Top 10 Northumberland Attractions as listed by Tripadvisor

Does anyone still use Tripadvisor? I must say I used to rely on a lot until I started blogging but now I much prefer a personal recommendation and will hunt out bloggers and local people to ask for their suggestions now. I decided to search for the top 10 attractions in Northumberland as listed by Tripadvisor (May 2016) and share my thoughts too:-

1 - Cragside House and Gardens

Cragside House and Gardens definitely deserves to be on this list in our opinion. This sprawling National Trust Estate is somewhere you can spend the entire day and still not explore everything. We love the kids play park which is a nice place to spend and afternoon and the labyrinth maze is fun too. The house is simply stunning and there are countless walks along the rivers and amongst the gardens. The lakeside picnic tables are a lovely spot to enjoy a picnic and there are always lots of fantastic events to get involved with (we tried pond dipping a few years ago and loved it).

2 - Falconry Days

I haven't visited this attraction for myself so can't comment from personal experience however we have attended similar days out ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed getting up close and personal with some magnificent Birds of Prey. I have been reading about their company ethos and have to say I am impressed - we will have to visit soon!

3 - Vindolonda

We have visited Vindolonda on a few occasions and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. There is lots to learn, see and do. What does put us off visiting more often is the price - it would cost us £38 to visit as a family and while I do think this is an ok price for a one-off, the fact that you can buy a family English Heritage annual pass for £92 which gives you unlimited access to other Hadrian's Wall sites (as well as 400 others) means that when we want to visit Hadrian's Wall, 9/10 we will always choose to use our English Heritage pass and visit either Housesteads or Chesters at no additional cost.

4 - Seahouses

Seahouses is a lovely and charming seaside town that we like to visit at least once every year. It's where you can catch a boat to see the Farne Islands (see below) and a chip to Pinnacles Fish and Chips is a must! There are a few seaside trinket shops, gorgeous views of the Northumberland coast and even an amusement arcade for kids. We recommend checking out Springhill Farm for accommodation.

In all honesty though I have to say I prefer Amble which shares the lovely views but also has a lovely craft and artisan shopping area by the harbour, an award winning high street and in my opinion better dining out options too.

5 - Farne Islands

I have visited the Farne Islands on numerous occasions and they really are a Northumberland gem. Perfect for wildlife spotting, we would highly recommend Serenity Tours. You can spot the famous seals and puffins as well as 23 different varieties of seabirds for an unrivalled experience.

6 - Kielder Observatory

Another top Northumberland attraction that we have yet to visit. We were set to visit one of their family events last year until we had car trouble and couldn't make it! Booooo! Kieider is renowned for it's dark skies and we certainly experienced them during our stay at Calvert Trust. In fact it was so dark we couldn't see our hand in front of our face!

7 - The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

It's hard to describe the magic of Holy Island but I would advise anyone who is visiting the area to stop by for a few hours. Make sure you check the tide times beforehand though as the island is completely cut off from the mainland twice daily and you don't want to end up stranded. Lindisfarne Castle is like no other castle I have visited and walking around the Priory really brings history to life.

8 - The Elizabethan Walls, Berwick

I can honestly say I have never heard of these walls before! After a little research however I have discovered that they are the only example of bastioned town walls in Britain and one of the best preserved in Europe. A walk around the walls takes around 45 minutes which is perfect for us - we'll definitely be taking a trip over summer so look out for a post!

9 - Bamburgh Castle

Bamburgh Castle is so stunningly beautiful both inside and out and it's no wonder it's used as a location for so many hollywood films. The castle is furnished and I usually walk around in utter amazement. If you love beautiful things, you'll love it here! We are well overdue a visit and hope to return this summer with a picnic.

10 - Alnwick Castle

If you pay for entry to Alnwick Castle once, you can re-visit again for an unlimited amount of times during their opening hours throughout the year. A must-visit attraction for kids, we always love joining in with Harry Potter-style broomstick training and braving the Knight's Quest. There are chances to dress up in costume and take part in traditional courtyard games and the Castle is again, a lovely example to walk through.

