for a week last year and the year before, we have seen a lot of the local sights.  One place we had not been was Wallington Hall and Gardens, so that became our destination for the day.  It’s about a 50 minute drive from Craster Rocks.  Wallington is administered by England’s National Trust.  We are members of the Royal Oak Society, the USA branch of the National Trust, so we get free admission and free parking at all their properties.

Wallington was the family home of the Trevelyan family.  Sir Charles Phillips Trevelyan donated the entire estate to the National Trust in 1941, the first donation of its kind.  The estate dates back to 1475 and was acquired by the Trevelyans in 1777.  Charles Phillips Trevelyan, the last owner, was a Liberal Party and later Labor Party leader.  Wallington is set in 100 acres of rolling parkland that includes a wooded valley, ornamental lakes, lawns, and a recently refurbished walled garden.  Alongside the beautifully furnished interior, attractions inside the house include the desk where Thomas Babington Macaulay, brother-in-law of Sir Charles Trevelyan, wrote his History of England, a large collection of antique doll houses and eight murals in the central hall depicting the history of Northumberland, painted by William Bell Scott.  Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Charles’s father, wrote a definitive history of the American Revolution here as well.  The grounds are home to rare red squirrels.

Wallington Hall

Wallington Hall (Side View)

Only Red Squirrel We Saw

Elaine, Lilacs, & Wallington

We spent the first 90 minutes at Wallington walking through the woods and then through the walled garden at the end.  The English love their gardens, and this is a good one.  There were some interesting trees in the woods and lots of flowers blooming in the garden.  Pictures tell the story.

After the garden we were the first to enter the house when it opened at noon.  We walked through all the rooms on both floors which are arranged in a rabbit warren fashion.

The Entrance Hall

Lots of Collectibles

We Hope Harry & Meghan Last Longer

The Center Court

Great Doll House Collection

Another One

The Kitchen

Stuffed Birds

Trevelyan Kids Playing Cowboys & Indians

After the house we had a picnic in the car park before driving home to Craster Rocks for my afternoon obligatory nap.  There was excitement on the grounds on Dunstanburgh Castle as a woman had apparently fallen and broken an ankle.  Our house is just inside the castle grounds, and there are two gates that keep the sheep and cattle that graze the grounds on the property.  Elaine became the gatekeeper for the ambulance and coast guard vehicles that answered the emergency call.

We had dinner at home after all the excitement.  Delicious soups that we had purchased at Sainsbury’s with a nice salad and some garlic bread.  Wine too, of course.

Monday

Here’s a picture of Hi Ho Silver, our Peugeot 3008.  It’s a very nice car and drives like a charm.  Also here’s a picture of Craster Rocks, our home, which sits on National Trust property at Dunstanburgh Castle with a grand view of the North Sea.  On Monday morning we stopped into Alnwick to get Hi Ho all spiffed up with a nice wash and wax.

Hi Ho

Silver

Craster Rocks

Elaine & Dorothy

With a clean Hi Ho, we headed a few miles south to Newbiggin by the Sea.  They have a beautiful beach and a nice little RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) Lifeboat Museum.  After visiting the museum, we had a picnic at at a table overlooking the beach walkway and the harbor’s iconic sculpture of The Couple by Sea Henry.

Puffins at Newbiggen

Newbiggin Bay

Big Empty Beach

The Old ifeboat

Two Old Salts

“The Couple”, a Sculpture in the Harbor

Then it was further south to visit the National Trust’s Seaton Delaval Hall.  In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s the Hall was the place to be invited to one of the Delaval’s famous parties.  The Main Hall was gutted by a huge fire in 1822 and to this day, the Hall remains a shell.  The Delavals abandoned the place and the Hastings Family moved into the West Wing.  Lord Hastings retains a private apartment here today, but the estate was donated to the National Trust who plan to slowly restore it  to its former glory.  Come back in ten years and it might be done.  Oh, the estate has more gardens, of course. An English estate without gardens does not exist.  They also have stables, and the 1885 English Derby and St Leger winner, Melton, was stabled here.

Nice Tree

The Gardens

Elaine in the Garden

Melton, english Darby winner 1885

Dinner Is Served

Spiral Staircase

Seaton Delaval Hall

I forgot to post this picture (click to enlarge) that we took in Windsor before we left the Heathrow area.  Windsor is just 10 minutes away from Heathrow.

Harry looks a little washed out, but he was probably nervous the day before the wedding.

Sunday morning here and the weather is bright and sunny.  The sun is up at 4:00 AM, so we tend to get up early.

On Saturday, tired from all the flying and driving, we decided to have a quiet day.  Elaine took her obligatory walk to Dunstanburgh Castle alone.  (She usually walks with her friend, Dorothy, who stays in Craster for a week at the same time we do.  But Geoff and Dorothy’s rental is from Saturday to Saturday, so she hadn’t arrived yet.)  I did technical things like get the wi-fi working, install the Tesco sims in our phones, and set up the charging station (where we charge our phones, kindles, camera batteries, etc.).

