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Veni Vidi Vici

September 2022 - April 2024
The Hadrian Wall Adventur Read more
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  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    1

    A long day

    September 29, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    I had a really long day today. I think that I have finally gotten over my jet lag and I had a good night's sleep at the Scotch Arm Mews in Brampton. The cabbie picked me up at 9 and took me back to Walton where I finished hiking last night. After about 30 minutes I headed off the trail to the Lanercost Priory the ruins of a monastery. It was recommended by my guide book. I always enjoy these monastic ruins as they are so peaceful. The monks knew a good spot to live. The priory was also important from the perspective of Hadrians Wall as much of the wall in the area was ripped up to build it. Looking at the monastery was really looking at Hadrians Wall.

    I got to chatting with Emma the English Heritage worker who also did a lot of hiking and camping. I have been worried these last few days as they are calling for very heavy rainfalls and Gail force winds on Friday which is tomorrow. I was supposed to be hiking the Sils from Gisland to Once Brewed tomorrow which was one of the most scenic parts of the wall but also along a very high exposed rock formation. I told her the pace I was making and she suggested that as it was such a nice day to do both segments of the wall and then taxi back to Gisland for the night from Once Brewed. It hadn't been apparent to me that I would be able to get transportation back to Gisland. She suggested that I use Friday to visit some of the museums in the area. That seemed like a pretty good solution to my dilemma.

    It was a beautiful day so I decided that I would make the most of it even if I was going to be tired by the end of it. After a while, I realized that the geography along the path had changed and that I could make the various ditches that the Romans had dug on either sides of the wall. I started looking for the wall and I finally saw part of the wall hiding in a patch of bushes. It was in the correct location and far to wide to be a farm wall. Making my way to Birdoswald more traces of the wall came into view. The bases of several turrets along the wall were preserved. After the Romans left these were used as homes or barns so weren't removed when they built the monastery. Finally as I approached Birdoswald there was a substantial segment of wall stretching for a good mile snaking down across a valley and up the other side for as far as the eye could see. It was very impressive standing at 2 metres in height and 2 metres. To think that he original wall had stood 4 to 5 metres. There was a museum for a Roman castle at Birdoswald but I would retrack tomorrow and visit it.

    I made it to Gisland by 12:30 and Greenhead by 1 pm. By now I had completed 14 k and had another 13 k to do. The weather was holding so I thought that I would push on. The next part of the wall cuts across the top of a geographic formation known as the Sils. They rise 200 metres above the surrounding countryside. The north side are cliffs and the south side are very steep slopes. It was up the Sil to the top then down the other side before repeating on the next sil. It was like hiking in the mountains. The iconic photos of the wall are taken as it crosses the Sils. Parts were preserved and other parts were not. It is incredible to think that the Romans moved all the stone up to the top of the Sils. It was spectacularly beautiful and as it was getting on in the day there were hardly any hikers. In fact it was a little spooky at times. I fared reasonably well fueled with 2 chocolate bars, M and Ms and 2 litres of water. I made it to Once Brewed and contacted a cabbie. Only a 10 minute wait. For a 15 minute cab fare it was 30 pounds back to Gisland.

    I stayed at Dacre house in Gilands. It looked like an Edwardian house which the present owners had refurbished and turned into a 4 room guest house. It was beautiful. I had an okay Currie at a local pub and was in bed by 9. All in all an excellent day having accomplished a good 27 k including one of the most picturesque parts of the wall in some very good weather.    Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    Day 1

