Isle of Skye

Today, we explored the Isle of Skye. After a hearty breakfast at our bed and breakfast in Portree, we got on the road and went to a rather difficult yet short hike to the Old Man of Storr. This is a rock formation sticking out of a nearby mountain but the rock formation isn't the best part. The best part after a grueling hike up the mountain is the view of the entire coast below which is well worth the scramble.

The next stop was Kilt Rock which is a formation of rock where you can see colorful striations from volcanic eruption of long ago. I guess the patchwork kind of looks like a kilt.

The next stop was the most scenic. It was called Fairy Glen and looked like the Shire from Lord of the Rings. We made ourselves a nice lunch there and walked the sheep trails around the area.

Another highlight from today was going to a light house on the far west side of Skye. On the way, we hit a museum where the talked about how life was like in this part of the island a hundred years ago. There were some old cottages that were preserved for people to visit. Anyway, the light house had a great view and the scenery looked amazing in the sunset. When we arrived, it looked like sunset back at home. And when we left an hour and a half later, the sun was just a little lower in the sky. It gets dark here around 11 or so.

Made it to Scotland

Today, we spent the morning hours getting back to Carlisle from Bowness on Solway, renting our car and getting groceries. In the afternoon, we decided to head south a bit and go see some of the English heritage sites near Penrith. There was a pretty large castle we saw and 2 stone hendges,though the first one barely looked like anything. Later on in the day, we visited a third stone henge which was actually very impressive. It was called castle rigg and had a great view from the center. Also, most of the stones were still in place, 4000 years later.

During the day, we took a drive to the Lakeside National Park, Pooley Bridge, and down to Windermere. The lake area of Cumbria is a very nice place to relax, take in the scenery and do some sailing. We just walked around a place called Bowness on Windermere and found the Beatrix Potter attraction where there is a shrine to the Peter Rabbit tales in place. We didn't see it because some 3d movie there was sold out but did get a few pictures.

Finally at the end of the day, we landed in Gretna Green, where we are spending the night. Gretna Green is famous because it is a convenient place in Scotland and here people who were too young to get married due to English laws could escape and elope in Scotland which had different laws for marriage. Whereas in England, you needed parental consent, in Scotland, you just needed two witnesses, one of which could be the local blacksmith. So, the blacksmith shop is the most popular place to get married in this area. Gretna Green has doneness a good job with commercializing the blacksmith shop here.

Finishing Hadrian's wall

Yesterday, we finished our walk at Bowness on Solway. It was a wonderful feeling to finally be done with the walk. We were both pretty exhausted and I think I was in a bit worse shape than Liz due to a nasty blister and the fact that my heal hurt in the back of my left foot, probably from keeping the boot too tight at the beginning of the journey. The last day was mostly a long long walk if about 15 miles through flat road and a few pastures. We made it a bit longer by not paying attention to the map and going on an unexpected 2 mile excursion before we corrected. The good choice of the day was wearing sneakers instead of hiking boots and that made a huge difference.

We checked in to our hotel and had a great room on the top floor with a window overlooking the Solway. We could see Scotland from our room ;) Later, we has a nice dinner and relaxed a bit before bed. It was a successful end to the trek.

Day 6

Today was very nice because we woke up thinking it was going to rain for most of our walk and we ended up not getting a single drop, so that was a relief. We started out the day hiking a very beautiful and serene part of the trail with wall next to it. We crossed the Irvington river near a previous Roman bridge and took the trail to our first stop which was Birdoswald Fort. This was a mostly covered and small fort and town that was changed into a farm and homestead. The museum was actually cooler than the fort this time because it focused on archeology and how all this history of the ancient forts is discovered.

The next stop, about 4 miles away was Lanercost Priory. This was a church and home built from Hadrian's wall stones in the 13th century. The ruins are still standing and a lot of it has been reconstructed recently.

The next 4 miles to our bed and breakfast was rather easy since we missed the rain and also weren't as tired as we had been the last couple of days. This was probably due to an earlier arrival and not too much lingering.

After checkin, we met a nice couple from Newcastle who drove us into town and had dinner with us. Tomorrow might be nice weather too so I am looking forward to that.

We Brexited Before it was Cool

This is my second year spending the 4th of July in the UK. It goes without saying that the day isn't a holiday here. However, this time around was notably different from last time. Three years ago when I celebrated America's independence from Britain in London, people at least seemed aware that I am American, that the 4th of July is a holiday for us, and that the United Kingdom was somehow involved. This time around the only thing about the date that anyone acknowledged was that it is a Monday. Not even the Americans we encountered seemed aware of the significance of the day.

Now, I am not one to get all wrapped up in patriotic fervor, but in this year of all years, I expected some kind of acknowledgement from the Brits. Maybe, after 240 years the English might finally be able to say, "okay, we get it, you don't want to be ruled by a governmental body across this sea, we feel the same way."

Made it half way

Today, we were able to get an early start. We made our first stop Chester's Roman Fort in Chollerford and got there right when it opened. The site is fairly large and easy to walk around. Besides the fort, there was a Roman bridge once upon a time that crossed the nearby river. It has collapsed and been rebuilt but no longer can be seen. The Roman baths here are also in very good shape.

This part of the walk has been the best so far, despite strong wind in our face for most of the journey. The scenery, landscape and parts of the wall that can be viewed make the walk very picturesque. It was a 12 mile hike though so by the end of the day, we were beat again.

The other site we saw in the afternoon was Housesteads which is a wall fort much like the rest except this one was built on a hillside so is better preserved than the others it seemed. The fort was also quite large. Liz and I know our forts by now, since most have the same template layout, so we can recognize the rocks pretty well and tell our barracks from our bathhouses.

Tonight we are at The Twice Brewed Inn in Once Brewed. So that's a mouthful and so was my yummy dinner tonight. I ate a lot to make up for all those lost calories today.

Day 3

Day three is from Corbridge to Chollerford and we had a pretty packed day. Before we got back on the trail we went to two heritage sites. One was the Roman city in Corbridge where you can see the remains of an old city and fort. We had an audio tour take us around the place. It was fairly well excavated and pieced back together again. The next place we saw was Aydens Castle which was an 12th century castle used to stave off Scottish raiding parties from the north. It changed ownership many times so it got expanded and rebuilt a lot. On the way to thus castle we took a footpath that probably hadn't been used in over a year since the trail was barely visible and the grass was high. It was a little adventure.

Once we made it back to the main wall pathway, we made slow progress. This was mainly because we stopped at several places to take in the sites. We were able to see bits of the wall in two main areas. One showed how the wall had narrowed a bit due to different orders for width by the emperor to save time. The other part of the wall showed a turret, which is basically a small outpost for defense and supplies along the wall.

Our walk today was slow going because of some rain storms we encountered. We stayed dry for the most part but the ground was muddy, full of sheep poop to avoid, and wet throughout.