During this brief visit back to England we dashed up to the
north east, the day after we arrived back in Yorkshire. A year ago, Mark had
bought tickets for the first 2 days of the Ashes test match in Durham, and had
booked 3 nights at Lumley castle Hotel, which overlooks the Riverside cricket
stadium in Chester-le-St.
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| Lumley Castle Hotel, Co. Durham |
Visiting the north east is always good as it gives me a
chance to catch up with some family members. My grandmother, Alice, was born in
Chester-le-St. and although there are not too many relations still living
there....there are a few.
Before the cricket even started, we had dinner at the
castle, with my cousin Audrey and her husband Len. I was their bridesmaid 54
years ago !
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| Me, in 1960, behind my cousin Cindy, at cousin Audrey's wedding |
Lumley Castle Hotel is fascinating. Most of the building
dates back to the 14th and 15th century. Even the
renovations date back to the 17th century. Stories of ghosts abound,
but generally, it has a very good reputation, service and food being excellent.
The decor is “interesting”. In an attempt at authenticity, the bathrooms are a
little over the top.....including plastic reproductions of old masters.......not
a good idea in my mind. However, as most of the public rooms, as well as the
bedrooms , are genuinely very very old......it is a spectacular place to stay.
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| Bathroom, equipped with plastic old masters |
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| The hotel reception |
The cricket was, as always, like a game of chess. We only
had tickets for the first 2 days, and things moved slowly, but I am genuinely interested
in the way a test match develops, and am very happy to watch hours and hours of
not a lot happening. The crowd is always worth watching anyway!
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| Legends: Michael Holding and Ian Botham |
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| This is what cricket is all about |
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| Men in shark suits......of course. |
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| Men......of course.....no idea what they were supposed to be dressed as, but they had a good time |
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| The crowd, including members of the barmy army , creating a plastic glass stacked snake |
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| Me with a couple of Aussie umpires, during the lunch break |
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| Boxing kangaroos.....as if you needed telling |
After our 3 nights at Lumley Castle, we headed further
north, to Alnwick. We visited the castle there, and were very impressed by the
way it has been developed following its Harry Potter fame....as one of the
places where much of the Hogwarts action was filmed in the first 2 films. The
castle also features in some early Black Adder scenes and in Kevin Costner’s “Robin
Hood, Prince of Thieves”
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| The entrance to Hogwarts.....I mean, Alnwick Castle |
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| Broomstick flying lessons |
(We were interested to learn that in one scene of the
Costner film, a baddie is kicked out of a window by Friar Tuck.....the kicking
out scene was filmed in Carcassonne, and the scene of the same baddie, landing,
having been kicked out of the Carcassonne window, was filmed at Alnwick) .
After a wonderful few hours, when we decided that we must
bring the 5 year old grandsons here, we drove a further couple of miles to
Alnmouth. Lesley, another of my cousins lives here, and we stayed with her for
our last night in the north east. I have met up with her a few times over
recent years, but have not seen her husband since their wedding day 40 years
ago. We had a few years of gossiping to catch up on.
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| The beach at Alnmouth |
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Cousin Lesley and I, 40 years after my last trip to Alnmouth
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| My last trip to Alnmouth, 40 years ago....when Lesley got married. Mum is on her left and I am on her right. |
We returned south, the Ashes Test still continuing at
Chester-le-St. As I write this the result is still not clear. Mark has just
called through to me ( he is watching it on TV as I type) that it is going to
be a “ nail biter”.
So, I think I’d better go back into the living room and bite
my nails with him.
