I've been traveling since 2004 and while I've been to the London Heathrow Airport many times, I've never actually set foot in its cities or towns. I've always thought my first experience of England would be London but instead, it's turned out to be the villages of the North. We (Steve, his brother and myself) set out on an early drive out to a town called Alnwick where Steve's parents grew up and now live. It's what you'd imagine a small English village would be with its small houses, quaint roads, peaceful stretches of sandy beaches with the clouds as a backdrop. I spent a total of 3 days here in the North of England and absolutely fell in love with this area. His parents busied us with visits to a handful of historic castles, beach walks with the dogs and stops for tea and cake. I love a good tea in a cute shop!
There are hundreds of historic castles here in England. Some are ruins and some are still serve as homes to the royal. We personally visited Almwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle and Warkworth Castle while driving by a few others. Of the bunch I saw, Bamburgh is the most epic standing massively on a small sea front hilltop with records of its existence dating back to the year 547. When you see something built from the year 547, it makes everything else I see back at home seem insignificant. I used to marvel at the "est 1907" plaques. I may scoff at them now! Maybe. The most charming castle of this bunch for me would be, Dunstanburgh and that's because of the sheep fields you passby leading up to the castle. Dunstanburgh dates back to 1313 and it's shown in ruins but you're able to climb the steps to see field after field of this North England beauty.
This part of England is so quaint and quiet that it's hard to believe the reality we currently live in with the situations of a Trump presidency in the US and Brexit looming for Britain. The common thoughts from some locals around here seems to be that the US will be able to recover from a Trump presidency as this will blow over in a few years and the damage he has done is fixable with the next administration. So, while the short term effects seem drastic, the long term effect may be nominal. However, I have the Supreme Courts appointments on my mind! With Brexit, the thought is that while there aren't any short term effects, the long term effects could be quite detrimental particularly to the younger generations. I wouldn't disagree.
Another observation I had here was that their pharmacy drugs are significantly cheaper! My allergies came alive when Steve and I were on our way to Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. I was able to buy some rather effective allergy meds at half the cost of what I'd get in the US. For example, a 24 pack of Zyrtec D would cost $29. A 30 pack of Prinsitine cost £9 pounds or $13 and it was on abut one get one half off so I essentially purchased a 30 pack for $9. The cost of our healthcare in the US has weighed heavily on my mind ever since I had my preventive annual check up and saw the bill for lab work. Outrageous! Needless to say, I've loaded up for the next three allergy seasons!
This Europe trip of mine wasn't quite planned. It came up rather last minute as Steve had a conference to attend in Edinburgh and I tagged along to meet his family. His family have been so kind and gracious, I will miss them and look forward to our next visit. The funniest was when Steve's dad asked me,"does Steve still pile the sink full of dishes?" And when I replied, "um, no." His mother added, "Yi put a stop to that, she's very tidy." I'll miss our mornings waking up to views of sheep and open skies. Until next time, England! And with that, it's countries #32, #33 and #34 going on the backpack!
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