Roamin' Roman Roads (and Walls!)

today we took a day trip out to Hadrian's Wall, on the AD122 bus - you can get an all-day rover pass for only £6.50, and it takes you from Newcastle all the way to Bowness on Solway (at the West end of the wall) and back again... with as many stops along the way as you can manage to squeeze in (just remember that there's only one bus that goes all the way back to Newcastle - miss that, and you'll have to take a train from Hexam!) the weather was kind of cold and damp, but still clear enough for lots of beautiful views and lots of photos... so they're all in miniature today!

the wheels on the bus go round and round...

daffodils at Vindolanda

ruins of Vindolanda

we started walking along the wall at Once Brewed (Twice Brewed is west of here)
this is one of many stiles to climb over the stone 'fences' that separate the farmer's fields. it was muddy on the other side, so we had to be careful not to end up with petticoats six inches deep in mud!

Hadrian's Wall goes up the side of this cliff (its hard to tell which parts are original, and which parts are later restorations/additions - but the route is definite)

this is the ascent as seen from the top of the cliff

these cows were guarding the top of the hill

yay! Vieng and Mimi made it! (Vieng told us later that she's afraid of heights! we had to go up and down some pretty steep staircases today - sorry Vieng!)

this is Sycamore Gap - they shot a scene of Robin Hood Prince of Theives here - the one where Robin sees Little John's son hiding in tree to escape the cousin of the Sherrif of Nottingham
the lighting is off here, but you can see the tree down in the gap between the cliff-tops

I'm running out of photo space, i think, so here are just a few more random shots from our day... The typically English weather actually made for some pretty good photos!


Oh, and one last thing... remember when Tara and I played Roman at Segedunum last November? well, guess what I saw on the back of the Hadrian's Wall News magazine that they gave us on the bus?

look! there we are!