D – This Is Our Travel Blog

On the eastern coast of the UK, a little more than an hour’s travel south of Edinburgh, is the Northumberland town of Alnwick.

Alnwick is solidly in the country — lots of fields and sheep. The closest city is Newcastle upon Tyne, which is about an hour away by taxi and train.

We ended up there more or less on a whim — it wasn’t too far from Edinburgh, and it’s in Northumberland, which is the setting of a number of British children’s books that were beloved by both B and myself when we were kids. Plus, it has a castle, right by the river Aln.

I swear to you, it really does look like this.

Alnwick is beautiful. It’s a “market town”, the county seat of Northumberland, and it’s a popular tourist destination, but it’s situated in the middle of hundreds of acres of rolling hills, fields and forests. You can walk for hours, through the town or along wooded paths, then stop for a pint at one of the pubs in town.

The castle at night. I know. But seriously, it actually does look like this.

This was in preparation for the Alnwick Pride Parade. I just love that in some municipal office somewhere, some guy’s supervisor said, “I need you to go down to the corner and create a diversion.”

Alnwick also has a very lovely public garden (we bought annual memberships) and the greatest used bookstore I’ve ever seen. We were there for a month and didn’t feel ready to leave at the end of our stay.

Of the many things that the people of Quèbec do well, one thing they seem especially proud of is poutine: essentially, at some point someone said, “You know what would make these french fries better? Gravy. Oh! And melted cheese!” It can, after all, get quite cold in Quèbec, so it kind of makes sense that they would have invented a comfort food that’s engineered for maximum comfort. They actually have a whole week dedicated to it, and at least in the touristy sections, most restaurants have it on the menu.

All of which is nice for non-allergic types, but for our family eating out is a little more complicated. Fortunately for us, there is Poutineville. Gluten-free poutine! Vegan cheese! Vegan gravy!

Great big plate of delicious poutine. — Gluten-free poutine with “Smashed Potatoes” (the house specialty), chicken, bacon, sautéed onions, vegan cheese, and vegan gravy. Was it good? Yes. Yes it was.

The truth is, I would recommend this place to anyone, dietary restrictions or not. (A friend of mine, having tried a special called the “Hangover Cure”, said that he would “never not get that”.) But for us, this place was a godsend. I don’t want to be overly hyperbolic, but wow, it was good, and we will go back again and again.