    Rain and Gail Day

    September 30, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Well I think that I called it right by getting two segments in yesterday. The weather started out overcast this morning but by 11 am it was full on rain and Gail force winds. I hiked from Gisland back to Birdoswald in 40 minutes and wandered around Birdoswald which is a partly excavated Roman fort and museum. The public transit is very intermittent so I had to be done by 1102 otherwise it was an expensive cab fare or a 2 hour wait. Of course one can only look at stones for so long. By 10:30 it was raining and by 11 it was very windy. I caught the bus to Greenhead where there is a Roman army museum. There unfortunately wasn't enough time to see the museum as the next bus came along at noon. I had to walk 5 mins from the bus stop and was it ever wet. Fortunately I had put on my rain pants. A fellow came into the museum drenched, He had left Once Brewed at 7:30. Up on the Sil he reported that it had been wicked. He had intended on hiking farther but was calling a cab. I told what I had done and he thought that was a good plan. I made on the bus to Vindolanda by 1230 and headed straight to the museum. Lots of Roman knick knacks which had been thrown away between 122 AD and 410AD. They have the largest collection of Roman shoes that I have ever seen. The clay and water create an anaerobic environment parenting things from rotting. They have a large collection of wood/paper writing tablets which has provided alot of insight into Roman life on the frontier.On a rainy day in September it looked like a pretty bleak place to have been stationed. When I got enough of the Knickknacks I headed out to check out the fort but it was still pretty windy and rainy and I gave up. My walk to Once Brewed where I am staying tonight was only a mile and with no sign of a bus I decided to hike. I was pretty soaked by the time that I made it there. I am all dried out now. I got a laundry done and my coat and rain pants are drying in the drying room. These bicyclists who I have been talking to tell me that the rain will be gone by tomorrow which will allow me to complete my last segment on the wall. I will take the bus to Chollerford and walk back to Once Brewed.Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    121
    Day 2

    Chollerford to Once Brewed

    October 1, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Today was my last segment on the wall. I have been hiking west to east but decided today to take the bus to Chollerford and hike back which is east to west. The buses run every 2 hours so I was worried that if I hiked to Chollerford that I may have had a long wait. The initial drawback was that I wouldn't be able to start my hike back until 1045 which is late for me. It was 15k back some up and down the sils but I thought I would make it in about 4 hours. What I didn't count on was a 50 kmph constant headwind. It tired me out and slowed me down considerably. It took me 6.5 hours to make it back to Once Brewed and was I ever tired when I got back. There were also some heavy rain showers such that I had to wear my rain pants all day. I also got a little patched out on the bus ride as it seemed longer than I thought it should have been. I asked the driver if we had gone past my stop it was so far. I guess I underestimated how far one can walk in a day. The best part of the hike was walking up and down the Sils again. Not only were the views spectacular but the wall seemed best preserved up on the Sils. It helped one imagine what the wall had looked back in 122AD. At Housesteads, an artist had used scaffolding to create the appearance of a Roman gate and then covered it in quotations. It looked a little out of place but certainly gave one the perspective on the size of the structure. I also walked north of the wall at one point to get the perspective of the Scots who may have wanted to attack the wall. Mr TPHM was a little disgruntled that I wasn't taking him out for photos but I was worried he would blow away. We got a final photo of us on our completion of the segment and he seemed quite happy. Tomorrow we are off to Durham.Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    1
    Day 4

    24 Hours Durham

    October 3, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Yesterday I left Hadrians Wall country first taking a bus to Haltwhistle, a train to Newcastle. Everything went smoothly and the journey took about 2 hours. There was a train strike on Saturday and the day after a train strike is always plagued by delays as the trains require being shuttled around to restart the system. The train I took to Durham was the first train to successfully leave for London. The station was extremely busy and the train was absolutely packed with people. I was lucky to get a seat and fortunately was only on the train for 20 minutes.

