New Castle and Travels

I just found free wi-fi on the train to Edinburgh! It was a bit pricey at the last hotel, so I decided to wait. This is the update from yesterday, but I will soon be posting about our fabulous adventures at the Alnwick Castle from today which is a historic site and also where many scenes from Harry Potter was filmed! I will write more about that tonight when I'm not sucking up the battery! Hopefully I will have an easy way to get internet at this next location. If not.. I will be back to London and the Royal National Hotel Thursday night! =)

Until then!.. love, Bethany

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This post was delayed because of not having free wireless at the hotel in New Castle, so I decided to wait until our next location. This was written May 17, 2008.

Today we did a LOT of traveling. We began our adventure by waking up at 6 am, or 1 am US –time. By the time you woke up at 7 am, we had been on four buses and two trains! We started early and hit a few speed bumps along the way, and our hotel is much farther from the city than we expected, but we are here in New Castle now.

We did get to visit the Seven Stories Children’s Lit museum, which housed a wealth of interactive and creative displays about children’s literature and various authors. My favorite was the 5th floor exhibit about Roald Dahl and Quinton Blake (stories you might be familiar with include Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach). I am so tempted to buy up the literature in the bookstore and have been dying to purchase a copy of Paddington bear, but I have so far stuck to buying Beatrix and two authors that we are going to meet later in the trip. I purchased two new Emily Gravett books, both of which I like a lot more than the first one I picked up, called Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears and The Odd Egg. I also snatched Amazing Grace, in paperback, which is one of Mary Hoffman’s most famous books, and we will be meeting her as well.

After the museum, Ellie, Sarah, Laura, Peggy, and I decided to stay in the city for awhile before heading back to the hotel. We walked through some shops and looked at clothes that were much too expensive for us to buy!.. and then we asked around about a place to eat and finally settle on a P… ?... restaurant called Nando’s which was spicy and delicious! Sarah and I split a Rosé wine which was delicious, but after 2/3 of my glass was gone I discovered I was a bit of light weight (or maybe the wine was strong), so I stopped after a glass. It was delicious though! We just missed our bus, so we waited in a coffee/ice cream shop until the next one came around. We have a lot of traveling to do tomorrow, so I’m going to stay in for the night, but I haven’t decided whether to have some peace and quiet in my room or to go to the lounge and be social. In any case, I’m relaxing for now and might do some light reading.

**update: decided to be social!.. it was quite fun!!**

A long and exhausting day. I think Joanne is thinking of cutting out this leg of the trip next year because it’s a bit of a hassle for one day. I’m kind of glad we’re taking off for Edinburgh tomorrow! Hopefully I’ll have access to the internet there!


Love from across the ocean,
Bethany