It was a half mile up to the roman fort at Housestead. Supposed to be the largest fort still around, and at the highest point along a wall that used to span the island of Great Britain. Roman Emporer Hadrian apparently had it built to keep the Scots or Celts from causing trouble. The troops were mostly from Belgium. There was a similar wall further north sometime later, but apparently not as well preserved.
This was a room with a heated floor, the pillars raised and supported the floor of the room, providing space for a fire below. Might have been part of the bath area, I can't remember.
Bruce enjoying the weather at the top. This really must be what the moon feels like. I can't believe so many people live in Scotland. The wind was constant and absolutely bone-chilling.
There was a segment here where we could actually walk along the wall. It's very popular here to walk along the wall between forts. People walk here. It doesn't have to be a mountain or a forest, they just walk. It's a very popular activity, walking for miles. We got about as far as that first tree and two of the kids were begging to return to the museum. Bruce was dying to walk for a time which he did while we thawed.
The last stop was Durham Cathedral, the only Harry Potter scene of three that we were actually allowed to visit. Apparently the owl learns to fly around these twin towers. Something like that. We happened to be there just before evensong, so we tortured the kids with a little singing before seeking out the pizza and starting our last 3-hour leg home. This maybe the last significant drive of our visit, we'll see what Pete is up for. Bruce was pleased to announce at breakfast it was surely our last "Full English Breakfast," which we've only had at BnBs. Can't believe Pete and hopefully Allison (if she gets her green card) will be here in two days!
6 comments:
It's so much fun to read the blog, and your stamina is amazing. All I needed to read was the temp and windchill factor to know I would have wanted to stay in the car or cafe.
It will be fun to hear the kids talk about their adventures in the future. I think they will mainly remember the fun parts. Love, Terri
Your photo of the Roman bath ruins is exactly right. I saw a PBS documentary on their construction techniques and it looks the same. The posts held up the stone floor and hot air from a wood fire circulated underneath. Nice shot.
We've just finished doing a couple of lunch hour brown bags of slide shows of people's vacations. It was a great idea, the brainchild of a coworker who is now in Vienna and Prague for Thanksgiving with his son who is spending a semester (or was it a year?) in Moscow.
Last week was UK--including my pics, though I threw in a few from the Oregon Coast, just to suggest that "what I did on vacation this summer" isn't only the big/far trips--and Russia. The Moscow student and his father took the trans-Siberial railway.
It was great fun, with lots of duplicates of Scotland and of Washington State wilderness areas. Made me want to buy a hiking book.
Anyway, Leeds Castle was well reviewed--it was my friend Lisa's "favorite"--and includes some Roman Ruins, and George and his family went to Stonehenge and to Bath, the latter included Roman Baths pictures, but I can't recall at what location exactly.
I finally passed around my Scotish shortbread cookies I brought home. I bought two boxes, but somehow managed to eat all but 4 cookies from the first box by myself. I needed to share the rest, but fast. I still have a full box of Earl Gray tea because we weren't handy enough to the kitchen to include tea with the cookies (and pizza for lunch).
Sorry to hear about Allison's last minute stresses. What a bother that must be. I hope it all works out.
Yeah, nice pic at the wall. I note that the weather you had is about the same what I had. I have a very similar picture to Bruce's but it's at the top of a bluff near the wall, not on top of the wall itself. It wasn't so windy on top of the wall where we were, but the bluff stood/looked over a river and the wind blew almost straight up. It's a fascinating sensation. We had wind of similar severity in Stirling at the Wallace Monument, it made for kind of a fun/funny picture of me and Sarah.
Lisa had pictures of Canterbury. They actually hired a driver/guide to take them out there for the day. I didn't realize there was a river there. It doesn't really surprise me, but it surprises me how little time we had. I'm glad we went there though.
I'm glad we stopped there too. Thanks for all of the tips. I'm guessing we'll be keeping it simple once again this weekend. Maybe focus on WWII. Who knows. Peter is reading up now. B
Hey! Here's my wind picture at Hadrian's wall too, in/near Gilsland. I'm not right on the wall, but that portion of the wall is on a bluff overlooking a river. The wind felt like it was blowing straight up. Very cool. And it was a beautiful view of the river valley below.
Cool picture, Deb. Having been there now I have to say you look way under dressed. B
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