Surprise Stop At Alnwick Gardens

Recently I had to travel to Longhoughton in Northumberland to check out a very picturesque cottage for possible entry into our Northumbria Byways brochure. As it was a Sunday and a bright sunny day, my husband and I decided to ask his mother is she would like to come along with us for a ride out. She is 89 with mobility problems so she doesn’t get out of the house very often.

As a surprise for her we decide to stop off at The Alnwick Gardens on our way home to have lunch and a wander around the gardens. I telephoned the Alnwick Gardens in advance to arrange a wheelchair for her. They were very helpful and a wheelchair was reserved for us. My mother in law has a disabled parking badge so we drove to the disabled parking area, which is very close to Alnwick Gardens.

We were met by a very friendly and helpful parking attendant. We told him we had pre-arranged a wheelchair so he immediately went off to collect it for us. We decide to have lunch in the Tree House, so headed off in that direction. We had not bought our admission tickets, which we needed to go into the Tree House, so I had to go back to buy them, £8.00 each for us and £7.50 for mother in law. We paid an extra £1 per ticket for a Gift Aid Donation which I thought was a good idea. Having to go back for the tickets was a little annoying to be honest as there were no signs to say we needed admission tickets if we were going straight to the restaurant and not exploring the whole of the Tree House. Never mind, we went into the Tree House restaurant and were taken straight to a table. The Sunday Lunch Menu was very good - excellent roast topside of beef and huge Yorkshire puddings! After lunch we had a leisurely stroll around the Gardens and saw plenty of flowers and plants in bloom as well as a lovely carpet of bluebells. All in all, a 'grand day out'!