Berwick upon Tweed; Sunday, 25 January, 2009

After a late wake up I wandered into town to have a look around the town centre and take in all the attractions which were open. Sadly, as this was the middle of winter, all the museums were shut. Instead, the only attraction to visit was the town battlements, which almost completely encircle the town centre.

The walk around takes about an hour, longer if you divert off to look at the remains of the castle. Unfortunately, my late start hadn’t left me with enough time to do the latter as I was also aiming to catch a bus just before lunchtime to visit an attraction that was open. However, I had enough time to do one circuit, albeit briskly, of the battlements.

Having taken in the sights, I wandered down to the bus stop to catch the bus to Alnwick and from there on to Warkworth and its castle. The journey along the coast is spectacular, especially on such a clear day, with Holy Island and its causeway clear to see, and in the distance inland the peaks of snow-capped mountains. The other spectacular site was the sheer lack of customers on the bus. With the exception of one person who got on at Berwick and went to the next village along, I was the only person, all the way into Alnwick.

In Alnwick it was a quick change onto another equally deserted bus (though this one did at least pick up a few people on route) and onto Warkworth.

The castle in Warkworth absolutely dominates the town, visible from several miles away, the central tower shows how important this area was in the middle ages. I took an audio guided tour of the castle and then had a longer wander around the grounds, before walking back along the riverside, past the medieval church to the ancient bridge and entry gate into the town, which were still used up until a new bridge, was opened in the late 1960’s. Having sampled all that Warkworth had to offer I walked back to the bus stop with a couple of minutes to spare for the bus back to Alnwick.

Coming back from Alnwick the bus was positively packed with one other person on for virtually the whole way back to Berwick (he got off just on the opposite side of the Tweed) and one more getting on about half way along for a few stops. It did make me wonder how much money must Northumberland County Council used to subsidise my journey to make it profitable for the bus company.

Back in Berwick I had a much longer wander around the battlements, taking in the remains on the castle this time, and using the vantage point provided from the top of the walls to watch the last of the sunlight disappear into the Tweed and the stars come out.

By the time I finished walking around the walls I was knackered, so I decided to grab a bite to eat in a local fish and chip shop, and then, lazily, caught a cab back to the hotel for an early night.