Moody Mists

We woke to a heavy fog and mist mixture this morning. It didn't bode well for our coastal plans, but we forged ahead. As the coach took us towards the North Sea coast, the mist got thicker and thicker. When we stepped out of the coach in the tiny fishing village of Craster, we couldn't see our planned destination of Dunstanburgh Castle, some 1.25 miles ahead--as a matter of fact, we could hardly see 50 feet ahead of us. It was a misty and fog shrouded walk--we didn't actually see the Castle ruins until we opened the gate onto the last bit of walkway leading into the ruins. The mist gave everything a moody quality, and it gave an opportunity to take some photographs that would not have been possible under sunny conditions. We did find that it was a great day for slugs and snails, which I will spare you a picture of.

The next stop was supposed to be a boat trip out to Longstone Island to see the lighthouse that Grace Darling and her family were tending when Grace and her father made their famous rescue of passengers from the shipwrecked Forfarshire in September, 1838. The weather was so bad that we chose not to do the boat trip. It would have been most uncomfortable. No one seemed too upset about spending some time in the tourist village of Seahouses instead.

The last stop of the day was Bamburgh where we toured the Grace Darling Museum (very well done). We also made a stop at the St. Aidan's Church and the graveyard there. Grace Darling is buried there as well as her family. The congregation of St. Aidan's raised money for an elaborate memorial and gravestone for Grace so that the grave site could be spotted from the North Sea. Since many of us have read the historical fiction book Grace by Jill Paton Walsh it was a treat to see the site of many of the actual events. Now, if we had only been able to go out to that lighthouse... oh well, something to look forward to in 2010!

Because this is northern England, by the time we got back to Alnwick around 3:30 pm, the sun was shining bright and it was very pleasant. In honor of the clear evening, Merton and I took a walk in Hulne Park after dinner. We walked to a very large tree a mile or so in. Our daughters always called the "Broccoli Tree" during their stints in Alnwick with us.

Tomorrow is our last day at the Castle and as one of the students said tonight "I'm starting to feel sort of melancholy." It's hard to explain, but Northumberland is such a special place with so much history and beautiful scenery that it makes it difficult to leave.