This is the second of the “Travels Down Memory Lane Series”. Over the last couple of years, there hasn’t been an opportunity for holidays away. So I decided to look at some of the posts I’d planned to write, and for various reasons, I hadn’t. Nothing is as much fun as walking down memory lane and revisiting and sharing the photographs and journals from our travels.
In 2019, we went to Northumberland for a week before travelling to Lancashire for a family wedding. Northumberland was extraordinary. I’d read about Barter Books in a magazine months before and wanted to visit. On our first day, we visited Alnwick and parked. The first thing we did was visit the wool shop, and I spent a little while browsing the shelves before choosing a few balls of sock yarn.
We walked to Barter Books, which is based in an old railway station. There was a very long queue for the cafe, so Neil bought us a drink and a slice of tea brack, and we sat outside on a bench in the sunshine and enjoyed our snack.
Barter Books is utterly magical. I saw a few books that I would love to read. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to read a book about a flying rabbit?
Our next visit to Barter Books was on Sunday afternoon. It was quieter, and we could find a table in the original waiting room area to enjoy relaxing music and delicious fish cakes. There was an ambient buzz of people chatting at surrounding tables in various languages.
I had an incredible time out and relaxation and enjoyed knitting on my current sock project. I wandered around and took a few photographs. Barter Books is a very cool place to hang out.
Neil left me sipping tea and knitting so he could wander around the bookshelves. When I joined him, I noticed that book lovers walking around the books were all utterly mesmerised and in a world of their own.
The next time we visited Barter Books, we’d spent the day visiting Seaham Beach (Durham), and on our way home, we stopped there for a chocolate brownie and coffee! We’d taken photographs of my Humulus sweater on Seaham Beach, but I wasn’t particularly fond of how they had come out.
Our final visit was on the day before our drive to Lancashire, and we visited for our dinner and to shop for a few books we had spotted. I successfully got a couple of them, but others had been sold.
Barter Books was worthwhile for every one of these visits. I loved every moment in this glorious place. I loved the miniature trains travelling along the tops of bookshelves. I loved the murals on the walls. Everything about Barter Books is worth enjoying should you be lucky enough to visit Alnwick.
