Day 6 - Once Brewed to Gilsland

We walked 12.2 miles today plus .6 back from dinner.  Total 12.8 miles.  Our packet said this was an 8 mile day.

It was a lovely day to walk on Hadrian's Wall.  There was no rain today.  The sun shone, but the temperature was just a bit cool.  Very nice walking weather.

We set out shortly after 9:00am from Vallum Lodge.  The breakfast was excellent.  We settled up for laundry, packed lunches and one candy bar that Robert had. Our walk started today with a short walk from the Lodge to the award-winning Steel Rigg car park.  We don't know what awards, but it was a scenic car park on top of the crags.  That put us back on the Hadrian's Wall path to start our trek.  In about 15 minutes of hiking, we were at the highest point on the trail, 345 meters, at Winshield Crags.  The views were outstanding once again.

Robert and Sharon at highest point on trail

We continued walking up and down the crags for the morning, but more down than up.  We stopped at the Great Chesters Fort, an unexcavated ruin of a Roman fort, for lunch.  The day was lovely, the grass was green and lush, so we spread out a picnic blanket and sat down to enjoy our packed lunches.

Picnic lunch at Great Chesters Fort

We set out with renewed vigor to attack the crags.  The day is not as strenuous as our last day of walking as we are having less up and down to deal with, plus the weather is lovely.  Partly cloudy skies and cool breezes.  We stopped to rest at a milecastle and visited with a Canadian archaeology student who had just finished two weeks of digging at Vindolanda.  This was her second year to do so and she said the experience was wonderful.

Robert, Carol, Sharon and Dave - taken by Canadian student

We saw several people that we had seen at Vallum Lodge the night before and we ran into the Roman Centurion again!  He is still walking.  Since this is Saturday, we came across several groups of students and families just out for the day.

Mid-afternoon, we stopped at the Roman Army Museum (after our first experience of losing the trail and adding about a mile to our walk).  Most of the exhibits here come from Vindolanda, but deal more with the military side rather than civilian life.  We enjoyed the movie and the interpretive exhibits here.  We walked by the ruin of Thirlwall castle.  This is quite an imposing ruin of a grand structure.  Carol particularly enjoyed it.

Carol at Thirlwall castle

On we go across the fields of sheep and cows to Gilsland, our destination for the night.  We walked through the village of Gilsland, found the school (our landmark) and left the trail to walk to our B&B, Howard Hill Farm.  We arrived about 5:15 to a lovely farmhouse and all relaxed a bit before our 7:30 dinner reservation at the Samson Inn in town.  We can look east and see the crags we started out walking this morning.

Our hostess, Helen, drove us into town (we very much appreciated the lift) where we had another lovely dinner.  Service was slow initially, but once we ordered (after waiting for 30 minutes) things moved quickly and the food was delicious once again.  Burger and chips (fries) for Robert, hot pot for me (lamb stew), brie and vegetable pasty for Carol and bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) for Dave.  All really tasty!  No dessert tonight and we enjoyed a lovely walk back to the Howard Hill Farm as the sun was setting (about 9pm).

Day 5 - Rest Day. Walk to Vindolanda

Vallum Lodge

We walked 3.28 miles today.

This is our rest day at the lovely Vallum Lodge in Once Brewed.  We had a leisurely breakfast, knowing we did not need to get on the trail today.  The Lodge offers laundry service, so we all gathered up muddy things to have them laundered.  At 11am, we met to walk 1.5 miles to Vindolanda, an excavated Roman fort site.

It was an easy walk along a country road and the day is overcast, but not rainy.  It is a bit chilly, but with a light coat, the weather is fine.  [The British have a saying, "There is no bad weather, only poor clothing choices."]  Vindolanda was a grand way to spend our rest day!  We felt free to poke around the excavations and excellent museum without worrying about having to walk another 3 hours to our stop for the night.

This fort was laid out in the now-familiar Roman pattern, with excellent interpretive panels explaining the different buildings.  There is still excavation continuing here, so some areas were roped off.  This area has apparently been uniquely suited to preserving artifacts and remains from former times due to the composition of the soil in this area.  The most exciting find here, besides lots of shoes, pottery and weapons are "postcards."  These are small letters written in ink that detail mundane happenings about Roman life in this settlement.  There are lists of supplies, a birthday party invitation, letters between friends, etc.  Truly fascinating to read and contemplate.

There is reconstruction of a milecastle on Hadrian's Wall here where we spent time recreating scenes from Monty Python movies.

