Vindolanda and Haltwhistle

Rain. We woke up with it, drove through it, walked under it. But did it stop us? No, it did not.

We left Windermere a little after 9am and started our driving for the day through the Lake District, passing the villages of Ambleside and Grasmere to the town of Keswick. Some very nice scenery on the drive, and just after Keswick there was a neolithic stone circle that we could visit (in the rain)...

We then headed east through the town of Penrith (looked to us like a typical northern industrial town), from where we crossed the Pennines at Hartside Height, which is 1903 feet above sea level. Some amazing views, even though visibility was a bit limited due to the rain. The road up to Hartside Height was very winding and narrow, with precipitous drops on Petra's side of the car. She closed her eyes during some of it. Phil just clenched the steering wheel tighter and assumed we would not fall off.

Arriving in due course on the "other side of the mountain" and the lovely village of Alston, we had another of those SatNav moments when Jane the GPS took us down a truly incredible stretch of single-lane track through sheep paddocks, forcing us to dodge pheasants and sheep alike, through some poor farmer's farmyard, and finally out the other end onto a reputable stretch of road. We were headed for the Vindolanda Roman Fort near Hadrian's wall and we duly arrived there.

We walked through the partially excavated site of Vindolanda, which shows the remains of a Roman fort and nearby village dating from (as we recall) the fourth century...

...and visited the excellent museum they have there. Such a wealth of Roman artifacts on display, but by far the most awesome were a collection of tablets on which Romans at Vindolanda had written about everyday things, even a woman inviting her sister to her birthday party.

After a few hours at Vindolanda we went to the nearby Roman Army Museum, which had many static displays as well as some amazingly good audio-visual presentations on life in the Roman army.

After all of this Roman stuff we went to the village of Haltwhistle, which is supposedly at the geographic centre of Britain, and where we are staying for the next two nights. Our guest house here is pretty fancy. The view out our window is pretty nice too...

Luckily they have pubs here in Haltwhistle so we had somewhere to go for dinner.