Day Seventeen - Jun 28, 2014

Edinburgh, SCT to Haltwhistle, ENG

High Point: Hiking Hadrian's Wall

Low Point: Being a wee bit exhausted from a really early start

Miles By Automobile: 10

Miles By Foot: 3

Miles By Train: 116

Today's Antiquities: Hadrian's Wall

Today's Weather: Overcast with a little rain. In the mid 60's

Tonight's Lodging: The Ashcroft Guest House

Touristic Events: The Roman Museum, Hadrian's Wall, Vindolanda

Daily Didactic

Today was an ambitious day. We only have a day to take in the Roman's northernmost outpost, Hadrian's wall in the north of England. The wall was a little over two hours south by train and we were walking down the empty streets of Edinburgh by 6:15 to catch a 6:45 train. After a train change in Carlisle we eventually came to a stop in the predictably quaint community of Haltwhistle. We dropped off our bags at the swanky (for us) Ashcroft Guest House and (with perfect guidance from the owner Geoff) caught the AD122 bus to Walltown to take a look at the Roman Museum. While it was a good study of Emperor Hadrian and his wall (and had an entertaining 15 minute 3D movie), the experience was a little more didactic and less active than we were hoping for. We made short order of the museum and caught the AD122 (for the year the Romans started the wall) north to the awesomely named village Once Brewed. From the bus stop, we walked up a dirt road to Steel Rigg, the starting point for our wall walk. The modest two and a half mile hike took us over what we are told is "the best part of the wall". This seems to be a reference to amount of wall still standing. There is a good two miles of the original 2000 year old wall here, although we are guessing it has been stacked back up a bit. The remains are considerably shorter than they used to be, most of the stone having been pilfered for castles and fences. We exited our hike at Housestead, just missing the bus to our third and final tourist opportunity, Vindolanda, a well preserved Roman fort and active archeological dig. We killed time until the next bus snacking on some Hadrian branded snacks and beverages. We made it to Vindolanda just in time to be a few minutes for the last archeologist guided walking tour of the ruins. Super informative and entertaining. An hour an a half later, just a little before 5:00, we hopped the last bus to Haltwhistle. Back at the Ashcroft we were escorted to our digs for the night. Ridiculous. A claw foot tub, a deck, a king sized bed, the manner to which we'd love to become accustomed. This had been an "I give up" booking, literally the last one for the entire trip and Brian was tired. It worked out nicely and was by no means the most expensive of the trip. After a really great and entertaining dinner at the local pub, we holed up in our digs and lavished in the extravagance.