    Durham you may ask. Why Durham. I didn't want a long travel day leaving the wall, it was on the main train line to London and it was a UNESCO heritage site and the location of a fairly prestigious university. The town was established by a group of displaced monks who were travelling with the remains of their patron saint St Cuthbert. When the cart carrying St. Cuthbert got stuck in 965 AD they thought that this was a good sign to stop. St. Cuthbert even though he was dead must have had his wits about as the river Wear forms a loop around a very large hill giving rise to a very defensible geographical position. They built their monastery here which when the Normans took over England a few hundred years later was expanded into an Enormous cathedral. The Normans then had to built a large castle to protect the Cathedral from the Scots. During my time here in the North I keep hearing stories about the Scots invading etc. The stories sound very similar to those I heard in Scotland a few years ago about the English invading. Fast forward a millenium and Durham is now a very pleasant university town with a beautiful Cathedral and Castle. University just started last week which seemed a little late so the students were all wandering around town looking happy and relaxed. There were rowers on the river. The sun even came out. I checked out the Cathedral-very large and impressive, walked up and down pretty well every road in the city centre walked along the river. Today I found the modern university including the Bill Bryson library named after the well known author Bill Bryson. I had a large piece of Victoria sponge cake for a coffee break and made it to the train station today by one in order to take my train to London.    Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    Day 5

    Cambridge

    October 4, 2022 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Wow what a day I had. I took a guided walking tour to Cambridge. It was really packed with lots of interesting things. The day got off slowly because of train issues not strike related. Simon our tour leader was pretty up tight about the trains but we eventually got all worked out and made it to Cambridge about an hour train ride north of London. Cambridge is really booming due to tech and biotechnology. That is the future. Lots of new buildings going up at the periphery of the city especially around the train station. We were picked up by a bus and taken out to Madlington the location of the American military cemetery at Cambridge. There were multiple air bases located nearby and there were lots of American graves. The cemetery was very pretty. Afterwards we wandered around old Cambridge learning about all of the colleges such as Christchurch Trinity Kings College formed by various Tudor Kings or their mothers in the past and more recently by successful businessmen. The most spectacular of the Colleges was the chapel at Kings college. Spectacular stained glass windows and an elaborately carved flat stone roof which they don't know how it was constructed. We visited the Eagle Pub where Watson and Crick first announced the discovery of DNA. We visited the Cavendish laboratory where they had worked as well as the physicist Ernest Rutherford. We went to a small museum associated with a College attended by Charles Darwin which had specimens collected on the Beagle on his trip to the Galapagos including some finches. We saw an apple tree grafted from Isaac Newton original tree. We saw where Newton had discovered the speed of sound. It just went on and on. We made a visit to the Corpus clock with the Chronophage eating away at time-beware all Tik Tok users and time wasters. We finished with Punting on the river. We were exhausted and we were happy to head back to London on the train even if it was a milk run.Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    11
    Day 7

    Adventures in London

    October 6, 2022 in England ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    I have had another 2 exciting days. I really thought that it was going to be tough to top the Cambridge day. Perhaps I haven't topped but I have had an interesting time.

    My first stop yesterday was the John Soanes museum known informally as British museum light. Soane was an infamous British architect who lived from 1753 to 1837. He was known for neo-classical architecture-think Greek and Roman like. He collected pieces of architecture from antiquity and art. When he died he left his house with contents and his estate to be maintained as it was in 1837 for a public museum. I toured the house by myself and then was able to get on a tour. Nothing is labelled in the museum so there is no guide to know what to look at. I bought a program which helped a little. I had purchased a video from the museum before my visit that didn't work so they added me to the tour. I had tried to book a tour myself. The tour was very good and got me into parts of the house that normally one doesn't get into. Soane had even purchased an Egyptian sarcophagus. It was a neat place to visit.

    That afternoon I did another London walk up in Hampstead, once a village north of London but now merged with London. I have wandered around Hampstead before but it was good to be shown some of the pretty spots. These tours turn somewhat into trivia walks of London as on learns which famous British people lived along the wall. John Keats the poet, John Constable the countryside painter and Daphne Dumauier the writer. Many of the people I had never heard of.

    I am not to far from the Sadler Wells dance theatre. A woman on the train had recommended it to me. I have had to sit through lots of dance competition including a lot of bad Hip Hop. Zoo nation England's premier HipHop group was performing so I thought I should go and see some good Hip-hop for once. I wasn't let down. It was spectacular.

    Today I went to the Imperial War Museum. I think to do it justice one would have needed three days but I could only last for three hours. That still allowed a lot of time for all of the fighting and killing that the British have been involved in during the 20 century. Afterwards I was so exhausted I had to go back and have a nap at my accommodation.