We had lunch in a lovely tearoom and really enjoyed the museum.  Most of the displays are of Roman daily life rather than the military functions.  They have done an excellent job of telling the stories of the findings.  The excavations are on-going, so the exhibits grow and change.

We walked back to the Lodge mid-afternoon.  Dave and Carol stopped off at the Twice-Brewed pub for a pint, while Robert and I returned to the Lodge.  Everyone relaxed (rested on our rest day) until dinner.  We returned to Twice-Brewed once again.  This place has outstanding food.  Fresh, local and well-prepared.  Robert had the beef pie again and the rest of us had smoked haddock over mashed potatoes.  For dessert, Robert couldn't pass up the Mint Sizzle and I had the Fruit Crumble with cream.  The fruit tonight was rhubarb.  Yum, yum.

As we walked back around 8pm, the day is still quite light.  That is good since we have to walk about 200 yards on a busy highway.  Back on the trail tomorrow, well-rested with clean clothes.

Day 4 - Hallbarns to Vallum Lodge (Chesters to Once Brewed)

Hallbarns - our B&B

We walked 11 miles today.

We had a lovely breakfast at Hallbarns, our B&B.  We had invited Jay, another walker, to join us for breakfast.  He is going the same direction on the path as we are, but doing the trail in 7 days rather than our 10.  Delicious food, once again.  We all got packed lunches to eat on the trail.  Getting the packed lunches is a bit like being on the receiving end of all the school lunches that I've packed over the years.  It is always a treat to see what is in the bag.

Rather than walk back to the trail from Hallbarns, we were happy to have our host drop us back on the trail.  We started our morning at Black Carts, where we saw a large chunk of the wall.  The weather prediction is no rain for the day, but we all have on our rain jackets. The day turned out to be wet, but not nearly as much real rain as the day before. Still, parts of the trail were muddy and we were glad for rain pants and gaiters.

Hadrian's Wall at Black Carts

Very soon, we reached Limestone Corner, the northernmost point of our walk and the northernmost point of the Roman Empire in Hadrian's time.  Walking along the trail, we have a good view of the ditch dug on the north side of the wall and we can look south to see the Vallum clearly too.

In about an hour, we reached Brocolitia Roman Fort. This fort is unexcavated, so is really just bumps of earth.  The more interesting excavation is Mithras Temple, excavated and open to the skies and viewing.  There are alters set up, but these are reproductions.  The originals are in a museum in Newcastle. While looking at the temple, we were joined by a Danish couple who were staying at the same B&B as we were last night.  They are trying to "follow Hadrian all over Europe."

Mithras Temple

As we left the temple to return to the path, the way was quite muddy.  I stepped on what I thought was a rock to cross a boggy area and sunk my left foot to the shin in mud.  Once again, I said "thank you" to Steve Saunders for recommending the high gaiters!  My shoe and gaiter were quite muddy, but my foot stayed dry.

Milecastle - notice reconstructed Roman arch over gateway

We came upon ruins and excavations of turrets and milecastles.  Part of the wall construction, milecastles were placed at every mile along the route.  These were "gates" that could control the flow of traffic through the wall.  There were usually 10 men stationed here, so there are living facilities in addition to the gate.  Between each milecastle are two turrets.  The turrets were basically "lookout stations" along the way.

The defensive ditch also ends in this area.  We are walking into the "crags" or cliffs across the English landscape.  The Romans realized the 1) the rock is really hard to cut or dig a ditch into and 2) the cliffs form a natural barrier that is even more formidible than the ditch.  Our path takes us up and over these crags.  The views are truly breathtaking! We all feel like we are on top of the world!

We stopped for another damp lunch in the woods atop Sewingshields Crags.  We spread our waterproof picnic blanket on the soggy ground and looked north, tranfixed by the view.  Our ham sandwiches (Carol took off the ham) were quite delicious.  It started raining just as we were finishing up.  We covered our packs, put on rain gear and set off.  We can see Bromlee Lough (a big lake) to the northwest and more incredible views. There are pieces of wall here and there.  We climbed up and down some more crags (Dave & Carol found ways "around" that didn't involve so much climbing) and arrived at Housesteads.

Shortly after 1pm, we reached Housesteads.  This is the best of the excavated Roman forts along the wall.  In addition to the Roman ruins, the site itself is lovely.  There are incredible views to both the north and the south here. The fort is laid out in the same pattern as Segedunum and Chesters, with the administrative building in the middle and barracks and living quarters on the side.  It reminds me a bit of coming upon Manchu Pichu and seeing the extensive ruins, but being able to imagine the daily life of the people who lived here.

