The Adventure Begins for Real!!

We assembled Monday afternoon (July 12) at the Minneapolis airport and anxiously checked in as a group..  During the group check in, we were lucky that Michelle's parents agreed to act as the keepers of all of the carry on luggage while we trudged to the group check in area with the rest of the luggage. 

 There was a bit of anxiety about the weight of the bags, but everyone's was under the 50 pound limit.

And now we have arrived after an overnight, somewhat turbulent Atlantic crossing and a seemingly endless 4 hour layover in Amsterdam. (One bonus of the flight was a beautiful sunset over the eastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean.)Another beautiful sight was the Travelsure coach waiting for us outside of the Newcastle Airport! The drive only took about 30 minutes, so we pulled into the Alnwick Castle parking lot just after 5 pm tonight (Tuesday, July 13). We just had time to drag our suitcases up the steep stairs in Hunter’s Block, then run to the Dining Hall for dinner. We join 27 undergraduate students who have been in Alnwick since the end of May on the summer semester program. They will be leaving on July 26th, so we will have the place to ourselves for a few days at the end of our program.

After dinner, we had a quick orientation to all things Alnwick Castle, including proper behavior when the Duke and Duchess are in residence, which they are tonight!! Most important to everyone was the issue of cell phones, the numbers of which I am sure many students have already shared. Some of us went downtown after the orientation to get cash from the ATMs. Everything looked like my beloved Alnwick, with the exception of a Subway which has sprung up in the two years since we were last here. Boo hiss-- I hate to see any evidence of American fast food making inroads in this lovely rural British town. At least it wasn’t the Golden Arches.
Busy day tomorrow. Guest speaker, classes, and an open air bus tour around town.