    After a morning of death and destruction, I needed something for my soul. Westminster Abbey does a free Evensong service with choristers daily at 5. If you arrive in good time you get to sit in the chorister section of the abbey. I got there in good time and sat right behind the choristers. The singing was incredible and being in Westminster Abbey right behind the choir was very unique.Sitting beside me was a gregarious American from Colobous Ohio who had retired to London 20 years ago. He lived around the corner and attended the services daily. He therefore had gotten to know many of the choristers and the clergy. When his wife passed away he had also left an endowment to the abbey which had placed in good standing at the Abbey. He had even attended the Queen's funeral and had a photo to prove it He reminded of my friend Brian who also was from Ohio. We hit it off and afterwards we went out to eat together at the Laughing Fish and Chips.    Read more

  • TravelerVeni Vidi Vici
    Day 8

    3/4 Day London

    October 7, 2022 in England ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    This has turned into a slightly unusual day. I was supposed to stay in London at the Highbury Centre tonight and then head out to Gatwick airport in the morning on Saturday.Two weeks ago I realized that there was a train strike so I thought I should stay closer to Gatwick airport. Now during the trip I have been wondering if I over thought that decision but as of this morning Gatwick airport had warnings that there will be no train transport to the airport only taxi and some bus. Given that the Thameslink and Gatwick Express are the main ways one can get to the airport I think I made the right decision. They will not be running tomorrow.

    I signed up for another London walks trip today of the Victoria and Albert museum. The V and A as it is known is a decorative arts museum. The tour was unfortunately a disappointment. As a group we moved too slowly and didn't really see that much in the 2 hours and the stuff she showed us not that exciting. Two of the exhibits she took us to were closed so I think she showed us stuff just to kill time. I think I could have covered much more in those two hours. One pays one's money and one takes their changes.

    The only other thing I had on my list was the British Library treasure collection. I was flagging a bit after the V and A but I thought it was too early to head to Gatwick. I headed to the British library and probably got more out of that in the 1/2 hour I spent there than the 2 hours at the V and A. There were notes of Michelangelo and Leonardo De Vinci. A first folio of Shakespeare's work, one of the 4 surviving copies of the Magna Carta-slightly water damaged but it is 1000 years old, scribblings of the Beatles lyrics, ancient Bible's and Korans. It was just very impressive.

    It was getting on in the afternoon so I headed back to The Highbury Centre to collect my stuff and head out to Gatwick. It took me about 1.5 hours to get out here. I am now at a guesthouse in Gatwick about 1.7 miles from the airport. My flight leaves at 1:30 tomorrow so I should have no troubles making it to the airport in a timely fashion. It is a little anticlimactic to finish one's trip at a guesthouse by Gatwick airport but this is a better option then missing one's flight.

    I have had a good holiday and I have kept busy enough that I haven't got too lonely. The accommodation for the most part has worked out well. I really enjoyed the international hostel on Hadrian's wall and the Highbury Centre in London. They were clean quiet and there were people around to interact with. The things I enjoyed the most on the trip were Number 1 walking Hadrians Wall. It was the main purpose of the trip and lived up to my expectations. I was starting to doubt whether it was a good idea before I came as a few people had questioned the merit of travelling this far to walk along the wall. I really enjoyed it though and maybe wouldn't have gotten as much out of it had I not done that online course. It was very impressive. Number 2 was the day I spent at Cambridge. Simon our tour guide hit all of the high points of Cambridge. I would never have been able to pull off such a tour and seen such interesting things. Number 3 would be evensong at Westminster Abbey. The singing was incredulous in such an incredible setting. It was also fun connecting with David from Cleveland and heading out for supper with him. I understand why David goes to the service every day.

    I hope people have enjoyed following the blog. I find this is a fun way to stay in touch with everyone and I always enjoy people's comments and thoughts.

    Rob    Read more

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