Learn All About Alnwick Day...

Today we got down to work, starting with classroom time.(I should say that almost everyone made it to class at the designated hour. The ghosts and gremlins of the Castle apparently played havoc with one alarm clock during the night!!) We discussed young adult author David Almond. I found out how much fun it is to have a group of avid readers and book lovers as students. When the small groups got together to discuss an Almond book of their choice, it was hard to gain control of the class again. Some of the terms that we came up with as a group to describe his writing were: eerie, spiritual, past/present, and puzzling!

This afternoon, Philip Deakin, local history and archaeology guru, presented on the changes that Alnwick has experienced over the years. He showed us slides of old photos and postcards spiced with his dry British humor. This evening, Christine Mitchell and her son-in law Paul toured the group around Alnwick in their Dreadnaught Bus Company's vintage 1957 double decker bus. It was the perfect complement to Philip's talk because after viewing the slides, we got to see everything for real as it exists today.

An optional excursion was a trip out for afternoon tea after the lecture today. Fourteen of us went to Granny's Tea Room and enjoyed treats, including hot chocolate with the works, chocolate fudge cake, cherry cake and of course tea. And we still managed to squeeze in dinner only 2 hours later.

Now we're all resting up for the trip to Newcastle tomorrow, which will involve adventure with public transportation. More about that tomorrow night. See pictures at the bottom of the post--maybe I'll get them moved into the blog one of these times.