Today dawned fine and sunny and we set out from Seahouses to Belford with high spirits and happy hearts. Oh no, wait - that was the dream I was having. It was actually cold and wet with the prospect of the walk to Belford being truly miserable so we exercised our executive rights and jumped on a bus instead.
Our first bus ride took us to Bamburgh which has a very imposing Castle - even through the freezing rain. We wandered around for a little while before finding a pub with brasserie where we could shelter and have a nice cup of coffee. After that we wandered along to the Grace Darling Museum which tells the story of Grace and her father, William's dramatic rescue of nine survivors from the am packet Forfarshire in 1838 after its engines had failed and it ran aground in the Farne Islands. History has focused on Grace but at least half of the credit goes to her lighthouse keeper father.
After that we caught the bus to Belford where we found a coffee shop where we whiled away some time with coffee and lunch. Afterwards we visited the local district History Museum which, although small, was quite interesting and showed some fascinating glimpses into how people lived in times past.
Needing to kill some time before we could check into our accommodation, we spent some time in the Blue Bell Hotel and chatted to some of the locals there. We were surprised when one of the obvious locals ordered a 'Nigerian Lager'. This turned out to be a Guiness. After visiting the post office to send some postcards, we fronted up to the Old Vicarage which is our lodging for tonight. Being an ex-vicarage it is right next to the churchyard so the neighbors should be quiet to tonight. The house was built in about 1680 and then later on, the father of one of the vicars didn't think it was grand enough so built a new vicarage and this one was sold off. Our room is nice and we are right sent to the bathroom. They also put on complimentary sherry etc should we be so inclined.
Tonight we intend to eat at the Blue Bell Hotel which is right next door - how convenient ;-)
Later - had a nice dinner at the Blue Bell, Dominic had Chicken Kiev and I had Scotsman's Chicken (stuffed with haggis).
