Freshly Minted: Berwick for a Weekend

Luke here...This past weekend, we were invited to accompany 2 fellow American students and our English friend, Tom, to a farm owned by Tom's parents in the Berwick area of Northumbria (right near the Scottish border). The farm is set in the MIDDLE of the countryside, with nothing really around it, save other farms and lots of sheep. The ride up was somewhat less than ideal, as it began snowing on the way to pick up the rental car. Our friend, Doug (from New Mexico), was driving us up there and he was somewhat, though not extremely, experienced in snow driving. It snowed and/or rained the entire hour and a half drive out there, and we had to take it very slow at times. We saw only one major off-the-road accident in one especially snowy area, but we made it to the farm safely around 8:00 Friday night. Tom's parents have owned the farm for some time, but built the house they now live in only within the last 20 years. It is a beautiful stone farmhouse, with a woodstove in a huge living room inside. It was very cozy!

For dinner that night, Tom's mom had prepared us a delicious dinner of roast beef, vegetables, and potatoes, capped with a delicious sponge syrup cake (English specialties). So we ate with his mom, dad, and sister and had wonderful conversations, which later moved to the spacious living room so we could cozy up near the woodstove. We all slept well that night and awoke the next morning to a thicker-than-expected layer of snow (there had been none before the snow of the last night). We were forced to ditch our plans of a car trip to the nearby beautiful Lindisfarne Island, and instead decided on a hike to the nearby ruins of an Iron Age hillfort on a neighboring farm. Much like Yorkshire (in fact, like pretty much anywhere in Britain), the lands were all free to use by the public, no matter who owned them, though Tom knew his neighbors anyway (as you'll see soon). We took Tom's dog, Bertie, with us. Bertie is a generally very well behaved (except when sheep are about) black lab. Shortly after we began our hike, it started drizzling on us, which was not really fun. But we were all dolled up in Wellies and rain gear, some of which was provided by Tom's very hospitable family. The walk was very beautiful and there were sheep in many fields. At one point we saw Tom's neighbor herding sheep with two sheepdogs and an ATV, and he said hi as he was heading home.

The rain picked up after a while and became snow on and off, but after a couple hours we had made it to the top of the hillfort. It was very cool to see up close and from a distance, in its terraced and ancient splendor. Apparently there are several others nearby as well, but we couldn't see them as somewhat thick clouds had set in. The view from the top was pretty phenomenal and we were told that on a good day, you could see the North Sea. Scotland was easily visible, as we were probably walking only several hundred yards into 'English territory.' On the way back to Tom's farm, we took a shorter route, pretty much straight down the mountain, rather than the less steep roundabout way up. The rain had picked up again and we were all getting very wet. At last we got back to the farm and had a hot pot of homemade vegetable soup and freshly-made tomato and cheese sandwiches waiting for us (as I said, his parents are VERY hospitable). We had a delicious lunch and basically just hung out reading and talking in front of the fire during the afternoon. We then played Taboo until dinner, which, naturally was delicious. It was a cheese and meat lasagna with vegetables and was finished off by a delicious chocolate cake-type dessert. After dinner, we had more interesting conversation by the fire and just hung out talking until the wee hours of the night. We also ended up watching a few episodes of a British TV show--not quite Monty Python, but the humor is still very 'British.'

Sunday morning we awoke to a slightly clearer sky and slightly less snow. We decided to take a drive around to some nearby sights (though we couldn't make it out to Lindisfarne). First, we stopped at Millford Iron Age and Neolithic site, which housed a reconstructed henge monument and reconstructed Iron Age and Saxon houses. It was very beautiful there, but unfortunately it started raining, causing most of us to dash into the car for several minutes (Allison was the only one with an umbrella--she stayed by the henge). From there, we drove through the town of Ford, and saw its castle, on the way to the town of Etal. We drove through the minuscule town of Etal, saw its castle, and then travelled to the nearby small town of Norham, to see its castle. So, basically, we spent our morning seeing old castles and cute country towns while driving through the rain -- it was VERY 'England.' After Norham, we drove to the town of Berwick on Tweed, which is on the North Sea and right on the Scottish border as well. It was a very pretty town and we'd love to come back some day when its warmer and less windy and rainy. From there, we drove back to Tom's house for a late lunch. And what a lunch it was! We were treated to roasted pheasant with cabbage, cauliflower, and roasted potatoes, and the whole thing was topped off by a delicious apple crumble...again, VERY HOSPITABLE! After lunch, we said our goodbyes and thanked them many many times before driving back to Newcastle.

PS--we only had ONE 'driving on the wrong side of the road' incident and it only lasted a few seconds. It was overall a successful British driving experience.

The countryside near Tom's farm and our walk to the hillfort: