In the morning we drove to Alnwick Castle. There was quite a long walk from the carpark to the castle. Had we but known it, we could have walked to the castle via Alnwick town in the same time.
The car park was enormous and packed but the castle, its gardens and grounds absorbed them and we didn't feel crowded.
This is the entrance to an inner courtyard and the state apartments. There is no queue and you could walk straight in, but we took a free historical tour and then visited the various exhibits and by the time we were ready for the state apartments there was a queue, but it moved fairly quickly.
The castle has been used in films and TV including Harry Potter and Downton Abbey, thus there were a lot of children running around in wizard's cloaks.
The castle has been home to the Percy family since the 1300s. One of the early Percys was Harry Hotspur.
This statue of Henry (Harry Hotspur) Percy is in the castle grounds. Hotspur gained his nickname from the impetuous way he'd spur his horse into battle. He features in Shakespeare's Henry IV (Part 1)and is remembered in the football club name Tottenham Hotspur, who's ground is on land once owned by the Percys.
Alnwick Castle is very good at handing visitors, with many attractions and a selection of restaurant from an old fashioned fish and chip place to the coffee house with indoor seating that we chose.
In the afternoon I walked to Barter Books, a large second hand bookshop with a café in the grand Victorian Alnwick station.
Model trains run along to tops of bookshelves.
In the evening at Hogs Head Inn we had the cunning idea to order one rump steak and one aubergine and lentil dish and divide them between us.
The wine was a rather good Syrah
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