Northumberland

I started for Alnwick on the half nine bus from Haymarket, fog closing in on either side of the road so that all I saw were endless rows of daffodils along grass verges. I spent an hour wandering narrow, cobbled streets and taking photos of the castle, a dark smudge against the skyline, then took another bus down the coast to Amble, where I searched in vain for a chip shop before heading back along the roadside path to Warkworth. As the fog, if not the temperature, finally began to lift, I jumped back on the bus for the short hop up to Alnmouth, a one street village above an estuary and miles of flat sand. Back in Alnwick I browsed for second hand books in the bibliophiles' paradise that fills the old train station, and meandered around the town, killing time before the bus ride home.