We were hoping for a tearoom to rest and warm up, as well as toilet facilities.  The toilets were porta-potties and the tearoom was an automatic tea machine, but we made do.  We watched a short film about the site and spent about an hour poking around.

Apparently, school children in Britain have this week off from school.  At Chesters, we saw part of a cavalry demonstration which then involved getting kids involved in some horse-related activities (using stick horses).  At Housesteads, we saw a "centurion" in uniform giving kids a "solders' training" school.  They had sticks and shields to work with.

We spent the rest of the day walking up and down the crags and enjoying the spectacular scenery.  There are many portions of Hadrian's Wall standing in place.  Much of the wall along this portion of the path was preserved by one man, John Clayton, in the mid-1800s.  He realized the value of this Roman artifact, which was being destroyed by local farmers and builders carrying off the convenient building materials.  He bought up large portions of the land where the wall was located and attempted to preserve it.  In places he rebuilt the wall.

Shortly after 4pm, we descended from our last crag of the day (Peel Crags) to arrive at Once Brewed.  Our lodging for the next two days will be Vallum Lodge in Once Brewed.  After resting a bit at the B&B, we walked back to Twice Brewed Pub for dinner.  We met Jay from Richmond at the bar!  He joined us for dinner and we all commiserated about the damp walking today (but better than the rain the day before).  He continues on in the morning, but we get a day off the trail to rest a bit at Vallum Lodge.  Dinner was delicious!  Robert had meat pie, I had sausage (pork & leek), Dave had beef and Carol had fish.  All was really tasty!  Robert had Mint Sizzle for dessert--Mint chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream and chocolate chips.  I had double butterscotch ice cream.

Off the bed and looking forward to being off the trail tomorrow!
   

This was a wet one

We walked 10.83 miles today.

Today was rainy.  We had an outstanding breakfast at the Marfen High House, with home-made bread (served warm from the oven), house-made preserves and delicious breakfast items.  We met Alison and John from Seattle, who are also walking the Wall, but in the opposite direction of us.  Ginny, our hostess, packed us each lunches and we headed out into the rain about 9am.

The countryside was lush and beautiful.  We walked through many fields that were shared with grazing sheep, with lots of lambs staying near their mothers.  Parts were pretty muddy too.  Robert and Carol donned their rain pants, but Dave and I made do with gaiters.  (Thank you, Steve Saunders, for the high-gaiters tip.  They worked quite well today.)  There were lovely views throughout the day, although some were a bit obscured by rain and clouds.  We walked in and beside the Roman "ditch," as well as the Vallum (see below).

We stopped to eat our packed lunches in the rain at a picnic table outside the Errington Arms at the Portgate roundabout.  The Port Gate was built into Hadrian's Wall to accommodate a major north-south road running from Scotland to York.  Today it is still an intersection of two major roads in England.

Our trek continued west through pastures and fields with the Vallum on our left.  When the Romans built the wall, they dug a deep ditch on the northern side as an additional defense against the Scottish raiders.  On the southern side, "behind" the wall, there is another wider ditch.  This is the Vallum.  Historians are uncertain about the purpose of the Vallum, but it did add a lot of work to building their defenses.  Sheep and lambs were all around.  The rain continues on and off all afternoon.  At one point, we took off our rain jackets, but ended up putting them on again.

Three years ago, we visited Hadrian's Wall with Indy & Kira, on a driving trip from Edinburgh to York.  Today, we came upon the section of wall that we visited.  Just past St. Oswald's church, near Heavensfield, we came upon our first significant section of the wall since Heddon-on-the-Wall.  It looked familiar!  We played here, near Planetrees, three years ago.  Kira tried to pet sheep in the surrounding fields and failed.  It was very fun to revisit this place again!

It is funny.  Often when we talk to a local British resident, they are amazed that Americans know about Hadrian's Wall.  "How did you learn about it?," they often ask.  It is a bit embarrassing to realize that they think we know so little of their history or any history.  Generally, they are probably right though.

Nice shot of Carol at Planetrees section of the wall,

Stuart, our host at last night's B&B, told us of a short-cut to take into Chollerford.  We walked along the highway for a brief time and crossed the Tyne River once again to enter Chollerford.  It was raining again as we made our way to Chesters Fort.  This is a nicely excavated Roman fort that was located at this site, adjacent to Hadrian's Wall.  We spent about an hour see the excavated ruins, then called our hostess for the night to pick us up, as instructed.

