Day Trip with Rabbie's

So Thursday and Friday at school were BORING... every single one of my classes was taking a test, so I had prep periods instead.  Needless to say I finished all of my prep for the week and had time to research for my interview Friday.  My interview hopefully went well.  I'm only unsure about it being a middle school job when my focus has been high school and that I will not be able to make on-site interviews in the chance I am selected for a 2nd interview.  Here's hoping though!
So last night (Friday) I was looking at my lists I've compiled of places I wanted to go, and with the help of my facebook friends, I decided to book a tour to Alnwick Castle!  The tour is through Rabbie's (http://www.rabbies.com/tours_scotland_edinburgh/alnwick_castle_berwick_borders.asp?lng=en) - they have several tours throughout the UK.  I really want to take a trip to the Isle of Skye, so that's a possibility for next weekend or my other long weekend.

So I woke up early on a Saturday and walked to the Rabbie's headquarters on the Royal Mile... about a 30 minute walk.  Got on the small bus (it's really more of a van, but I'm going to call it a bus) which sits 16.  We had 10 people on our tour plus 3 tour guides.  There's usually just 1 (I think), but since this is a brand new tour, some other guides are trying to learn the route.  Our first stop was Melrose, Scotland and we only had 30 minutes!  I decided to go to Melrose Abbey - absolutely gorgeous.  This is where Robert the Bruce's heart was buried... crazy!  You can also see in this picture how high up a spiral staircase I climbed... how's that for someone afraid of heights?

Then we got back on the bus... next stop: crossing the bridge from Scotland to England.  For those of you wondering, you can do this without a passport - both still part of the UK!

Our next pit stop was Flodden Field, where the Battle of Flodden took place.  Kind of a sad story... Britains lost a lot of lives there.

Next stop:  Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Castle!  This is where the first 2 Harry Potter movies were filmed.  I bought the castle & garden ticket.  The garden was nice, but probably not worth the money.  The castle grounds were also disappointing until I realized I was standing in the exact spot where they filmed the flying lesson scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone! Here's the clip in case you want a refresher or you want to see where I was standing: http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=10372  So that was pretty awesome, thought about buying a broomstick until I realized I would have no way to get it back to the US. The best part about the castle was the State Rooms.  The Percy family lives in the castle and these rooms were absolutely gorgeous! I would have take probably 100 pictures but no photos allowed.  Bummer... you will just have to go and see for yourself.  I also went on this underground tour (for free)... some actors tried to make it scary, but I wasn't scared.

We got back on the bus.  Made a stop at Bamburgh to have a look at their castle.  Then we stopped at Berwick-upon-Tweed, a town that has switched hands between Scotland and England 13 times!  Most people living there (70% I think) are Scottish, so maybe it will go back into Scotland territory soon.  After we crossed back into Scotland we stopped in the town of Dunbar, known for being sunny and the birthplace of John Muir, the founder of national parks! 

My favorite quote of the day was when my tour guide pointed to his map and said "North Berwick - it's like the nipple of the top of the land".  I think I was the only one that really found that funny.  When we got back to Edinburgh I stopped by this underground bar and got some fish and chips!  Pretty sure my new tradition is fish & chips once a week... I am going to be highly disappointed when I get home.

So that was an extremely long but wonderful day.  Thinking of going on a long trip again next weekend since I don't have school Monday.  Near London to go to the Harry Potter exhibit OR Isle of Skye, Glencoe, and Loch Ness.  Decisions, decisions.