62B or not 62B?….

We drove into Berwick on Saturday, not once but twice. I wanted to change my phone sim to a nano sim which would fit the new phone. However the Vodafone shop needed to scan my passport before this highly secure transaction could occur and of course I don’t carry my passport with me. Honestly, we have less trouble flying out of France.

Though Berwick is an attractive town and prettily situated on the Tweed, it is suffering from the high street malaise of empty shops. We found a long stay car park and almost immediately passed the above renumbered house, which tickled our zany sense of humour. It was a bit downhill from then on. Berwick isn’t unpleasant at all, it’s historic and has interesting buildings but hasn’t any ‘wow’ factor. Maybe it doesn’t pretend to..

We found somewhere for lunch which left us underwhelmed and we drove back to our B&B in Horncliffe, where we collected the passports and drove back to Berwick. The girl in the Vodafone shop sorted out the phone very quickly and pointed us to a cafe for some much needed coffee and cake. Mielle Patisserie is a bit of a hidden gem. Speciality teas and coffees (Espresso Bonbon, coffee on top of condensed milk) and super cakes. We’d definitely come back to Berwick for this place..

Today, we’d decided to visit Bambrugh Castle, which is really outstanding. We toured the interior and had a less than outstanding lunch in the cafeteria. However, the castle is really worth a visit…just take sandwiches.

It was early afternoon by the time we decided we were ‘castled out’ and despite a desperate need for indigestion tablets we thought we’d push on to Craster, further down the coast. Craster is famous for it’s smoked kippers, though we read some tourist info that nowadays the kippers are imported and only smoked in Craster. It’s a very pleasant town, with a tiny harbour and even tinier beach where two children seemed intent on paddling in freezing waves. We even found a cure for our indigestion, a cream tea at a charming little cafe..