From Battles to Broomsticks

The past few weeks have included a number of excursions all over the UK.

Alnwick Castle and Newcastle.

Alnwick castle is a scene of many movies, including the first 2 of Harry Potter. I got both a Historic tour of the castle grounds as well as a Battleaxe to Broomsticks tour that pointed out where all the various scenes have been shot. We got to see the main road between where Hagrid's house was located in HP films and the castle/Hogwarts, the one seen when people enter Hogwarts, the main arch entrance, the scene where the Whomping Willow was set up, the lawn where Broomstick practice takes place as well as the Malfoy/Harry chase, and the green lamp area where the boys make fun of Hermoine's wingardium leviosa. The inside of the castle has been rebuilt as very Victorian and Renaissance, so the inside was not used since it does not match the outsides. But the castle is a living residential castle, so we got to check out the State Rooms, which are the library, family, dining, living rooms of the Percy family. It is crazy to see all these portraits from the past 600 years mixed with modern photos of the family fishing with their kids and various wedding photos. They also have a massive modern TV in the super awesome library with giant bean-bag chairs. Not going to lie, I would not mind living in such a pretty place!

The trees and I now are the same color :p

Broomstick practice site

On the lookout

Good thing the Alnwick Castle lion looks a lot like the Gryffindor lion...

Fun fact: St. Cloud State University offers students the opportunity to live and study at Alnwick Castle. So when they return they can say "Oh ya, I just casually lived in AN ACTUAL CASTLE!

View from Alnwick Castle

Our guide, Daniel, was only slightly bitter that he never had the chance to be a body double for Harry Potter. 

Such a great name for the organisation!

Lunch time :D

We then were off to Newcastle. There we went to their local castle, which looked like one would expect a modest-ish castle to look like, but it had awesome views from the roof. It is a great juxtaposition of this industrial city build all around a castle.

View from roof of Newcastle Castle

Tea time in a cafe that plays Chicago Blues :D

Hadrian’s Wall and Carlisle

Hadrian's Wall was the Northern point of how far the Roman empire spread out and is now ruins of the wall and forts that were located along it. It was really nice to just be able to walk along the grass between the ruins, right next to roaming sheep.

Happy? Were they really? How can you be so sure? I'd like to see that interview transcript.

A real life Whomping Willow-an extra layer of protection at Hadrian's Wall

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what typical Scotland looks like: green grass and roaming sheep.

Maybe a stone house here-and-there...

Hadrian's Wall

Then it was on to Carlisle Castle, which due to the proximity to the England/Scotland border, has been the location for many invasions and is the most besieged castle in the UK. Carlisle Castle is also the location where Mary Queen of Scots hid from the Scots, and instead wasted away in a tower.

Claire and Lena attempt a selfie, camera style.

Besides the excursions, I ran a Halloween 5K Fun Run. It was fun to see everyone in their costumes running, plus throughout the course we got glowsticks and candy, so it was like we were trick-or-treating along the course. It was a nice way to keep us motivated.

Today I went to an Aerial Arts class which was extremely fun. Photos below :)