Books, Books, Books!

Today started out as a bit of a disaster and then turned into a great day!!
We had a lovely last start - waking up surprisingly late in our snuggly duvet sleeping bags; opening the blinds for our first views of Northumberland; chocolate holiday cereal and tea in bed; more tea; ginger biscuits; washing up and general lounging and pottering until setting off for Craster just after 11am.
We'd park in the village I thought and enjoy a lovely walk to Dunstanburgh Castle and perhaps lunch at either the pub or cafe in the village.
That sounded like a lovely plan I thought.
So did about fifty million other people and when we were still about a mile out of the village people were parking all over the grass verges of the lane. No way we could park there in Marshall and we didn't dare carry on into the village in case turning round was tricky.
Cue sulking from me and a masterful piece of driving from Mr K - negotiating the narrow lane , all the crazy oncoming traffic and the three-point turn required because of the low - and thin!! - bridge at the top of the road. He did brilliantly!
I was in a proper grump saying that we may was well pack up and go somewhere else as what was the point of being here was we wouldn't be able to park anywhere or do anything.
Ha ha, I'm such a ray of sunshine sometimes!!
Mr K suggested we go to Alnwick for a look round.
Whatever.
Well it turned into a fabulous afternoon. We parked up and walked past the war memorial which is one of the most moving I've seen - the life size figures remind you who's being remembered (see extras).
Then it was a wonderful few hours in Barter Books, the most amazing second hand bookshop I've ever been to! Beautiful station architecture, open fires to sit in front of, dogs allowed, delicious food and drink from the cafe, a model railway running above the shelves, fab artwork and murals and sooooooooo many books!!!
It was heaven!
See extras for Miss E enjoying herself too!!
I took this photo of our haul just before we left and still managed to find several more on the way out!! 
I popped to the Co-Op quickly for some water, wipes and pork pies and loved walking around gorgeous Alnwick a bit more. We were struck by the street names - Bondgate Within on the town side of the town gate and Bondgate Without on the other side. I love it when names have so much history.
And Mr K loved the opportunity to give a lecture on how Bondgates worked!
Then it was back to the campsite and a run on the fabulous beach we're right next to. It was getting dark but that didn't deter us. The tide was right out and Archie ran around like a teeny tiny Lloyds Stallion!!!! Miss E wasn't too far behind him. The sight of them wheeling around with total joy and abandon is something that will stay with me.
As is the message (in extras) Miss E wrote in the sand and called us over to see: Family. There is nowhere I'd rather be than here with you.
A pretty bloody brilliant day!