Margaret Locke picked up our wet and muddy bunch and transported us to Hallbarns, our B&B for the night.  The first thing we did was take off our muddy shoes and wet coats.  Our hostess put them in the "drying room."  We put on warm, dry socks and met in the parlor to have tea and cakes in front of the fire.  It felt so good!

While warming up, we met another "walker" who is following the same route we are traveling.  Jay, from Virginia, chatted with us over tea, then joined us for dessert after dinner.

Dinner was lovely, prepared by Margaret.  We had fish, with lots of vegetables -- cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes and carrots.  Dessert was cherry pie with ice cream.  Simple, filling and delicious.

We are all relaxing now.  It looks like the weather will improve throughout the day tomorrow.  At the very least, it will be nice to start with dry shoes!

Another lovely day for a walk

We walked 12 miles today.

No problem really, except that we were expecting at day of 8.5 miles.  Don't know what happened really (except we added a mile walking around Heddon-on-the-Wall).  It was another lovely day walking in Northern England.  Rain was predicted and we left the Keelman in cool, damp weather, but conditions improved throughout the day and rain never appeared.

Breakfast was lovely and generous at the Keelman.  Carol had not slept well due to an extended session of loud, bawdy song singing in the beer garden last night.  Dave slept through it and Robert and I didn't hear it.  (Our room was on the back side of the hotel.)  A fellow approached our breakfast table and introduced himself as Tim.  He told us a few anecdotes and admitted to being the ringleader of last night's songfest.  He was staying at the hotel as part of a reunion of schoolmates.  He suggested that we would see him again at our hotel tonight too.  (We must have misunderstood him).

We set out about 9am, with rainjackets on and packs covered.  The walk continued along the Tyne River and was lovely.  Green, lush countryside.  We met several people walking their dogs and two girls on horses.  One man stopped and told us some of the local history.

We soon left the river and turned north to Heddon-on-the-Wall.  This is a delightful village, at the top of a hill, where we saw the first large expanse of Hadrian's Wall.  We circled the village a couple of times, looking for the petrol station/convenience store.  This is really hard to do since the village has only about 10 buildings.  We finally asked a man who spoke to us from his front yard.  He turned out to be the mayor of the town (locals call it "Heaven-on-the-Wall.") and he pointed us in the right direction.

We bought supplies for a picnic lunch at the store, then headed west to Rudchester Fort and Two Hoots.  The countryside was just beyond lovely.  Fields of wheat, wildflowers and rapeseed (used to make canola oil) stretched to the horizon.  Sheep and cows grazed.  We didn't see much of the wall after Heddon, but walked for a long way in ditch dug in front of the wall (on the north side--the Scottish side) for additional defense.  Some of it was pretty muddy.  We stopped to a picnic lunch on one of the stiles used to cross a fence.  The day warmed and cleared and it was just a lovely walk.

We walked through Harlow Hill and stopped for a break at the picnic tables at the Great Northern Lake. On to East Wallhouses where we stamped our Hadrian's Walk passports at the Robin Hood pub.  Our B&B for the night was another mile walk north of the pub, but we stopped at the Vellum Tearoom for a scone & tea (or lemon cake and lemon meringue pie for Robert and ice cream for Dave).  Fortified, we walked on to the Marfen High House.

Arriving about 4:30pm, we were happy to be told that our hosts would drive us back for dinner.  We had seen a restaurant next to the tea room, David Kennedy (named for the chef), and had made 7:00pm reservations for dinner.  Spruced up and rested, we headed back for dinner.  It was delicious!  Dave & I had locally smoked salmon to start.  Robert had fish & chips (but fancy), Carol had a Gruyere tart, I had roast chicken and Dave had slow-cooked pork belly.  Chocolate and raspberry tart and a selection of cheeses for dessert.  Nice end to a fine day.

Off to bed to be ready for another 10 mile day tomorrow.  The weather is supposed to be rainy.

And so we begin...

We walked 12.5 miles today.

What a lovely day to begin our walk of Hadrian's Wall.  The temperatures ranged from 50 degrees to the mid-60's today.  The sky was blue with scattered clouds.  There was a prediction of late afternoon rain, but none appeared.

We had a hearty English breakfast at the Oak Tree Lodge around 7:30am.  Left just before 9am to take the metro back to Segedunum, with only our daypacks, to start our walk!  We began on the trail at 9:22am.  The weather was perfect and our hopes were high.

