Day 5: Hadrian's wall and lots of Roman things

Wednesday dawned not so bright and sunny as grey and dismal. I was feeling the effects of the dampness, as I had cleverly forgotten to pack a fleece jacket and was reduced to wearing my new Puma sweatshirt underneath my trusty new raincoat. I had thought that a raincoat would serve me well, but, as it turned out, I would have done better with something warmer on these first few days. 

It was a short drive to Vindolanda and the Roman Army Museum. Vindolanda is the site of five wooden Roman forts and several stone forts that were built on top of each other after the former ones were demolished. It is situated just south of Hadrian's Wall. The first fort was built around AD 85 and the settlement remained in use for about 400 years. Its main purpose was to keep the local rebels under control and, of course, to keep the unruly Scots out of England.

Vindolanda is a working archaeological site and there have been thousands of unique artifacts found there due to the anoxic (lacking in oxygen) and waterlogged condition of the ground. Imagine leather shoes surviving in ground for almost 2,000 years! Most importantly, perhaps, are the Vindolanda tablets, communications between Roman officers that were written on thin slivers of postcard-sized wood. Over 400 tablets have been found so far and the writing on them provides valuable information about the nature of life on the Roman frontier.

I also forgot to pack a warm hat, but discovered that I could wrap my new Wilson tartan scarf around my head and tie it in the back. It was just the ticket. My mother would be proud.

In the way of things in historical England, there is a working farm just across the wall from the dig.

These photos give an idea of the size of the area.

I have pretty much fired myself from being photographer when we travel. My camera did not take good photos on this grey day, but, as you can see, Jeff was taking some good ones.

I love English robins. This one reminds me of the old nursery rhyme that must be peculiar to British children because none of my friends seem to know it.

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow,

And what will poor robin do then, poor thing?

He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm,

And hide his head under his wing, poor thing.

We walked down a long and winding path the the Roman Army Museum, where there were mannequins. And lots of wonderfully interesting things that have been found at Vindolanda.

Then we drove up the road a wee bit and walked, up a (steep) hill of course, to a section of Hadrian's Wall. Don't you love how the farmers just bisected the wall with their own newer one? I suppose when you live with history like this it becomes commonplace.

I kept imagining how glorious this view would have been in sunlight.

It is quite amazing to think that this wall, which was 80 miles long in its time, is almost 2,000 years old. And we walked on it.

It started to rain, so we skedaddled back down the hill and drove on.

And then we had a satnav moment.
As we came out of the narrow lane from the wall, the satnav said to turn left. It didn't seem right to us, but at this point we still thought that it was God and knew a thing or two better than us, so I turned left. The road became a narrow lane, just wide enough for our car, that wended its way through farmland. In fact, there were cows and sheep on the road. We kept thinking that it must be some clever shortcut, until we realised that the graphic on the satnav screen that showed our next move was a U-turn, two miles down the road.
Call us outraged, or call us stupid, but I actually drove those two miles, just to see if there was anything interesting along the way.
There wasn't.
We finally got back on the main road and the satnav was unfazed and unrepentant.
We drove through the Pennines to get to Darlington, our stop for the night. I was looking forward to the Pennines, but without sunshine everything looked a little dreary, so we just forged on until we reached our billet for the night. And it was a most gorgeous house that was owned by a very obsessive-compulsive and lovely lady schoolteacher. I have never seen a kitchen so immaculately organized in my entire life. We walked to the local pub for dinner and then settled in for the night.