No Smoking. Except For Dragons.

In the beginning there was so much we wanted to do. We said the dreadful words "oh, we have plenty of time, we'll do it later." 5 months later, we finally made it to Alnwick Castle. It's the most put-together of all the castles we've been to. I'm sure it's because they make a killing off the Harry Potter movies. It was used in the exterior shots of Hogwarts and Harry's first flying lesson. Crazy.
This being said, it was a very child-friendly castle. Despite a kid walking around with a sharp sword.



Creepy, and rather life-like, mannequins. I didn't necessarily enjoy being in a tight space with them.





At one point one of us said "Wow that looks like a real sword." About a minute later, the man obviously in charge of the swords ran over to the boy and said "oh, that's a sharp one!" He didn't necessarily direct it at the child, it was more of a "oh, shit. I hope my boss wasn't looking."


A snippet of a rather long film projected in the castle. I think they had a checklist of every British phrase, and they could've checked them all off.

My camera was shaking becasue it was scared. Inside there was something of a torture pit that you could see down into. They had a clothed dummy sprawled out in the bottom, and a tape of a man in distress playing. Creepy? Um. Just a bit.










Dress up time! We all had matching outfits (and swords).








Aleia didn't enjoy the spinning glowy tunnel. Neither did my stomach.







The biggest piece of fish I've ever seen. It was DELICIOUS.

Then we came home. I've seen the Millenium Bridge roughly every day for 5 months. It tips 1 to 2 times a day, and this was the first time I'd seen it.