After breakfast we had a quick look round Berwick though we had insufficient time to do it justice, leaving mid morning. None of us had been there before and it’s a really interesting small town, packed with history, fine buildings, cobbled streets and Elizabethan town walls, an important military town guarding against the Scots.
It was a delightful sunny ride to the Lindisfarne causeway on a track along the cliffs with views of sandstone ledges washed by the tide but slow going. It was noon by the time we’d reached the point for our intended detour to Lindisfarne but we opted to skip it due to the time and the volume of traffic going that way, I’d like to revisit at a less popular time of year. Instead, we called in on the Barn at Beal, the cafe was closed for a private function but the bar was open and I couldn’t resist a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.
We continued inland, crossing the East Coast main line several times before returning to the sea at Bamburgh. We rode past the castle but the town was busy with tourists so we didn’t stop. Our original plan was to stay two nights in Seahouses for a day trip to the Farne Islands but all the accommodation was booked up. We made a small detour into this small fishing village which was disappointingly scruffy, a fish and chip kind of place. Even the B roads and minor roads were busy with tourists, we’d had to go off route to Alnwick for somewhere to stay since everywhere was booked up along the coast. The Budget Lodge was very basic but clean though the mattresses were too soft for us. Our first choice of restaurant was fully booked, surprising for a Monday but we found a promising looking pub and ate well.