The morning was just lovely, walking through parts of Newcastle.  We stopped for a water break and cookies at around 10:30am and decided to get lunch in Newcastle since it would be our best chance to find a restaurant.  We walked on into Newcastle, enjoying the seven bridges spanning the Tyne river.

Lunch was at the Slug and Lettuce.  Nice variety and it was right on the river path in downtown Newcastle.  Robert got a Diet Coke with ice.  England has certainly changed since our last visit!

After about an hour, we hit the trail again.  Leaving downtown Newcastle behind pretty quickly, we enjoyed walking through more "pastoral" areas.  Although the guide book had warned about this part of the walk being through industrial areas and business parks, we found it to be very green and quite inviting.

The wildflowers are abundant and many of the trees are in flower. Our guidebook has a section on plants, so we are able to identify most of them.  Here is a blooming hawthorne tree.  The scent is lovely too.

Mid-afternoon, we met a Roman Centurion.  He is walking the wall, in uniform, to raise money for epilepsy.  It certainly added a touch of realism to our journey!

About a mile before we were expecting it, we arrived at our destination for today!  Just before 4pm, we walked through the Leisure Center at Newburn.  Many families were enjoying the park and river because today is a holiday, just like in the U.S.  Just behind the Leisure Center, we found the Keelman's Lodge.  Our destination!

Just before arriving, we stopped to read about the Battle of Newburn Ford in 1640.  The Scots beat the English in a battle here that was fought largely because the English king suggested a change to the book of prayer.  The Scots would have none of that and pledged a covenant to stay true.  The "Covenanters" took up arms to make their point.

Dinner is at the Keelman's Pub tonight.  The weather is still mild and lovely.  We have enjoyed some rest and taking off our shoes.  We'll have dinner outside in the garden and celebrate a successful beginning to our trek!

Heading to Newcastle to see Hadrian's Wall

We woke up to a rainy, foggy day in Edinburgh.  Our plan was to walk to Calton Hill above Edinburgh to see the city from above.  Even with the rain and grey fog, we forged ahead.  We noticed that there were a lot of people out on the streets at 7:30am.  Today was a marathon in Edinburgh.  As we walked south on Princes Street, we could see that people were massing right in the path we wanted to take.  Time for Plan B.  No Calton Hill today, we bought train tickets for the ride to Newcastle and went to get breakfast.  Robert and I had scoped out a possible spot yesterday, asking what time they opened on Sunday.  We were told 8am.  Great!  When we arrived, the door was locked and no one was around.  Time for Plan C.  Breakfast in the pub.  We found Standing Orders just around the corner.  The building was fantastic.  This was an old bank building that had been restored.

We packed up and headed to the train station for the 11:05 train to Newcastle.  We were glad it had stopped raining.  One and a half hour train ride (with wi-fi) brought us to Newcastle.  The sun was shining as we took the metro to our hotel, the Oak Tree Lodge in Whitley Bay.  Dropped our bags and took the metro to Wallsend to visit Segedunum, a Roman fort.

Segedunum is the site of a Roman fort that has been archaeologically excavated.  There is a small museum and some pieces of the wall.  This was our first glimpse of the wall!  This is the start of our walk!  We spent about an hour there.  Originally, we were to begin at Segedunum tomorrow morning before beginning our day, but the museum opens at 10am.  We hope to get an earlier start tomorrow by seeing the museum today.

The metro station near the fort has signs in both English and Latin.

Our hostess at the Oak Tree Lodge had suggested that we explore Tynemouth on our way back to the hotel.  We got off the metro there and just missed a huge antiques show that had been held at the train station that day!  We walked to the sea, then walked along the sea back to our hotel (about 3 miles).  It was mostly sunny, but got cloudy.  We saw a rainbow and considered it a good omen for our trip!

Back to the hotel, then we walked around the corner to eat at Kismet.  Steve Saunders, our friend who first told us about taking this trip, bills this restaurant as "the best Indian food in the world."  We were all hungry (did you notice no lunch?).  We figured that the place must be pretty good because there are Indian restaurants EVERYWHERE you look here.  To stay in business with competition like this, the food must be outstanding.  In the block where the Kismet is located, there are four restaurants.  Three are Indian.

On Sunday, there is a special six course meal.  We all ordered and waited expectantly.  The food came quickly and was quite good.  As we sat there, the restaurant filled up with customers.  Literally, no open tables.  And the "take-away" orders kept coming in too.  The 4-5 people who worked there were swamped!  We finished our meal, but still had ice cream coming.  We waited and waited and waited--for an hour.  We enjoyed talking to each other, but were all getting sleepy!  Finally we asked for the ice cream (waited another 10 minutes) and it came.  We asked for the bill shortly afterward and left three hours after we arrived.

