Weekend trip to NE England - Northumberland - Farne, Seahouses and Bamburgh - I

So, I had always been keen to travel to Seahouses to take the trip from there by boat to the Farne Islands to watch seabirds. I knew I had three off-days from the 1st to the 3rd of July, and I tried to book a hotel almost a fortnight ago. Unfortunately, most of the hotels in Seahouses were full, too costly, or had no single rooms. Hence, on Thursday last, I gave up on the idea of going on this trip.

By the time it changed from Thursday to Friday, though, my mind was screaming to me to listen to its inner voice. I booked my railway trips, sorted out my funds and was ready to travel the same afternoon.

I set off around mid-morning. My trip would take me from Blackpool to York and then from York to Berwick (pronounced berrick) upon Tweed. From this place, I would need to go by bus to a place called Beadnell that is about 3 miles from the Seahouses pier where the boats would ferry me to Farne Islands. The journey that commenced from my home at noon culminated in my checking into the hotel at half past seven. That means a good, solid travel time of 7.5 hours! (This would be repeated in reverse on my return trip, hehe.)

I went with the flow, as it were. The initial trip from Blackpool North railway station to York railway station was through Northern Railways. The train was quite empty when it started, then filled up and emptied off and on at Preston, Bradford Interchange, and so on. This train has no pantry car, no trolley service, nowhere to go and have drinking water nor any drinking water bottles (as I have seen elsewhere in the UK) and no plug points to charge one's mobile phones or laptops. The only interesting thing that happens is when the train reaches the Interchange. From here on, the train direction reverses! Which means that instead of facing forward, which I was, earlier, the last leg of my journey saw me facing the rear view as the train was now going backwards as it sped towards York.

Arriving near York station

Inside York station where I changed trains

I had some coffee and a lunch here at York

At York station, I had a much-needed break where I stopped at a small tuck shop to eat a lamb curry with bread. This shop is called ----- From York, I boarded a Virgin East Coast train with all the modern trappings that Virgin trains have. As I had booked the ticket over the net, I also got a code to use the onboard internet for free. I am sure the Virgin trains to London do not have free internet, so this was a pleasant surprise. I did have an issue where the charger points in the entire compartment where I was booked a seat were non-functional, so I requested and was granted leave to shift to another compartment and find myself an empty, unreserved seat and use that one for the rest of the journey. This made things a lot more bearable. The journey takes more than 1.5 hours, so it was a bit long, but the views of the northeastern countryside were really remarkable. We did pass a few important towns such as Darlington and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Berwick arrived at around 5:00 p.m. As it swung into view, I took photos of the bridges that span across the Tweed River here. 

A beautiful bridge upon the Tweed river

Darlington on the way to Berwick upon Tweed

Berwick upon Tweed

Berwick station

Outside the railway station, where I got onto a bus to Beadnell

From Berwick upon Tweed, it is an hour-long bus ride to Beadnell, where I had booked a hotel room for two nights. The bus that takes you there is an Arriva bus and the # is X-18. It runs three or four times a day, ending at Alnwick, and it goes via Seahouses and beyond it to Beadnell, a small beachside town where I had booked a hotel room in the Hotel Beadnell Towers. I reached there at half-past seven. The owners are a couple. The guy, someone named Michael, was around when I reached. He instructed his reception staff to guide me. I was allotted a single bedroom on the first floor. I went up, showered, and then returned to the restaurant below to have my dinner, a delicious chicken curry with naan bread and rice. I confess I was unable to finish the huge dinner plate that was served!

There was free wi-fi here, and I returned to my room sometime around 10 p.m., contemplating on my exciting adventure to unfold the next day. Little did I guess what misadventure it was going to be - but more in my next post.