Berwick on Tweed - City Wall

Apart from its bridges, Berwick's most distinctive feature is the almost intact town wall that still surrounds most of it. This started life early in the town's history, but the massively impressive artillery bastions on view today were begun on the orders of Marie de Guise in 1558 and completed over the following 20 years, mostly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. A walk around the walls takes around 45 minutes and gives an excellent series of views into Berwick itself as well as of the River Tweed, the bridges and the surrounding countryside.

Berwick on Tweed - Day Two

This morning at breakfast I overheard a man telling his wife that ostrich eggs had to be really tough...they were discussing how someone had sent one through the mail and it remained intact...he suggested this was because they had to drop about three feet when the female ostrich laid eggs, because ostriches don't lie down.

I challenged him, by asking how they slept. This gave him pause for thought and then he mumbled something about he'd certainly never seen one lying down. I think he was rather used to his wife believing anything he said and if he didn't know something he made it up.




BTW, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich - When threatened, the Ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, and....When lying down and hiding from predators, the birds lay their head and neck flat on the ground, making them appear as a mound of earth from a distance. ....The females will lay their fertilized eggs in a single communal nest.



That discussion over, I moved over to my new B&B as the first one didn't have space for me for the second night. The house was built in 1760 and their is still the
original staircase to the third floor.

Although the people were very nice in this second place as well and the room was lovely, they were of the more 'prestigious' types, higher priced, less for the money and very strict on their 'rules.' They did have a wireless Internet connection, but the code got changed first thing the following morning (every morning - early), which resulted in my having difficulties getting on to it with the new one for some reason. The man of the house was a computer whiz and quite protective to the point of fanatical.



I spent as much time as I could while I had the Internet connection during the day, then went for a long walk around the town wall....

Berwick on Tweed - Arrival and Day One

I arrived in Berwick (pronounced bare-ick) about mid-afternoon and walked from the train station to the centre of the old town, passing through the massive gate of the stone wall that surrounded it, until I came to the tourist information centre.

There I managed to secure a room for the night, so I walked there and dropped off my luggage.
The Clovelly B&B, as it was called was located halfway down a steep hill and I had visions of my wheeled luggage getting away and me chasing it down the street until it ended in the river. Alas, this didn't happen. I had a lovely room and the people who owned it were very welcoming. They also had a smashing good choice of food at breakfast time with plenty of fruit, juices, cereals, yogurt, and cooked breakfasts. I loved staying here, but they didn't have space for me the second night.

They did have an Internet connection, but in my room it was fairly weak, so I worked on the main floor in the entrance way, which was fine.

Mostly though, I explored the town, and found an old fashioned pub to have lunch in. I ate there most days as the people were wonderful and the food was good, though the portions were huge. I often enjoy the shrimp sandwiches that one can get in the UK, and my lunch the first day was just that, though I couldn't possibly eat it all.

I walked it off, by heading to one of the major bridges and going down to the river.



Berwick-upon-Tweed's position on the north bank of the River Tweed, long held to be the nominal border between the two countries, led to the town changing hands no fewer than 14 times in the two centuries up to 1482.

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/berwick/berwickupontweed/index.html

Hadrian's Wall

I made it to the north of England and Hadrian’s Wall, taking photographs through the dirty windows of the buses and trains of the landscape.















I spent one night on the west end at Carlisle in a fabulous B&B. The price was right (£27.50/night with breakfast) and the owners very accommodating and nice. Although the room wasn't much bigger than a walk-in closet, the bed was comfortable and the food great. For my evening meal, I found a fabulous restaurant called Casa Romana, with amazing food that was not only delicious, but well presented.

The next night I stayed at a hostel halfway down the length of the wall at a place called Once Brewed (not far from the Vindalnda site). At £18.00/night (breakfast extra) it was a great deal and I managed to get my laundry done as well. I was sharing a room with five other women, all of us in bunk beds (the room held space for eight).

The name of the place is a play on words from the neighbouring pub, which is called Twice Brewed. Apparently, many years ago the beer being served in the pub was so weak the local clientele told the publican that it needed to be brewed a second time, hence the name derived as Twice Brewed. Then many years later, a tee-totalling woman decide to start a youth hostel nearby and was known to have said that once brewed tea was all she needed, and hence the name Once Brewed was born. The two establishments are about 200 yards apart.

I caught a great bus (AD122) that travels several times a day from one end to the other of Hadrian's Wall. You can get off and explore one of the sites, then get back on and continue to the next site. The road criss-crosses the wall and sometimes you are right up beside it and at other times, it is quite a distance off. There is so much to see at each spot, however, that seeing everyone would take several days. Some people walk the entire wall, though I believe this takes about six days.

I’ve also come across people who are walking the Penine Way (289 miles)….the backbone of England. It takes about 20 days…not my cup of tea! The Brits are great walkers everywhere and there are walking trails, footpaths, etc. so you can hardly avoid walking. I’ve done quite a few miles in just the short time I’ve been here, but nothing like these excursions.

At the Roman Vindalanda, there are amazing remains of buildings, and a couple of reconstructed towers so that people can see what they might have looked like and how tall the wall probably was. There were also serious ditches dug on the exterior or the wall was built on high cliffs, so it wasn't that easy to cross, as I'd first suspected.

Hadrian’s Wall was quite magnificent, or at least it was in its day. There’s not much left in terms of the original height. The wall itself still mostly runs for 73 miles or so across the countryside, but over the centuries, people took the uppermost stones and built homes. (In one stretch on the west end they used turf for building material, because there were no rocks.)

Hadrian’s Wall was built over a seven year period shortly after 122 AD, when the Romans came to Britain. Named after Emperor Hadrian, it is Britain’s greatest Roman monument. In some places, where there are forts, 80 milecastles (one for every roman mile), turrets, housing quarters and baths, and temples spread out across the length of the wall. Built over a six year or so period after Emperor Hadrian came to England in 122AD, it was intended to keep the ‘barbarians’ separate from the Romans, but it also acted as a way to tax and control people going back and forth across the border through gateways/or passageways.

The Brits have done a fascinating job of reconstructing bits of it along with the forts, etc. juxtaposed to archeological digs on the same sites. In some places they have guides dressed in Roman attire explaining the lifestyle and architecture. The Romans were amazing builders and the wall is almost perfectly aligned across the landscape. It takes about six days to walk the entire wall, and maybe people are doing this….not me though…seeing a few sections of wall was plenty for me, as the days were incredibly windy while I was there.

I was very impressed by the structures, the magnitude and fine construction. Those Roman legions were amazing, considering they weren’t used to building with rocks, but rather with wood. I had the feeling that the men building the walls had a great deal of pride in what they were doing.

There was a rather settlement at Vindalanda, and in later years, crofters moved into the area. A great museum open the property shows one of the croft buildings, and recreates what life might have been like, though taking photos through the glass didn't work that well.

Although I know the wild Picts and Scots 2000 years ago were conducting lots of thieving and murderous raids along the borders, there was also a peacefulness to visiting the sites, to seeing the landscape for miles beyond in either direction.

Here are a couple of Web sites that tell more about Hadrian’s Wall:
http://www.hadrians-wall.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian