Scotland XII: Hadrian's Wall

Spent the night at a decidedly mediocre motel outside Gretna. The only moment of hilarity was when we discovered that it was impossible to turn off one light in the bedroom without turning on two others... finally, after a couple of minutes of every possible combination, we managed to turn it off by using a seemingly unrelated switch in the hallway. Yes, we were in that kind of a mood.

There was a travel center next to the motel where we had dinner at Burger King in the evening and breakfast at some fancy schmancy overpriced coffee place today. The physical appearance and general lack of competence of the staff in eating places in Wigtown and Gretna has led us to conclude that inbreeding must be a serious problem in these parts. Also, we've discovered that the local sheep seem very jumpy, leading us to believe they know something we rather wouldn't.

This morning I finally got my mp3 player to work again (it has a transmitter, enabling me to use it on the car radio). Fittingly, it started playing "Anarchy in the UK" a few seconds after we crossed the "border"... Heidi has been rather skeptical of my taste in music, but she couldn't find fault with the stuff I've been playing today - we even had a bit of a singalong on "Comfortably Numb" (which is what you wish you were if you ever heard her singing).

Today we've largely been following Hadrian's Wall, driving on narrow roads through a pleasantly rolling landscape. We stopped in at the Roman Fort at Birdoswald, where I took great pleasure in producing my membership proof from Historic Scotland (which gets me in free at English Heritage sites), saving all of £4.50 in the process - meaning I now have £777.50 to go before I break even...





Heidi on the wall, looking only slightly less scary than a hairy, nekkid pict.



Heidi and the sheep. Heidi to the right.



This is SO England...




We then drove on to the Roman Army Museum, which I quite liked, and its sister site at Vindolanda, where they're currently excavating a huge Roman fort. Nice museum and very scenic surroundings.



Here's a quick example of a typical conversation between us, this one from right after these pics were taken:
Me: When I win the lottery, I'm going to build me a temple like that.
Heidi: Build it a little larger, so you can fit your ego in there too.
Me: Or even a little larger than that, so we can fit in your ass.



This is a real size model of how the wall would look way back when:




We're currently in Hexham, where we're lodged in a suite at the rather luxurious Hallbank Guest House (yes, we're rich).





Hexham market place, dominated by the huge abbey.



The old Moot Hall from the 15th century.