A couple of weeks ago my sister was visiting from Canada and the weekend weather forecast was promising, so we decided to spend the day in Northumberland. We packed the cars and drove up to Alnmouth for a walk and lunch at the beach followed by a mooch around Alnwick in the afternoon.
If you’ve never visited Alnmouth and Alnwick before I highly recommend. It’s about 1h and 15minuts by car from Durham (traffic along the A1 depending) and perfect for a fun filled day out with beach walks, book shops and perhaps even lunch in a tree house.
We left late enough on the Saturday and made our way up the coast to Alnmouth Beach. It can get pretty busy and you’re not likely to find free street parking on a weekend, but there is usually enough spaces right down by the beach – although take note that it costs about £3.50 for parking with zero amenities and only a handful of picnic benches.
We arrived about 30 minutes after my parents as we had to stop for a toilet break on the way up and not being sure of services post the metro center had decided to briefly stop at Ikea which ended up being a bit of a detour and confusing google maps something awful!
Anyway, we eventually made it and were lucky with the weather. It was surprisingly sunny and warm at the beach and not the 8 degree we’d been expecting. So we set off on a dander along the beach with Maya bounding along in happiness and stopping to dig in the sand every few minutes.
It was such a peaceful walk in the sand. The beach oozed a soothing presence with the gentle lapping of waves, warm glow of the sun and fresh sea air dancing around.
When in Alnmouth we always make a stop at Scott’s of Alnmouth – a lush artisan coffee stop and deli. A lot of the foods they stock are admittedly rather pricey, but we see it as a treat and choose something for a date night at home. This time was a wild garlic pasta, truffle pesto and a Portuguese wine.
After our mooch in the village we made our way back to the beach and the cars for lunch and were lucky enough to nab an empty picnic table. I honestly hadn’t thought we’d be having a picnic outdoors at this stage in the year – but the weather held up and it was fab.
After lunch I was almost ready to head home as a wave of tiredness hit me, but we packed up and made our way to Alnwick. Mum wanted a walk to the tree house at Alnwick Gardens but we were rather surprised and annoyed (on my part) to discover that dogs were not allowed anywhere on the grounds at all. So my parents had to stay behind as my sister and I took our partners to the tree house as they’d never seen it before. It’s a cool sight to see and has a wonderful restaurant inside if you want to go for a special lunch or dinner. However, it really wasn’t our day as even the tree house was fully shut for a private function and we couldn’t take a closer look. Thus we headed back to the car and shuttled off to Barter Books which, especially if you’re a book lover like me, is always a must visit.
If you haven’t been or heard of it before, Barter Books is a second hand bookstore located in an old railway station. It’s one of those wonderfully quaint and quirky places that ooze cosiness and charm. They have a huge variety of books from lifestyle, cook books and art to fiction and even some foreign language books. It’s just lovely to have a mooch around and or grab a drink from their cafe and sit in one of their cosy nooks to get stuck into a book. Barter Books also offer a scheme where you can hand in old books in exchange for credit. I’d been meaning to set up an account for ages and finally did so, trading in some books I wasn’t going to read again. I decided not to pick up any new books on that trip yet as I already have such a ‘To Read’ pile at home.
After a nice browse we called it a day and headed back home for dinner and a game.
I’d love to know if you’ve been to Barter Books before and what your favourite spots in Alnwick and Alnmouth are – do let me know in the comments.
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