After breakfast I walked round the harbour over past the castle built in Henry VIII's time, which we can see from our window. It is being restored and unfortunately is closed at the moment, but a nice walk, past sheep in stone walked paddocks, rabbits sunning themselves, honking flocks of geese, and a general air of a sunny fine morning full of quiet promise.
When I got back, we went off to explore a bit more of the island's offerings. The tide would keep the day visitors at bay till after 10.30, so things were pretty quiet, apart from an obnoxious noisy toddler. Who by coincidence was called Aidan, the same name as one of the Island's key saints. Nothing saintly about that kid. But the ruins of the Priory were extraordinarily impressive. Something about the way the stone had weathered and the original carving and architectural form of the building made it well worth the visit. Here is Anne measuring the width of the fireplace in the monk's warming room.
Next we checked out the Lindisfarne centre, which had some great videos of people demonstrating some of the skills used by the monk's who produced the Lindisfarne Gospels. It would be so good to have a manual skill like that, to be able to focus so completely on a task, and contribute to the production of a creation so astounding and beautiful. By then it was coffee time. We visited the Pilgrim Cafe, and managed to get there just before the first wave of day visitors arrived. The cafe was deserted when we arrived but packed with long queues by the time we got our coffee and cake. Outside we were mobbed by a flock of hungry sparrows - it must be hard for them to adjust to the tidal pattern which restricts the availability of their main food source, crumb dropping tourists.
After lunch I unfolded the Brompton, pumped up the tires, and took it for a spin, covering most of the sealed road on the island. I think I will have a lot of fun with that bike. By mid afternoon the tide was down far enough for us to get across to St Cuthbert's island, where the Saint is said to have retreated for some solitude. Not much solitude today, but a pretty place, with a colony of seals on a sandbar across the narrowing channel kicking up a right racket, a cross between singing and dogs howling carried faintly on the wind.
On the way home we visited the church of St Mary the Virgin, which has bits said to date from the 650s, and to be the oldest man made structure on the island. It feels like a special place.
We had a great dinner in a nice pub - the Ship Inn gets our vote for best on Island - then walked down the now deserted road to the causeway which was in the process of being covered by the incoming tide.
Tomorrow, we have to be up early. We hope we will be picked up by 7.45, in time to get across before the island is once again cut off. If the taxi doesn't turn up, we will miss our train and find ourselves spending another day on the island. Which would not be the worst thing that could happen to somebody. It has been a wonderful experience staying here. We both feel restored and ready for the next stage of the trip.
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