Berwick Upon Tweed

On Sunday we spent the day in Berwick Upon Tweed. It’s about an hour’s train ride south of here and it’s a gorgeous seaside town at the top of the Northumberland area of England. The destination came very highly recommended by two people I work with and a few from Brandon’s work too.

We started the day without much of a plan. We knew a few basics about what might be good to see but we decided rather than have maps and itineraries, we’d just wing it. We began with a trip to McDonald’s for breakfast on the way to the train station. This is a singular treat for us now…long gone are the days of grabbing breakfast burritos at the drive-thru on the way to work. We caught the 10:33 train and ours was the first stop on this service ultimately bound for London. It was a beautiful ride and the view soon changed from green rolling fields to shoreline cliffs. The best part for me was seeing all the sheep of course.

Sheep and the sea...perfection!

We pulled into the Berwick station at about ten past 11. We began by wandering from the station in the direction we thought was towards the centre of town. But we got a little sidetracked by a small path and we followed it down to the quay side where we got some great photos of the bridges. Up another path and we then rather quickly found ourselves in front of a church. Service had just let out and we tried to go sneak a peek inside, but we were turned away due to a meeting that was taking place. We wandered through the cemetery for a bit and I tried to find a Summers’ monument since we found out the night before that Brandon’s family came from that area. No luck there, but we quickly drifted towards another church that’s set inside the walls of the cemetery. The door was unlocked but until we found a sign that said visitors were welcome, I wouldn’t let Brandon go in. When we did go in though, we were so glad we did. It was beautiful and so perfectly silent and still. I love finding churches like that. While I know the big ones (Westminster in particular) are still houses of worship first, they just somehow lack the presence that small, seemingly undiscovered churches have. We didn’t even take pictures inside because it just seemed like it would be wrong.

The path down to the quayside walk.

Monuments inside the cemetery.

The Catholic church.

We could see the Berwick Barracks, a complex we knew was there, but it’s all closed up for the winter so we couldn’t go in. We made our way back towards the centre of town, bought a magnet for our fridge, and got a map from the shop owner. Then we made our way back towards the train station which turns out is built on the site of the old castle. There’s not much left now, and what is there is in the middle of a cattle pasture. We walked up the hill and climbed over the wall to see what is obviously a party spot. There was garbage all over and graffiti which made me a little sad. But, we took pictures through the windows in the wall and then made our way down the hill to the river bank where we stood and visited with the cows a bit. There was another view point to climb up on and this spot afforded great views of the rail bridge. Brandon tried to blaze his own path up the hill but didn’t get far due to the amazingly thick ivy growing everywhere.

Iside the ruins of the castle.

A great view of the rail bridge.

Back up into town and into a chippy for lunch. We shared an order of fish and chips and a small pizza which was all very good. And then, since I was lucky enough to have caught a wicked cold last week, we went into the grocery store to buy some drugs. And Kleenex. Lots and lots of Kleenex. And that’s when we found the old town wall. Berwick has a very turbulent past. It’s changed hands between the English and the Scots about 15 times since the 16^th century due to its strategic location between the Tweed River and the ocean. The wall is built up with gun placements and bunkers and you can walk around almost the whole town.

Walking on the town wall.

We stopped at a gate to chat a bit with some ladies out walking their super friendly collie dog and eventually found our way to the street that lead us to the breakwater and lighthouse. I couldn’t smell the ocean due to my cold, but Brandon said it wasn’t too fishy smelling, just salty. Even without the scent I was flooded with memories of all the walks we took along the breakwater in Victoria when Grandma and Grandpa Penner lived there. This wasn’t nearly as wide or as long and we couldn’t go right out to the end where the lighthouse was placed though, a fact that made Brandon quite sad. They’d even extended the fence out beyond the cement walkway so you couldn’t just step out and around the edge. We stood around here for a while and then made our way back. We didn’t get very far though before I jumped down onto the beach to collect a little bit of sand. And to take a picture of a piece of driftwood. And to pick up seashells. I could’ve spent hours there searching for the perfect shell but it was getting rather chilly and we had a way to go yet.

This is as close to the lighthouse we could get.

Best self portrait of the day!

A rather huge piece of driftwood on the beach.

We found our way back up onto the wall and we just wandered a bit into town too, and eventually found our way back to the main street. There was a fabulous little antique shop that had the cutest little collection of mini teapots in the window, but it was closed so I couldn’t inspect it closer. Probably a good thing! We decided to call it a day and made it over to the train station. Back to Edinburgh and back to home. It was a fabulous day.

And this photo is just a friendly reminder that it is January!