Liebe Lucy / Milady,

I continue to TRAVEL (not voyage!) a lot! And I have met people I also have not seen before, but first we went to Newcastle to visit Florence Kirkby, whom I have seen previously. THEY had lunch with her, which HE had cooked the night before and taken up the A1 (that’s a road) in a pot in my sink! 

Then we went even further north and made our way to The Lee, near Longframlington, where lives an old friend of M’sieur S’s (as you name him). Steve and Louise Bray have this house at the top of a hill – some challenging bits on the way there! – with wonderful views to the front:

and behind:

[Steve was Head of Music at Boothville Middle School, Northampton, when I was Head of French there; we became good friends and have kept in touch over the 32 years since I left Boothville and the 29 years since I left Northampton.]

Steve and Louise had prepared a room for us (although we had said we would sleep in Harry), which was very kind and welcome as it was a cold night. But electricity was provided so Harry didn’t freeze (schön!), and that evening they took us down to Morpeth for a super supper at an Italian restaurant – NOT a mistaika to maika! Back at the house on the hill we showed photos and indulged in reminiscing till around midnight.

Goodnight, then.  ….

Saturday 22nd March: HE had full English breakfast, SHE had café-croissant. Then I took them all out for the day.

(Not the cat!) We drove to Alnwick where I got left in a car park for a few hours – M’sieur S can tell you what THEY did – then later we went back over the hills to this place:

where THEY had a drink and admired the views. We took the friends back to The Lee, going through Rothbury on the way:

We could see The Lee across the valley some time before we got there:

Then I had to drive through this shallow ford and up a very steep, bendy hill to get to the houses:

We said goodbye (Au revoir) to the friends straightaway and drove back to Wakefield, with several stops on the way, including a sandwich-stop for THEM at Leeming Bar. Es war ein schöner Tag! – Une journée magnifique.

Danke, Harry; I’ll fill in some details. At Alnwick  we visited the Castle Gardens. As we went in we noticed the tree house, which has a restaurant inside, and thought we would have lunch there:

However, we were disappointed to find it was fully booked for the day!

An outstanding feature of the gardens is the cascade and fountains:

We walked up beside the pool and through the arch at the top. On the way down we stopped to admire the garden’s oldest tree:

In the end we had lunch at the ‘Pavillion’, and it was very nice, but lacked the atmosphere of the tree house. We tried to get a view of the castle, but couldn’t really get to a good spot because this section of the garden was closed till next week:

We made our way back to Harry after a visit to the gift shop:

and got a better view of the castle (used as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films) from the road as we drove round the town:

To travel in Harry, the ladies sat at the table, with Steve in the passenger seat:

After leaving Steve & Louise at their home, there was a pleasant farewell to this area as we crossed the river (The Coquet) in the evening light:

Harry had a ‘day off’ on Sunday 23rd March, which was a very special day and deserves a diary entry all of its own. Watch this space.