You are not supposed to be here, he said, but since you are foreigners, too, I will let you stay. Our foreign-ness was instantly available from our accents. We were clearly marked as Americans. How he was foreign was not so clear; at least it was not clear to us. Nevertheless he pointed us in the direction none of the locals seemed to know.

Oh, just go to the path over there and you can walk down to the castle.

No walking through the neighboring fields. No threat of hoof and mouth disease. No brambles. Just a nicely laid out path down the hill past the wall of the castle. The castle rose to the sky, towering above us, as we walked past it on the path. It appears that what everyone in the "neighborhood" means by their denigrating "it's only a ruin" is that only one wall survives. The rest was displaced by the train station. But what a wall!

As it soars to the sky above us, it is hard to imagine how the band of 40 Scots could have surprised and overcome Robert and his squad who were defending the castle. The castle has a vista that covers the countryside. It is a substantial climb up to the walls. But they did clambor up, and they did prevail. And the wall makes their feat even more impressive.

The castle was Saturday morning. Then we took one more walk on the Elizabethan ramparts just down the block from our bed and breakfast, and we were off.

First, to Lindesfarne. This is the ruins of a priory built on a desolate rock that can be reached by "foot" only at low tide. The tide goes out and the road appears. The tide comes in and the road disappears. We must be out by 11:29 a.m. unless we want to spend the entire day -- until low tide again. Lindesfarne is the home of the northern England's most important saint -- Saint Cuthbert. From Lindesfarne he was commissioned to Christianize Northumberland by the local lord. The commission and the work of Cuthbert was before the arrival of the Normans.  After Cuthbert's death the Vikings descended upon Lindesfarne searching for treasures, and Cuthbert had to be moved south and in from the sea. Eventually he ended in Durham from whence he continues to inspire even to today -- the offering at the Durham Cathedral on Sunday was for the Cuthbert hospice.

The ruins of the priory are ancient. They do dominate the island; a very small island on which you never lose sight of the sea. An island that will only support sheep and men who are willing to starve themselves. The layout of the priory is still readily seen. Here was the warming room -- the only room in the priory that had a fireplace. Otherwise you were supposed to adapt to the weather the Lord provided. Here the bakery; here the brewery; here the well for water, here the rooms of the prior; here the dormitory of the monks. And here the chapel rising high to the sky. Everything is gone but the walls, and only partial walls remain. But it is enough to fuel the imagination. The remaining walls are entirely adequate for exploration by an eight year old. Anna climbed over, under and on every wall in sight. One thousand years ago monks walked these passages in prayer and solitude. Anna expressed more joy and enthusiasm than one imagines of "black robes."

From the ruins of Lindesfarne it was a short drive to Alnwick and the castle of the Percys. The Percys arrived in England with William the Conqueror and were granted land in Yorkshire, and for several centuries they held more land in Yorkshire than they did in Northumberland. But they bought the Alnwick castle from the bishop of Durham in 1309, and began fighting the Scots, who were just north of them, and being rewarded by the king with more and more land in Northumberland. Then in 1378 lord Percy became earl of Northumberland -- a major promotion engineered by Henry de Percy who was the fourth Henry in a row and the father of another Henry, known familiarly as Hotspur.

Thomas de Boynton was there at the invitation of the abbat of Alnwick priory to celebrate the ascension of Mary. Robert de Boynton was there to witness land transactions. Both were probably there on other occasions for which we have no records. It was a very long trip for Thomas and Robert -- in some ways longer than ours -- but they had been there to join the earl's band of men.

The "there" is a particularly impressive castle. It is quite large; putting both Berwick castle and Lindesfarne priory to shame in the competition for size. It is currently occupied by Percys who have opened their castle to tourists and movie companies. A few scenes of Harry Potter, the movie, were filmed at the castle as were scenes for Elizabeth, another movie. Well, they have to pay the bills somehow.

Two towers and a gate are the current parts of the castle that were definitely there when Robert and Thomas visited. Most of it was reconstructed in the 19th century -- restoring it to its original shape, we are told. The castle has guardians on the towers and walls -- carved human  figures. The keep is in the middle of the walls, which would make it difficult to put a village in the middle. Apparently, Alnwickians had to protect themselves from the rampaging Scots. No assistance from the earl. It is quite handsome from far and near. When you go on the tourist tour you see googags that were the favorites of the Henrys over the centuries. But the exterior is definitely not googags.

We pulled out of Alnwick late in the afternoon heading for Durham. We arrived. Then found our way to the Georgian Town House with remarkable ease. Up five flights of stairs and we were home. Well, Anne and Anna had one more flight to go; they were put in the attic. A next destination has been reached.