So there you have the top 10 attractions to visit in Northumberland as decided by the Tripadvisor community. Do you agree with them?

For me there are a few notable exceptions, including Alnwick Garden, Wallington Hall, Warkworth Castle, Craster, Woodhorn and Chester's Roman Fort but I suppose it speaks volumes for Northumberland that we have SO many fantastic attractions that they can't all fit in one list!

The week we went without broadband

Can we give up broadband? My first thought is NO WAY. I mean broadband is a way of life for us now and we rely on it for SO much of our daily life. When I posted that we were switching our broadband off for one week over on my Facebook page, reactions ranged from 'I think my son would have an emotional breakdown' to 'I think I could benefit from last time online'. I was also encouraged (and shocked) to hear that one of my friends actually doesn't have broadband at all. She told me they spent all day working on their business and ended up bringing work home with them as it was just so easy. Not having broadband forced them to re-gain that elusive work-life balance. Interesting!

We were challenged by MoneySuperMarket to give up broadband for one week and see how it changed our lives. So on 25th April we switched off our modem for 7 days and nights and braced ourselves for the week ahead.

How it changed our grown up lives

To be honest, it didn't really effect us too much. We have good 4G coverage where we live and both mine and Steve's mobile phone packages come with a lot of data. During the day I used my phone as a hotspot and connected my MacBook to 4G this way so I could still work. I even took my computer off to my local beer garden during a spell of sunshine and used their free broadband to catch up on emails.

There's no binge watching of Game of Thrones when you switch your broadband off

It was fairly annoying not being able to download tv shows on demand - it is too easy to simply download an episode of Masterchef that you've missed or re-watch your favourite episode of Game of Thrones whenever you fancy. Although not being able to do this was annoying, it was something we could live with if we had to.

Steve did find it a little harder. He streams music a lot and didn't want to waste his phone data allowance to do this. Instead he switched to good old CD's and has been listening to the radio in the kitchen instead. Again, not too annoying and definitely something he could live with.

I wasn't able to update a few of the apps on my mobile phone as they require a wifi connection before they can be downloaded. Not too annoying but I do wonder how I would get around this if we gave up broadband in the longterm - perhaps I would just have to pop to my mum's house when I needed to update an app?

We currently aren't in the middle of a Netflix binge but I reckon if this challenge had started half way through our Breaking Bad, 24 or Orange Is The New Black obsession, we would have found it seriously hard to stop watching for a week.

One final way in which we found giving up broadband annoying (although this is a bit of a first world problem) is that we use our iPhones to control our sky tv when the remote is out of reach. This only works over wifi so guess what - we had to stop being so lazy!

How it changed the kids' lives

Now Steve and I managed just fine without broadband and I would even go as far as to say that if our budget was tight, we could give up broadband altogether. We are from a generation that grew up without the internet and spent our teens battling with dial up. I'm sure this sound will bring back lots of memories:-

My children are absolutely spoilt when it comes to the internet though. Being able to watch tv on demand is like second nature to them and they don't know any different, if I am honest they found giving up broadband a lot harder than what us grown ups did which is kind of worrying. 

First of all, they watch Netflix in bed for 30 minutes before they go to sleep. Usually an episode of Power Rangers or some other cartoon. This is either on their TV or iPad. It was a bit of a shock to their system not being able to access thousands of tv shows at the touch of a button however we raided our DVD collection and found some forgotten treasures which kept them happy.

Secondly, Harry is really into designing his own compute games. He spends around an hour or so on his laptop most evenings designing new games on his 'scratch' programme. They also do this at school and it is educational. I think it's really important that our children grow up learning how to code and I wondered if not having access to the internet would stop this. It turns out though that Harry has an offline editor and he didn't need internet connection to do this at all. PHEW! The only way he was effected was that he couldn't 'google' how to do certain things and had to use trial and error instead but that's no biggie. 

