Castles, Grand Staircases and Treehouse Restaurants
Baby Swelle gazing at the sea
My parents came to visit for the holidays and despite our thorough and unrelenting dumping of snow, a true rarity in England, we managed to get out and see some things. It was their first time here so we wanted to give them a good sense of what our neck of the north east offers.
As a Christmas gift me and my brothers gave them a night at The Grand, a 19th century hotel in our neighbourhood overlooking the North Sea. I was completely taken with the staircase which was grand indeed:
The side view from the room:
I couldn't stop taking pictures of the lamps in the room with my dad's camera. It all looked so film noir. I'm sure he's at home now looking at all of them thinking I've lost my mind. I...love...lamp.
Baby Swelle being shy. I bought her those boots for Christmas and wish I could get some in my size. She's wearing the black tuxedo jacket from Stella McCartney x Baby Gap. A friend was kind enough to pick one up for us in Toronto and send it over. No, I didn't try to get it on. There's not a chance in hell it would fit but I did hear that people were selling the XXL on Ebay for a mint and they were being snatched up. Sillies.
The Victorian restaurant where we had dinner:
We were on our way to Edinburgh, a city I absolutely adore and couldn't wait to show my parents, but we had to turn back because of the snow. THE SNOW! Since when do plans get cancelled in England because of the snow! Bad, bad luck. But we salvaged the day by stopping in Alnwick on the way back and having a fantastic lunch at the enormously charming Treehouse restaurant in Alnick Gardens:
The fountains, which are amazing in the summer but still beautiful in winter. I just missed all of the them being on and caught the last one just going down:
Obviously, this wasn't taken during our trip! It's not my photo either and I've lost the credit so if it's yours please let me know! It's one of the foot bridges at the treehouse:
And I just had to show Alnwick castle. I'll get into the history of the whole grounds later when I visit again in summer (last time we'd just moved and I had no idea where my camera was) but it's such a breathtaking scene. It's only open from April to October so there were no opportunities to see it all snow covered:
wow! the pictures are so beautiful! and baby swelle's outfit...love love love!
Posted by: elena daciuk | January 13, 2010 at 12:11 AM
Denise! Beautiful photos, truly!
Posted by: Molly Vogel | January 13, 2010 at 03:03 AM
wow, baby swell looks so tall now! looks like you guys had a first christmas over there. ;)
Posted by: dj mike ryan | January 13, 2010 at 04:36 AM
Looks FABULOUS!
Posted by: WendyB | January 13, 2010 at 05:23 AM
Beautiful pictures! The Grand looks so majestic and how magical is that tree house? Sigh... so strange to see that much snow in the UK though. A shame you didn't make it to Edinburgh, I love it there as well. I'm headed to Scotland for the weekend to see my in-laws so I hope it won't be too bad by then.
Baby Swelle looks tres chic by the way! Amazing how many adults bought those jackets for themselves! (thankfully the French refrained from doing this... it's probably beneath them).
Posted by: HauteWorld | January 13, 2010 at 11:38 AM
Beautiful pictures! The hotel looks amazing.
Posted by: Glenda Delgado | January 13, 2010 at 03:16 PM
Love the photos. What a nice way to spend the holidays with your family. I once had a family holiday and it was one of the nicest weeks we spent together.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 14, 2010 at 01:58 AM
what a positively dreamy place!
she is adorable:)
Posted by: hanako66 | January 14, 2010 at 11:11 PM
Baby Swelle is one lucky little lady!
Posted by: Tammy | January 19, 2010 at 03:16 AM
beautiful photo's too!
Posted by: Tammy | January 19, 2010 at 03:17 AM