Alnwick, originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl.

We set off on our journey to Scotland last Wednesday… first stop, Alnwick (pronounced Annick) Castle on the North East Coast of England. This is the castle Hogwarts is based on in the Harry Potter films. They filmed parts of the place and CGI’d the rest. Kind of cool in person. The castle and grounds are a major tourist stop and were fairly packed. There was also a fee just to walk on the grounds, not to mention the other fee to go inside the castle. We decided to try and get to a spot where we could take photos without actually paying to go onto the grounds. We weren’t staying long anyway, so paying the fee seemed kind of ridiculous, especially given that it was kind of steep.

We paid to park, decided to have a little picnic there in a very nice area where the dogs could be with us. Another rub of entering the grounds at Alnwick is that dogs were strictly not allowed. In fact, the guy at the pay booth for the parking specifically told us no dogs allowed.  Bummer. After our nice picnic lunch Martin and I set off in search of the perfect spot for photos. We actually ended up going around toward where the pay booths were, but then veered off onto what, to us, looked like any other path. We followed this path and ended up on the grounds, near the castle. Who knew. I think it was a gardener’s path and we weren’t supposed to use it or be there, but what the heck. We both felt like someone was going to stop us at any moment and tell us to go, but we ventured forth anyway, just so I could get some shots. Which I did. This is one of them. You can actually recognize, from the films, the center part of the castle. It looked familiar to me.