Uh oh!  My camera charging device and one of my camera batteries is sitting in the wall socket in my office back home!  Oops.  No problem though.  Hopped onto Amazon UK, and one is being shipped to me at the Embleton Post Office down the road.  I can pick it up on Monday.

Then we drove into Alnwick for a visit to Barter Books, the absolute best second-hand bookstore in the world.  We enjoyed hot chocolate and fruit scones with jam at their comfortable buffet.  We then browsed around a bit.  I bought three used books: a walking guide to North Norfolk (where we will be next week) and two humorous books about travels people have done.  One is about visiting the least interesting and least appealing towns in England and the other is Round Ireland with a Fridge.

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Hot Chocolate & Scones

We Love Barter Books

And Toy Trains

Lots of Books

We drove home through Beadnell, a pleasant beach town about 15 miles north of Craster.  We had a stop in bustling Seahouses to fill up Hi Ho with petrol and drove past Bamburgh Castle (which we have visited a couple of times in the past).  We were back to Craster Rocks in time for Elaine to watch Harry and Meghan tie the knot.

The weather Saturday was delightful.  Sunny and even warm, in the morning at least – well, in the 60’s, which is warm indeed for Craster in May.  It cooled off later in the day.

I had a walk about through Craster and took some photos.

The Harbor with Castle in Background

A Local Boat

Cheap Enough if We Had a Boat

Signpost

Our Street

I stopped in at the Jolly Fisherman and had a pint – Shipyard Ale from Portland, Maine.  Maybe they can use this as a publicity photo:

After obligatory cocktails at five, we both fell asleep watching TV but luckily woke up in time to make our 7:30 reservation at the Jolly Fisherman.  Dinner was grand.  After dinner we walk right by the cottage where Dorothy and Geoff stay.  They had arrived and saw us, so we went in for a chat.

Cheers!

Elaine’s Scallops

Joe’s Lindisfarne Oysters

Joe’s Fish Pie

Elaine’s Cod

The Jolly Fisherman

The Sign

The Harbor at Night

OK, so this post wasn’t every other day as per plan, but that is still the on-going plan.  So next post will be scheduled on Tuesday.  Then again, you never know.  If you’ve subscribed, then you get an email when I post.  Easy to subscribe if you haven’t – see the right panel on the blog.

Saturday

I should say that Thursday night at the Marriott Heathrow was delightful – it’s a lovely hotel and we will stay there again (some day). We were upgraded to Club Level and thoroughly enjoyed it. The free buffet breakfast was delicious with the best serve-yourself scrambled eggs I have ever tasted, done just right.

At 8:15 Friday morning right on schedule, our new Peugeot arrived. It’s silver. We’ve decided to name it Hiho. Hi Ho Silver – get it? In French it would be Hi Ho Argent. Meghan is the voice of our SatNav (GPS). After adjusting the GPS to know it was in England rather than France, we were ready to hit the road. We filled it up with gas (no diesel this trip) and headed out.

The drive from Heathrow to Craster is about six hours on the M25, the dreaded M1, and the A1. Traffic was heavy almost all the way, but there were no major delays and we made it pretty much on schedule. Five hours into the drive we stopped in Gateshead to visit Costco. We found everything we needed: Kirkland Vodka, a couple of bottles of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, two folding chairs, a small cooler, the latest Philip’s UK Atlas, some cheese and some nuts.

In Alnwick (Annick to us locals), we stopped at Sainsbury to pick up essential groceries: lime juice for gimlets, a shepherd’s pie for dinner, water, Diet Cole, yoghurt, ice, etc. Then it was on to Craster and our home for the week – Craster Rocks. We unloaded, unpacked, and settled in for cocktails. It was a beautiful day – sunny for the whole ride – and we sat outside (chilly but nice) and sipped gimlets (me) and wine (Elaine) as we watched the North Sea. We met our neighbors at Craster Waves, the cottage next door.  They are from Bristol. After enjoying our shepherd’s pie, we were off to bed to sleep like logs while listening to the sounds of the North Sea.

This morning broke beautifully clear again – very unusual weather for the North Sea coast. I broke out the camera and took a couple of pictures. This morning we will watch some of the Royal wedding on TV and then probably drive into Alnwick for a look around Barter Books, the most amazing used bookstore in the world. We plan on a quiet day without much driving. Dinner tonight will be at the Jolly Fisherman, Craster’s delightful pub and seafood restaurant. It’s just a three minute walk down the road.

Click on the gallery to bring up a scrollable window with complete pictures  –  (the gallery preview below shows just thumbnails of the pictures)

Sun Rising over North Sea at Craster

Rising Slowly

Sheep in the Front Yard

Hello Boys

Looking toward Craster Harbor

More on Monday!