Finally, the other way the kids were really effected was that they couldn't watch Youtube. Yes I am one of those parents who lets my kids watch Youtube videos. They subscribe to various Youtube gamers' channels and Heidi likes to watch toy unboxing videos and reviews. They were VERY annoyed at not being able to catch up with their favourite subscriptions and the first thing they did when we turned our modem back on was log into Youtube. Hmmmmmmm...........

How much money we saved

Our broadband costs £26 per month. If we were to give it up we would save just over £6 per week. That's not the only saving though. Without broadband we would also give up our Netflix and Lovefilm subscriptions saving another £15.99 per month and I am pretty sure Steve would give up his music streaming subscription too saving us a further £9.99 per month. Not only that, but if the kids didn't have access to the internet we would get rid of our Xbox live account (£5.99 per month) and the kids wouldn't ask to buy various apps now and then which all add up.

Monthly savings

Broadband - £26
Netflix and Lovelfilm Subscriptions - £15.99
Music streaming subscription - £9.99
Xbox Live subscription - £5.99
Various Apps - £3

TOTAL = £60.97

WOW! I did not expect that figure to be so high! I mean that works out at £731.64 per year which almost covers the cost of our family holiday to Spain! Seriously, £731 is A LOT of money. Although I don't think I am ready to give up broadband altogether, I am going to check with MoneySuperMarket to see if I can find a better deal and save on our broadband costs.

Can we give up broadband in the long term? 

I would like to think that I certainly could but this is mainly due to the fact that I had decent 4G access. If I didn't I think it may have been a different story and I would have been tearing my hair out. Steve and the kids - I'm not so sure. The kids seem to heavily rely on broadband and it is ingrained in their life now. I am sensible about how much the children access the internet and we balance it with lots of screen free time and days out ect..... however it is scary how much at age 5, 7 and 9 they have grown to just accept access to broadband as part of normal life. Then again though, I keep going back to that figure of £731 and what I could do with the money............this challenge has provided lots of food for thought that's for sure.

What do you think? Could your family go without broadband? Why not give it a go yourself, you may be surprised with the results.

This post is in collaboration with MoneySuperMarket but all thoughts are our own. 

How a little bit of walking has made a huge difference

Westfield Health's Walking Lunch Campaign is in full swing now. The idea is to get as many of us out walking during our lunch break over the month of May. I have been doing this for the last 4 weeks and I can 100% say I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and hope to continue throughout spring, summer and autumn (maybe not winter - I am not a fan of the cold!).

Gorgeous blue skies captured during one of my lunchtime walks

Walking for just 20 minutes every day has had countless benefits including:-

Weight Loss

I weighed myself after 2 weeks of walking every day plus a few other minor changes and was delighted to find that I'd lost 7lbs! Woohoo! I have another weigh in on Tuesday so check back to my Life As Mrs R Facebook page if you are keen to see if I have lost anymore. Fingers crossed I have. I managed to squeeze into a pair of trousers that were a huge 3 sizes smaller than what I'd normally buy this week. Yes they were tight but WOW what an achievement. 

Mindfulness

Nothing beats a quick walk to help you really take in your surroundings. It's the perfect time to appreciate blue skies, feel the rain on your face, listen to the birds sing and follow bumble bees as they collect nectar. Walking has definitely helped me to stay mindful which is a pretty nice state to be in.

Happiness

There's no doubt about it, walking every day has definitely increased my happiness. Just getting outside, breathing in some fresh air and saying hello as I pass others doing the same has really lifted my spirits when I've been stuck at a desk all morning. 

Encourages me to do more

As I've realised that walking for just 20 minutes every day has had so many benefits, I've wanted to do more. I've made the effort to walk 10k a couple of days through the week and have been on long walks with Steve and the kids over the weekend when we would have normally taken the car or used public transport. Counting the steps using a pedometer/map my walk/fit bit really helps too as you can visually see how much you are achieving and how many calories you've burned which is slightly addictive!

Gives my eyes a break

I'm pretty sure that staring at a computer screen for hours on end isn't good for me. If I was in a work place it would be compulsory for me to take a break during the day and forcing me to have some screen free time during the day definitely is a good habit to get into. 

