Holy Island (from a distance)

In October we took a little overnight jaunt to Northumberland in which it rained and rained and rained and rained.  We visited Bamburgh Castle, solidly built looking out over the North Sea.  We couldn't see a thing on the day we visited, and KJ's desire to drive out to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne was vetoed by me that day, as I thought we would just be wet and miserable and longing to get dry the entire time we were there.  

Happily, as we were driving toward Scotland yesterday (an unexpected Christmas trip inspired on Thursday after being offered free accommodations near Loch Lomond over Christmas) and passed through Northumberland the sun broke through from behind the clouds and all of a sudden everything was beautiful.  From the road we traveled on we could look over and see Bamburgh Castle and then Holy Island as well, sitting not far off the coast the castle was clearly illuminated in the sun.  The tide was in so there was no way (or time) to drive to the island, but we took a quick side road (a one lane road between two pastures) and drove until it ended right at the North Sea.

We quickly got out and put on wellies, hats, and coats to walk out on the marshy flatlands, feeling so grateful for a glimpse of what we missed in October.

I didn't even realize how close we were when we were at Bamburgh.  We could see it from where we stopped, too.

Perhaps one day we'll make it out to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne proper, but for now, we were all happy with our little pit stop.