Robert and Dave walked to look at the sea (one block away) and we are all headed to bed.  Big day tomorrow!

Saturday in Edinburgh

Ahhhh.  A good night's sleep makes all the difference.

Weather--Chilly, grey, damp, but not raining.  We started the day at Robert's favorite bakery in Edinburgh, Peter's Yard, near the Meadows.  It was a 20 minute walk, but we were rewarded with tasty Scandinavian fare.  It did not disappoint.

After breakfast, we split up.  Robert and Sharon climbed Arthur's Seat, while Dave and Carol planned to visit Holyrood Palace and the National Gallery of Art.  Together we walked to the Royal Mile and toward Holyrood.  We will return to Dave and Carol's adventures.  Robert and I headed up the "back" of Salisbury Crags to reach the summit of Arthur's Seat, looking out over Edinburgh.  There was a 5K run that started just as we got underway and it was fun to watch the runners as we climbed.  And climb we did.  We hadn't taken this route before and it was quite steep.  We did reach the top and were rewarded with a lovely view of Edinburgh and environs, even if it was a bit windy.

The hill was covered with these lovely yellow bushes.  I wish we knew what they were!

Robert and I walked down through the town, passing many familiar sites.  We stopped at a coffee shop and split a sandwich.  Robert was looking for "Italian" hot chocolate (liquid chocolate pudding), but they didn't have that.  The hot chocolate was good however.

We went to the National Gallery to see if we could run into Dave and Carol.  We didn't see them, but had a lovely time seeing the Titian exhibit.  It was fun to read that more prominent works of Titian are in the Prado in Madrid.  Kira will be seeing them soon!  We got back to the apartment and learned that Holyrood Palace was closed today (bank holiday), so Carol and Dave had spent the day at the National Gallery.  They had a day filled with great art!

Dinner was a highlight!  We had dinner at a tiny little French bistro called Cafe Marlayne just around the corner on Thistle Street.  There were about 8 tables in the whole place.  The menu was handwritten (in English) and didn't skimp on the butter.  The meal was delicious.  We all used the baguette slices provided to clean every last drop from out plates!  When the bill arrived, it was also handwritten.

We ended the day with "saucy puds" (lava cakes) that we had gotten at Sainsbury's the day before. [Yes, had dessert at Cafe Marlayne too.]  All in all, a very successful day!

Arrival in Edinburgh

We made it!  The plane ride to Heathrow went smoothly and we spent three hours in the airport, waiting to connect to our flight to Edinburgh.  There was a delicious meal of ramen at Wagamama.  It was not as good as Hong Kong, but it hit the spot.

We finally arrived in Edinburgh, just after 5pm local time.  We took a taxi to 15 South Charlotte Street on Charlotte Square to meet Dave and Carol.  The apartment is very nice and will quite comfortable for our stay.  We headed out for an dinner pretty soon and just walked around the corned to Gusto.  We celebrated Carol's birthday with a lovely Italian-ish meal (with very loud music).

(picture taken by Liam Neeson look-alike)

Afterward, we took a short walk in the chilly, damp evening to find a Sainsbury's.  Robert snagged some of his favorite Quadruple Chocolate Cookies and Gu brand "saucy puds" (we know them as lava cakes).  Plus, he found Diet Coke!

We are all thinking an early bedtime and get on track for tomorrow.  We spend Saturday in Edinburgh, then head to Newcastle on Sunday.

Leaving Austin - Fat and Happy

Because our British Airways flight was delayed for 2.5 hours, we each got a $9 food voucher for the Austin airport. One order of BBQ sliders from the Salt Lick. (They were eaten before a picture was possible.). Next stop? Amy's of course.

Update--Amy's doesn't take the vouchers. Oh well....

Getting started slowly

Our flight from Austin to Heathrow was supposed to leave at 6:10pm. We are currently delayed until 8:40pm. We'll miss our original connection to Edinburgh, but have been switched to a later flight. Thank you, British Airways, for making the switch for us!

Carol and Dave are leaving from Washington, DC, at 5:30pm.  Their flights are leaving "as scheduled."

The adventure begins tomorrow.

After years of anticipation and months of planning, our trip to walk Hadrian's Wall in Northern England will begin tomorrow!  There is packing to do, but the plane doesn't leave until late afternoon, so there is plenty of time.