I first saw the town when I caught the train to London last year. It was early morning, the sun was just rising over the town, and I saw a photo worthy of a postcard that became etched in my mind. The town is right next to the sea, and has a river with a wide mouth, which is spanned by three bridges. I’ve wanted to visit ever since.
Berwick Upon Tweed is in England, just across the border, although over the centuries the border has moved back-and-forth many times. Are we actually in England or not? The people here have a Scottish accent, the butchers sell haggis, and it’s the first place I’ve been in England where people have accepted Scottish bank notes without screwing their face up or questioning its validity (although with the recently announced record RBS & HBOS losses, who can blame them?). Anyway, I digress.
The town is small, and full of old people. And there’s not really much happening. The town markets were on, but there wasn’t too much on offer, but we did buy a few cheap hats (as I’ve got into a habit of leaving my hat on the bus never to be seen again).
Oh and of course I must not forget to mention that Helen purchased three Lilliput Lane models that were on special at a local shop.
Berwick Upon Tweed has a town wall, a little like York, but not as impressive. We walked almost all of it within an hour. And of course we walked over the bridges which really do add character to the town.
Helen won’t quite admit it yet, but she’s becoming a trainspotter :-) She can tell you what company a train belongs to, and possibly where it’s going or where it’s been. She knows every carriage has a number (did you know that?) And she actually mixes with fellow trainspotters at railway stations! So she enjoyed watching the trains crossing the rail bridge quite regularly.
In the end though, there wasn’t that much to do in this cute but quiet little town, and it was very cold, so we visited a local pub for lunch then caught the train back to Edinburgh mid afternoon.
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