J&J's European Adventure

16 August

Hadrian's Wall

We left our bags at the hotel and went to the Tourist Info Center for advice about Hadrian's Wall. After a maddening circular conversation with possibly the densest woman in Britain, we secured a bus schedule and left. We decided to stay another night in Carlisle, so we checked back in to the same hotel. Street noise and bar revelry were a bit of a problem last night, so we made sure to get a back room for tonight.

The bus we rode was a regular intercity bus, but selected runs have a guide on board to give a running commentary about the sites along the way. Our guide was really superb, and we learned a lot of history, including the origins of the words bereaved and blackmail. We left the bus on the return leg and hiked from one bus stop to the next along the wall. The path took us away from the road through picturesque farmland.

At one point, Janene realized that she no longer had her hat. Our best hope for recovery was that it was left on the bus. When we got back to town, we tried going to the bus terminal, but learned that it was in the next town. We decided to wait for the last bus of the day, hoping that the driver could check with the home office to see if a hat was found. We killed time walking around town and having a light supper, and then staked out the bus stop. The bus came hurtling along, but showed no sign of stopping, so we hopped out waving madly and got it to stop. We barely started to explain when the driver reached up on the dash and produced the hat. Happy days!!

Daily miles: 5.53

Expenses: £75.67 (room, Hadrian bus tickets, food)

Hadrian's Wall Bus

Lanercost Priory	English countryside	Roman soldier
Old Repeater Station	Chollerford Bridge	Hadrian's Wall info (see full text below)

Hadrian's Wall was built by the order of the Emperor Hadrian, following his visit to Britain in AD122. It was planned as a continuous wall with a milecastle every Roman mile (1.48 kilometres) and two turrets equally spaced between each milecastle. The Wall, with its defensive ditches and large forts, stretched from coast to coast, a distance of 80 Roman miles (approximately 120 kilometres or 75 miles). It formed the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire.
Hadrian's Wall is a World Heritage Site, designated by UNESCO.