💌 Postcard from Berwick-upon-Tweed

Hi friend,

Instead of my usual “light news” (of which there was a lot! starting with the fact that we saw the sun multiple times this month, after the darkest/wettest winter!) I thought I would do something different this month—and share a postcard from my first trip of the year. Do you remember when I told you I wanted a year of more in 2026? Which mostly = I want more trips and experiences? It’s been a bit of a slow start, but we pencilled in two trips this month! The first was up to a little town called Berwick-upon-Tweed…

It feels important to tell you that I don’t think I’ve ever called it by its full name. I love how charming and whimsical the names of British towns/villages can be (Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born? Robin Hood’s Bay? Royal Leamington Spa? or a personal favourite, Leigh-on-Sea?) but find some of them to be… a mouthful. Easier to shorten them. Even easier if you know what the locals call it. And I’ve only ever heard people call it Berwick (pronounced: behr-ick, kind of like bear-ick—and the “w” is silent).

Berwick is the northernmost town in England, just a couple miles from the England/Scotland border. I’m not a travel writer, so I won’t go into detail on the history of this town (but safe to say, there is a lot! including that it’s changed hands between England and Scotland more than a dozen times!). What I will say is that, even though it holds a lot of history, it’s probably not a destination for most travellers. Most people probably pass by on the train that runs between London and Edinburgh, and don’t make any stops in the middle. I understand that, having done it a few times myself. But if you’re ever in the north and want to spend even just a few hours walking around a cute town by the sea, Berwick has a little bit of everything (especially if it’s sunny!).

This isn’t the first time we’ve visited Berwick together. Google Maps tells me Tall Man first brought me here in August 2022! Having grown up in the Scottish Borders, TM has been coming here since he was a kid—and that kind of history with a place is what makes our visits feel like coming home, in a way. Like visiting someone’s hometown. We’ve been enough times now that I know my way around a few of the streets, have a couple coffee shops I like, etc. And I know enough people in Northumberland that I discovered a new bookshop had opened up a few months ago—which prompted this trip!

All I did was tell TM about the new bookshop, and he immediately suggested we go up on a weekend we didn’t have the kids. A couple weeks later, he asked if I wanted to make a real trip of it and stay for a night. That was a surprise, and one I happily said yes to!

We booked a room at the Premier Inn, which is a budget hotel chain in the UK. Don’t let the word “budget” deter you, especially if you’re from North America. In NA, our budget hotel chains are often old and dingy, and sometimes come with the (very real) fear of getting bed bugs. Premier Inns are standardized, so you can always rely on the fact that you’ll get a clean room with a comfortable bed and pillows (and I say this as a sh*tty sleeper!). They are just a little boring. But if you’re like me and don’t care about staying in more unique/boutique accommodations1, they will help you explore the UK at a cheaper price! We always stay at Premier Inns, no matter where we go: big cities, small towns, The Lake District, etc. The price of their rooms is the reason I’ve been able to see so much of the UK. (My one tip for Berwick would be to upgrade to a Premier Plus room!)

We arrived late Friday night, but still woke up fairly early—and after breakfast, we ventured out into the sun! The first proper sunny day in 2026! And on Valentine’s Day, no less. Honestly, we probably could have just sat in the sun and been happy. But it was lovely to have as the backdrop for our day…

The first thing we did was grab coffee at Northern Soul Kitchen. This is a place we only discovered last summer, and loved both the food and the coffee. There’s one other coffee shop in town I’ve enjoyed (Northern Edge) but I would say it’s my second-choice now. The staff at Northern Soul Kitchen are some of the warmest people I’ve interacted with in Berwick (and you know: I’m drawn to the warm people!). Being in their company reminds me of the many months I spent hanging out with staff at The Little Man Coffee Co. in Cardiff, while writing a good chunk of ADVENTURES IN OPTING OUT in 2019. So if they are open, that’s where we’re going!

(And they are currently renovating and moving into a larger location on the high street, which should be open the next time we go! Fun!)

With coffees in-hand, we started the day with a walk along the walls that surround the city (similar to what you find in York)—then detoured off to walk out to the lighthouse. In all our visits, I have somehow never done this. Every step of it reminded me of walking along the breakwater in Victoria. I tried to describe it to TM, then told him I’d just have to show him one day. ☺️

Beyond the lighthouse, we stopped to notice a few other details on our walk. Snow on the beach (and it’s actually not the first time we’ve seen that here!). Little modern birdhouses and feeders added to an old abandoned building (who tends to these!?). And thanks to TM, I have this wonderful photo of me standing next to a giant hedgehog to share with you. 😂

5-6km later, we had made our way back into town—and our next stop was Hareta Sushi. Again, this is a place we only discovered last summer, when we were up here for my 40th birthday. The plan had been to get a table at Atelier, which is a unique cafe/restaurant/bar we’d been to once before and enjoyed. When that didn’t pan out, we found ourselves wandering around a bit aimlessly… until TM mentioned he’d noticed a sushi spot on his morning run and asked if I wanted to try that.

Something you should know about me is that sushi is one of my favourite meals, friend. And it is HARD to find decent sushi in the North of England. (It’s also double the price of what I’m used to paying on the west coast of Canada, which is really hard to stomach.) There are probably some options in a bigger city, like Newcastle, but I don’t get out of the country much. So I have resolved to the fact that I won’t get to eat much sushi here, and committed to getting it 4-5x whenever I go home to Victoria instead, lol.

Having my 40th birthday dinner at Hareta Sushi gave me hope that I might be wrong. We don’t exactly live close, but it is GOOD sushi, friend. Still not cheap, but really good. So whenever we come to Berwick now, I’ll be budgeting for a pit stop here! We treated ourselves to a little Valentine’s Day feast and it was worth every penny—and the six-month wait!

After lunch, we made our last stop—at the brand new bookshop in town. The Book Loft is just big enough that you can probably read the titles of every book on the shelves. We were in there for about an hour, and I slowly scanned through all the fiction—twice! (I didn’t think about it until after, but I skipped non-fiction altogether.) I came with a list of books from my TBR list for The Taste Test, so was referencing that, while taking pictures of others I might add to it. In the end, I got two books from my list: one for the science-fiction month, another for the YA fantasy month (and the author actually lives in Berwick herself!). Plus the newest book by Libby Page, for when I can squeeze some contemporary into the mix!

At the till, I chatted with the bookseller, who turned out to be the owner (I should’ve guessed!). In our conversation, I mentioned that I was an author and she immediately went to her computer and bought a copy of THE YEAR OF LESS for the shop. ☺️

We grabbed one more coffee from NSK after, then hit the road to start our journey home.

I posted these same pictures to Instagram last week and laughed when my friend Clare commented, “A staycation for the books!” She was right, of course. We went for the bookshop, and I came home with three! But something about this trip has been lingering…

It was such a simple day, really. Coffee, sushi, and a bookshop. These are things people who live in big cities have access to every day (I used to be one of them!) and might not understand how this little staycation could be so “big” for me. But now that I’m in the middle of the North, the closest coffee shop is a 15-minute drive away (30 to my old fave). The closest bookshop is 30-35. And I don’t even know where the closest sushi is!? But these are three of my favourite things. And one day, if we move somewhere else to spend the later years of our lives, I’ll be looking for a town that “has it all.”

But I think that walk out to the lighthouse is what has stayed with me, friend. It reminded me so much of Victoria. Walking along the “breakwater,” listening to the birds, watching the waves… I felt like I was at home.

The next time we go back, that walk will be the first thing I want to do again.

Do you have any places you like to visit semi-regularly, friend? What makes it so special for you?

xx Cait