After weeks of sunshine, sunscreen, hats and eventual sun burn (although a faint thong tan on my feet) imagine my excitement at waking up to rain hitting the roof of Amy's little house in Gretna. I really am a Taswegian at heart. I am not accustomed to so much sun. It does weird things to me. So yes, I was rather excited for a cool change and a bit of rain. Amy very kindly let me sleep quite late so it was close to noon before I surfaced.
Amy had taken the day off work and had planned a tour of a couple of things close by. Knowing of my liking for Harry Potter, Amy drove to Alnwick Castle, the scene for a couple of scenes in the first two movies. The castle was used to film some of the Hogwarts scenes: the broomstick flying lesson in the first film and the crashing of the flying car in the second. It is the second largest inhabited castle, behind Windsor Castle. It is home to the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. The family lives at the 'house' for half of the year: it's only open to visitors from April to November. It's a very beautiful castle. It was built as a medieval fortress before the family began living there in 1309. The rooms inside have been restored in the last few decades so it's incredible impressive inside. Although it's funny to notice the flat-screen TV and the sky TV box, signs of the times I guess. It looks a bit odd, but I also think it's nice to see the signs of the castle still being used - there are photos of the current Duke's family in the library too.
The castle has an interesting recent history, compared to a few places I've visited where nothing much has happened in the last few hundred years. During the Second World War, the castle was used as a refuge by students at a local girls' school and more recently part of it is used by St Cloud University in Minnesota, USA, as a branch for the uni's international studies program. The state rooms are gorgeous (the wallpaper is silk) and there is a display outlining some of the restoration and the attention to detail is impressive.
The weather was pretty horrible - I only wanted a slight drizzle but what we got was enough to saturate our clothes. But we did get a few breaks to explore the grounds. I had packed my Drizzle (a reusable poncho designed my a friend of Kims in Brisbane) so that was handy. It's bright pink so Amy couldn't loose me either. We made a run for it back to the car and continued to drive though Northern England. Gretna is right on the border so we were out of Scotland in the first few kilometres of our journey today.
We drove back through some gorgeous countryside. Even with the weather it was a beautiful sight. I guess it's how Scotland should be seen...it would probably look unnatural bathed in sunlight. We made it back a little late and enjoyed an Australian (and Megan) favourite of steak and vegies for tea! A welcome change from baguettes.
No comments:
Post a Comment