When in Rome...Except We're Not - July 9

When I first thought about the things I'd like to do on this trip, I bought a big map of England that was laminated and started putting dots on the things that looked interesting to me as I read through the Dorling-Kindersley book about England. By putting dots on the map, I could plan for those things that were within range, distance-wise. One of the things that I most wanted to do but would take about a 2 hour drive was visit Hadrian's Wall. When the Romans came to Britain in 122 AD, they built forts to protect their claims. They also built a wall to keep out the Scots. It extended from coast to coast, was 9 feet wide and 15 feet high, and was completed in 4 years. They did not use slaves, but rather Roman craftsmen. The length was about 80 miles. I have to say, that the amount of stone walls in this country is amazing. There are sure a lot of rocks here! Every farm, every pasture, every house, garden, etc, is surrounded by stone walls. I guess the wet climate would have been hard on wood. Almost all the houses are stone, as well. At least the older ones. Here is a picture from another day of one of the walls: Anyway, back to Hadrian's wall... there were "Milecastles" all along the wall, with the occasional fort. Those Romans could really build and make things last, so at Housesteads they have uncovered quite a large fort (the foundations) and have lots of artifacts from Roman times. The Romans left around 400 AD.Here is a shot of the wall remains. It still goes most of the way across Britain. I'm on top of the wall shooting down at the path near it that Mark and Morrie are walking on. The ferns here are amazing! I can almost see Robin Hood walking along with his men. Not too far from Housesteads is Vindolanda that is a Roman community that pre-dates the wall. They are still uncovering artifacts from this area. They've already uncovered lots of pottery, jewelry, leather shoes, tools, etc. that they have on display there at the museum. One of the most amazing things that they have discovered here is actual writings--letters from people to each other. The earliest know writing from one woman to another is an invitation to a birthday celebration. It would be so cool to be transported back in time to see what this civilization looked and felt like. Returning to the Lake District, we got tickets for a local play for later in the evening, and then took an hour to drive through some of the countryside in the northern lakes area. It has very different terrain from the southern lakes area. Much more stark and not as lush. The roads were narrow and quite steep -- a 25% grade. We saw some cyclists going up as we were coming down. We were impressed! That is definitely a climb I wouldn't want to do. This is Buttermere Lake: