Northumberland Day 1 - Newcastle upon Tyne & Alnwick

We had a trip to Northumberland recently. Day 1 was our travel day. We stopped by at Newcastle upon Tyne for breakfast on our way to Alnwick. It was a misty, windy, chilly miserable day. Unfortunately walking in the town of Newcastle wasn't fun. We chose Quay Ingredient for a place to have a breakfast because the cafe was well-rated on tripadvisor and open at 9am on Saturday while many cafe and restaurants are open at 10am or later. The cafe was pretty small but certainly popular. We were able to get a table without waiting but it didn't take long to be fully packed and start a couple of people waiting outside. I had multigrain toasts with avocado and a poached egg. It was simple and good. A cup of hot tea warmed up my cold hands and tummy. J had Eggs Royale and hashed browns along with cappuccino. They looked nice, too. 

After the breakfast, we walked a bit more in the town. I didn't find much interesting. It might have been because of the messy weather...

Anyway, we left Newcastle before noon and drove up to Alnwick, where was our base town during the trip. It was more rain and more rainy in Alnwick. The check-in time was 4pm. We needed some kinds of indoor activities to kill time until then. Finding such things was very difficult in the small town. There was a large secondhand bookstore, which seemed like a good place to spend some hours. However, once we saw a long waiting line to get in the store, we gave up. Although we just had breakfast, we decided to have a lunch at Caffe Tirreno, an Italian restaurant that was located outside of the town center. I had a half portion of spaghetti with Napoli sauce (tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs) since I wasn't really hungry at that time. The dish was ok. J had Tagliatelle Carbonara. His appetite sometimes surprises me.  

We didn't order desserts but a pot of tea, which allowed us to stay longer there. However, it was impossible to stay at the cafe until 4pm. We needed to find another indoor place. We went back to the secondhand bookstore. There was still a long waiting line but we needed to kill time anyway. Plus, the store was on our way to our cottage. Also, it was a place that a couple of people we know recommended to visit. It was a good opportunity to check it out after all.

Barter Books, one of the largest secondhand bookshops in Britain was located in part of an old Victorian railway station, which was closed in 1968. They offered tons of books! Some sofas, benches and chairs were here and there. We browsed and stayed dry until 5 minutes before 4pm.   

To be continued...