Expelliarmus!

(backblip)

Alnwick castle, Northumberland.

I had a lovely breakfast with Andy before he went off to the opening of a bridge (for work!). Then I caught a train to Alnmouth station and met mum, we'd planned to spend a couple of days exploring Alnwick as a birthday treat for me.

Alnwick castle was pretty spectacular, I'm not sure how but we managed to visit all of the kids exhibits (I did persuade mum that I didn't need a broomstick lesson) including a hall of mirrors which was very disorientating and a cellar tour complete with actors jumping out of the shadows to make you jump! Alnwick castle was used as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films, you can even buy a Griffindor school jumper in the gift shop.

After we'd done everything in the castle which we could manage in one day, we had a walk around Alnwick and went to Barters Books. If you love books then you have to plan a trip to Barters Books, it's the most amazing second hand bookshop I have ever seen. It is housed in the old Alnwick train station building and even has a model railway running around the top of the bookshelves. Stop what your doing and go now!

We went for tea at a local pub. The Black Swan doesn't look much from the outside, but the food is lovely. Following that we were pretty tired, it must be my age, and Alnwick isn't known for it's jumping nightlife so we went back to our B&B.