Back in 2010 whilst I was still studying at university, I went on a day trip to Alnwick Castle & Gardens, which is in Northumberland. I went with a large group of people, the group being called 'Connect', which I volunteered for.
I loved the idea of this group, it was a society that just always had something going on, whether that be a movie night or a day trip. It was aimed at anyone who attended university that found it hard to make friends, or even just someone who wanted to get out of the city and attend a day trip but otherwise couldn't. It was a really sweet idea as I think sometimes people don't realize that when you go away to university, it can be quite lonely and you can get homesick, so I was delighted to be a part of it all.
 |
| Image taken from Wikipedia.com |
Anyway, it was a really, really lovely day and I recently found the photos from it so I decided to do a blog post about it. I was looking so forward to studying in Sunderland as I knew there were so many beautiful places I wanted to visit, but in actual fact when I was there I rarely got the chance to visit any of them! That's why when I get my car I'll be taking another visit up there to go to all the places I said I would. Some of the places I managed to visit such as South Shields and Alnwick Castle & Gardens definitely were my favourite places so there is no doubt that I would definitely visit them again.
Alnwick Castle & Gardens were absolutely beautiful, the grounds were stunning and the castle was filled with tons of rich history. Parts of Harry Potter were filmed at the castle and upon arrival we had a brief tour of these parts, all of which we reckonized from the films.
As we walked further into the grounds/inside the castle it was all set out in medieval times and we found out more history regarding the castle. I of course wandered off to explore and found this scary dragon and around the corner found a small attraction called Dragon Quest where you walked through a part of the castle all scary themed with things trying to make you jump! It was really funny, I love stuff like that and I thought it was quite quirky especially as it wasn't really advertised as an attraction but more of something you discovered yourself when wandering around the grounds.
 |
| Scary thing that made me jump, it looks like Cloverfield! |
 |
| So cute! |
Alnwick Castle is considered to be one of the biggest castles in the country and I love anything to do with castles so I was really pleased at the opportunity to visit it. We did go inside the castle but you weren't allowed to take photos in most of these parts as there was a lot of art and such.
To avoid making this post too long with too many photos, I will post the second part of the post - which is about the gardens - tomorrow!
Please note all photographs are copyright to myself and this blog, excluding the first image used which I have clearly stated was taken from Wikipedia.
