The Full English

Breakfast at 2 The Crofts.  Kids were thrilled with the toast rack.

Our full English.

Greta after she lost her full English.  In the taxi.

Good thing my mom is quick with a raincoat.  If it hadn't been for the velcro on the raincoat sleeve it would have been an easy cleanup.  But the taxi was completely spared.  And the driver unfazed. 

Washing the raincoat with water from our bottles gave Clem time to feed the cute little horse.

I have never seen horses come out of the woodwork like this!

This is Aydon castle.  Not so much a castle as a manor house.  With catapults!

After looking around and consulting mom called a taxi.  She and Greta went on to the next hotel (where they got a very warm reception, even though they were checking in hours too early and Greta lost the last piece of toast from her full English at the front desk).  Fortunately mom was prepared with a plastic bag.

Dad, Ev, Clem and I went on to Halton Castle, below.

And its graveyard with baffling topiary pig.

After some time we finally found a Hadrian's Wall sign.  It would be several miles before we saw any wall, though.

A stone stile.  We crossed 21 stiles on this first day.

Going the right way, it seems.

At St. Oswalds Tea Room where we stopped for the opposite of tea, Clem sat in the mud with cats and chickens.

More stiles.

And what is that in the distance!  We ran to see.

The first bit of the wall.

Commemorating the XXth stile.

It was a fantastic day, but after walking from noon till six thirty we were happy to find our accommodations at the end of the village of Wall.

And even happier to see this.

And big surprise--after watching British reality TV all day Greta was ready for dinner!  

It was Greta's idea to make this postcard which we are sending to all of you who are reading this blog.  We saw these sheep, who'd been sitting in the mud just like Clem, near the end of our walk.

We miss you all!  Leave us a comment telling us what you're up to.

4 Trains, 1 Mile Walk and a Fort

 We left Bangor,Wales on the 7:22am train.

I bought a cappuccino.  In a few minutes I took it back.  It tasted like water.
"Right," said the woman behind the counter as if this was not at all a new problem and she knew just what to do. She pulled out a packet of instant coffee granules and dumped it in.  Voila.

Five hours and four trains later we were at the Corbridge station on the Hadrian Country Line.  Don't believe it if anyone tells you it is 3/10 of a mile from the station to the B&B at 2 The Crofts.  It is really a mile.  You won't want to drag your luggage all the way like we did.

But, by all means, once you've dropped your bags, walk over to the Corbridge Roman Village.  It has Britain's only intact Roman mullioned vent.

I've skipped some very important events: My mom's 70th birthday!!  But I only have time for this quick post.  Nine miles to go tomorrow.  

With luck, no one will be vomiting like today.  

But more about that later.

Conwy Castle

My dad hates castles.  He was sick of them when he and my mom brought us 30 years ago (thanks!)  and he is still sick of them.

I still love them. Conwy is stunning.  Lonely Planet Wales says this fortress built between 1277 and 1307 is "the most drop-your-crossbow stunning of all Edward I's Welsh fortresses."  It is less mysterious than Dolbadarn, Llewelyn's castle we visited a few days ago, but really a marvel.

I also like "danger man" signs.

I particularly like the middle one: Please let your eyes adjust to the darkness.

Look at all those dangers: Falling down stairs, hitting your head on low ceilings, slipping, plummeting.

Despite the dangers we forged on.

Up a stair...

To a turret.

Instead of Where's Wally we've got Catch Clementine.

She was always ahead of us and whenever we climbed a tower we'd see her.

Can you find her in the pics below?  You might have to zoom in.

This first one is for beginners.

More challenging

 Even more challenging

 For experts only

After the castle we walked the wall around the town.  I LOVED it.

Until I really didn't.

\

In the one below you can see how far we've come from the castle in the middle in the distance.

All of a sudden I got afraid that one of the kids would fall and I just wanted to get down.

Maybe the danger man signs finally sunk in.  Plummeting.

I think you could fall out the second story of this house and be ok.

When we got home cows had invaded the village.

I guess they wanted an evening on the town.

We had a wonderful dinner with our relatives--Pete, Linda, Caren, Dic, Elin, Lisa, Mart, Liwsi and Betsi and turned in early.

Below is the view from Pete and Linda's garden.

That was yesterday.

Today we skipped beautiful Beaumaris Castle and toured the gaol.  

But more about that later.

The British Museum

My girls (well, 2 out of 3) are snoozing away while I'm ready to see some castles.  I've cajoled Clem and tickled Greta's toes.  Tonight we won't stay up quite as late singing.  Though hearing my cousins sing is probably the closest to heaven I'll ever get. 

Since I've got sleeping girls on my hands here are a few more pics from the British Museum.  What an overwhelming collection from the monumental to the minuscule.



Easter Island heads and coins the size of Greta's pinky fingernail.  I said they were impractical and Evelyn reminded me that they were actually made of precious metal.  Right.  I'd still lose them.

We lost ourselves in an audio tour for a while.  The nice thing about an audio tour is that even when it is very crowded, which it was...

...you can feel like this.  

The room had just been full and it suddenly cleared.  There are people in the far room but they conveniently stepped behind the columns.

And then we took off the headphones to talk to a real person.

I'm glad we still have a week in London and several more visits before us.