We spent a quiet day at home yesterday
enjoying the tranquility of our Lake District
cottage after a hectic week.
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Today Lyn woke early so we could clean up the cottage and pack for our trip to visit Mick’s cousin Davina and her husband, Roy in Whitley Bay just north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
We hit the road about 8.50am and after dropping off the keys to the agents we were soon heading up the M6 towards Carlisle.
We left the M6 at junction 43 and then headed east on the A69 stopping for a coffee in a nice layby which unusually had a WC. WC is the term used on the signs here for toilets which commonly charge 20p to get in. This is pretty well unheard of in Australia. Imagine having to pay 32 cents for a pee. And what if you don’t have any change?
After coffee and free use of the “WC”, we continued down the A69 until we saw a sign for Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian’s Wall was a 115 kilometre long defensive fortification built in Roman times. It was begun in AD 122, during the rule of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It was built to keep out the Barbarians.
The A69 and B6318 roads follow the course of the wall from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Carlisle, then along the northern coast of Cumbria (south shore of the Solway Firth).
It is a common misconception that Hadrian's Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. This is not the case; Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England, and south of the Scottish border.
We decided to stop and visit one of the many forts which were built along the wall. This one was Birdoswald Fort although there was very little of it left.
As is often the case with such tourist attractions, there were things for the kids to do and at this fort kids could dress up as Roman Soldiers and play act various scenes of events in battle. There was a very realistic Roman Officer drilling two kids and their father.
After a visit to the gift shop, we took some photos and continued our journey to Whitley Bay, stopping on the way to fill up with diesel using our 5p per litre Tesco discount voucher. The price of diesel fuel here has just risen 4p per litre to 140.9p ($2.27).
**********************************
Today Lyn woke early so we could clean up the cottage and pack for our trip to visit Mick’s cousin Davina and her husband, Roy in Whitley Bay just north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
We hit the road about 8.50am and after dropping off the keys to the agents we were soon heading up the M6 towards Carlisle.
We left the M6 at junction 43 and then headed east on the A69 stopping for a coffee in a nice layby which unusually had a WC. WC is the term used on the signs here for toilets which commonly charge 20p to get in. This is pretty well unheard of in Australia. Imagine having to pay 32 cents for a pee. And what if you don’t have any change?
After coffee and free use of the “WC”, we continued down the A69 until we saw a sign for Hadrian’s Wall.
Hadrian’s Wall was a 115 kilometre long defensive fortification built in Roman times. It was begun in AD 122, during the rule of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. It was built to keep out the Barbarians.
The A69 and B6318 roads follow the course of the wall from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Carlisle, then along the northern coast of Cumbria (south shore of the Solway Firth).
It is a common misconception that Hadrian's Wall marks the boundary between England and Scotland. This is not the case; Hadrian's Wall lies entirely within England, and south of the Scottish border.
We decided to stop and visit one of the many forts which were built along the wall. This one was Birdoswald Fort although there was very little of it left.
As is often the case with such tourist attractions, there were things for the kids to do and at this fort kids could dress up as Roman Soldiers and play act various scenes of events in battle. There was a very realistic Roman Officer drilling two kids and their father.
After a visit to the gift shop, we took some photos and continued our journey to Whitley Bay, stopping on the way to fill up with diesel using our 5p per litre Tesco discount voucher. The price of diesel fuel here has just risen 4p per litre to 140.9p ($2.27).
Female Chaffinch
Male Chaffinch
would not have been too difficult for the Barbarians to climb over that wall, or they were very small in those days!!!
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