Time to think

There is a reason people take a walk when they need time to think - I have found that time away from technology and to just allow my mind to think freely has done wonders for my creativity. Walking for 20 minutes has allowed me time to organise my thoughts and when it's time to get back in the office I am usually a lot more productive. 

It's a mini digital-detox

Being tied to a computer/social media 24/7 is not good for anyone's mental health. I might take my camera out to capture a pretty flower or blue sky to share on Instagram later but that's it. There is no Facebook, access to email, Twitter or blogging when I'm walking. All electronics stay firmly out of reach and I like it.

Makes me feel good about myself

You might think that walking for 20 minutes isn't really enough to achieve anything but I usually burn over 100 calories and cover over a mile. It all adds up and when you see your number of steps rising and you beat your distance covered record you can't help but smile and feel proud of your achievement. If you walk for one mile ever day for 30 days you will cover over 30 miles and burn over 3000 calories. Amazing!

I'm healthier

Regular walking has been proven to reduce the risk of chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type II diabetes, asthma, stroke and some cancers. Although I still have a long way to go, I definitely feel fitter and more active. 

What are you waiting for? Walking is fun, free and easy and in my opinion is perfect if you want quick results and are short on time. Please check out my other posts following my journey:-

• Walking For Happiness
• Our Family Health & Fitness Goals for 2016
• Will a 20 minute lunchtime walk make a difference? 
• 5 tips for adding daily walking into your routine
• My favourite short walks in the North East
• It's Time For Change
• Weigh in Number One

You can sign up for Westfield Health's Walking Lunch Campaign here (it's FREE) and follow #WHWalkingLunch across social media to join in with others taking part. 

LittleLife Kids Suitcases - A Review

I have been talking about it months but our family summer holiday is now just around the corner. Woohoo! I have checked our passports, purchased travel insurance and notified our school that the children will be absent from school for 5 days. There is one thing that has been playing on my mind though and that's the fact that Steve and I have never taken our 3 children abroad by ourselves before. We have always had an extra pair of hands (thanks grandma). Not only am I concerned that Steve and I are outnumbered by kids, but I am also worried about the logistics - how would we transport 5 suitcases between us whilst supervising 3 spritely children in a foreign country? Talk about challenging.

When LittleLife got in touch and asked if we would like to choose something from their site to review it was like our prayers had been answered. I was immediatly drawn to these three kids suitcases and think that each design really reflects each child's personality. 

Suitable for ages 3+, these cases have been designed to fit most airlines' hand luggage requirements so are ideal for short trips away when you don't want to pay for baggage. They are very well made and feel like they'll last a good few years.

We will be using the cases as 'hold' luggage along with two bigger cases for myself and Steve as they are actually deceptively spacious. Just look at how much I could fit into them:-

They are also super easy for the kids to handle and move, even when full. There is a hidden telescopic handle that even Jack (aged 5) could manage to extend.

We love the attention to detail including a special place to write your child's name.

Overall, I really could not be happier with our cases. They are lightweight, deceptively spacious, easy for the kids to manage, durable and the designs are fun and funky so the kids love them too. I think £39.99 is a bargain for such a quality product that actually works. 

Visit www.LittleLife.com to find out more. 

Thank you to LittleLife who asked us to choose something from their site to review. All words, thoughts and opinions are our own. 

A few thoughts on Year 2 SATs

This year there has been a big push by many parents to boycott the Year 2 SATs. Heidi is in year 2 and will be taking her SAT tests this month and I remember Harry going through them a few years ago too. Luckily for us, our school doesn't put too much pressure on the kids and in all honesty they don't even know they are happening. Heidi's teacher is lovely and Heidi is enjoying school at the moment and just hasn't been bothered by any sort of SAT-related stress. This is the way it should be in my eyes and the main reason I am not joining in with the boycott campaign.

Looking at the broader subject of testing though, I do wish that we could just let our kids be kids. I don't like the fact that our children are tested from within a few weeks of attending nursery and this pattern continues throughout their school life. I would be FAR happier if our teachers were left to do what they do best which is inspiring our children to discover and learn about the world about them. I want my children to ask questions, to explore their creativity, to grow plants, watch explosions, love story telling, understand what it is to lead a healthy and happy life...... I do not want my children to be constantly tested, put in a box and be counted as just another statistic.

I know that Year 2 SATs are used as a way of measuring a pupil's progress throughout Primary School and this is important in a number of ways. OFSTED in particular like to see where school's have 'added value' to a pupil's rate of learning (where a pupil has exceeded their expectations) but my question is why? why do we need this? Our teachers are professional people who as parents we trust on a daily basis to not only look after our children but also help to raise them. Wouldn't it be better for everyone if the Government could just stop interfering and just TRUST them to do their job. I think it would be better for our children, better for our teachers and better for us parents if we could give our teachers time and space to teach our children about life rather than teach our children how to take and pass a test.

Finally, the whole spelling test blunder where a SAT paper was accidentally put online which led to it's cancellation is just infuriating. Imagine as a teacher you have spent your precious time throughout the year preparing your class for this test only to find it has been cancelled! I am furious on their behalf. What a waste of time and resources! Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar, Mathematics, Comprehension, Reading.......I agree that they are all very important skills. However I 100% trust that my children's school can teach my children these skills WITHOUT the need for a SAT test and think that these skills should very much form part of a broader education and at the moment the Government is placing far too much emphasis on them from too much of an early age.

What do you think? Should Primary School Testing come to an end? 

Disney On Ice - Newcastle

Exciting news coming soon...........

5 places to visit whilst staying in Lincolnshire

Over Easter we enjoyed a lovely family break at Tattershall Lakes in Lincolnshire. Although there were lots of activities and things to do on resort, I always like to get out and about and enjoy some of the local area whilst on holiday. Tattershall Lakes is very well placed to explore Lincolnshire and here are our top 5 places to visit during your stay:-

1 - Woodhall Spa

Woodhall Spa is a charming village just a few miles from Tattershall Lakes. Here you find the very charming Kinema in the woods along with a string of independent businesses and shops.

One of our favourite spots in Woodhall Spa was The Book Fayre where you can find both new and old books alongside a nice selection of gifts and a small coffee area. The staff were lovely and welcoming and I managed to buy a holiday read for less than £2. Harry picked up a new book which he read over the week too. 

2 - Tattershall Castle

Tattershall Castle is actually within walking distance of Tattershall Lakes and is definitely worth a visit (especially if you are National Trust members as you won't need to pay your entrance fee). The castle is child-friendly with traditional games on the ground floor and plenty of space for their imagination to run wild. The views from the rooftop are absolutely not to be missed.

3 - Lincoln

The city of Lincoln is a 30-40 minute drive away and again, worth the trip. Lincoln Cathedral is absolutely stunning and I think it's the most beautiful Cathedral I've ever seen! It towers over the city and I am gutted we didn't plan to visit inside - next time! 

We walked along Brayford Wharf one evening where you will find lots of chain restaurants with beautiful views. 

We decided to dine in Chimichanga as we don't have a branch near we live and were impressed with our Mexican feast.

4 - Isaac Newton's Birthplace

Woolsthorpe Manor (aka Isaac Newton's birthplace) is another National Trust property located around 40 minutes drive away from Tattershall Lakes. The actual manor was closed on the day of our visit but we loved exploring the Science Centre and taking part in lots of experiments.

I was also very excited to spot the famous tree that Isaac Newton was sitting under when he discovered gravity. Nothing brings science to life as much as actually seeing things for yourself. We spent a few hours at Woolsthorpe Manor. Although it is small, we are definitely pleased we made the trip. 

5 - Tattershall Farm Park

You can't beat a farm park to please the kids and Tattershall Farm Park is only a few miles from Tattershall Lakes. There is A LOT to see and do and you could easily spend a full day here. We loved meeting lots of animals from pigs to ponies and rheas and the kids could have spent hours in the adventure playground and play barns. The tearoom also serves delicious homemade cake should you need a break. 

Have you stayed in Lincolnshire before? Where would you recommend to visit?