Tag: travel

Hadrian’s Wall…our Walk Across Northern England

Beginning in AD 122, the Roman Emperor Hadrian decided it would be a good idea to build a wall across what is now northern England, as a means of border control and to prevent raiding. The wall was to become a fortification that stretched roughly 120 km from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east, to Bowness-on-Solway on the west.

Today, only remnants of Hadrian’s Wall remain. Much of the stone has been repurposed for roads and other structures. But some footings, forts and turrets remain…and the Hadrian’s Wall Path is a popular hiking path in England.

We decided a hike across Hadrians’s Wall would be a great chance to see part of England we hadn’t previously visited. So, late in 2024, we started planning to hike across Hadrian’s Wall.

There are many guidebooks available for the Hadrian’s Wall Path, and we won’t give an endorsement here — in fact, we were not especially happy with the guidebook that we chose, so do your homework!

Our guidebook did break the path down into chunks depending on how many miles you want to walk per day, or how many days you have to spend walking. We chose eight days of walking and followed the advice for finding accommodations accordingly. What we did find, is that many “Self-Guided Tour” companies (these companies will book your accommodations, and transport your luggage point to point… for a substantial fee) book out rooms months in advance of the popular hiking seasons, so if you are booking on your own, there may be “slim pickins” left.

By February, however, we had managed to find various inns, B&B’s, AirB&B’s, and hotels to stay in. Most were very close to The Wall Path, but for one we walked 2 km off the path to the B&B, and the other, we called on the phone and they sent a car to pick us up 3 km away.

There are many small villages along The Path, so food and places to stop for meals is not a problem. A couple of B&B’s packed lunches for our next days hike. And… usually there was a nice pub to visit nearby. If not… one B&B arranged free transportation to the nearest village with a pub! Pub culture in UK… gotta love it.

The walk is by most accounts considered “moderate” difficulty. And overall, we would agree. Much of the time, the walk is through idyllic green pastures with sheep and cattle. Quite a few stiles and gates to go through, but not a problem.

There are some places that are a bit more challenging.

Toward the middle of the walk are hills … probably not what you could call mountains, although sometimes it seemed so. Steep, rocky climbs up. The “up” wasn’t really the problem.

There are also steep, rocky climbs down. For some of us who don’t really like heights anyway, and some of us who are visually impaired (see previous post), these downs seemed treacherous. We made it, mostly unscarred. Thank you, hiking poles and grippy hiking boots.

A sad aside…for those of you who have seen Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves… there was a famous, 160-year-old sycamore tree at a place on the path called Sycamore Gap. A couple of years ago, two demented morons on a drunken night out cut down the historic tree. Today, only the stump remains. It is a sad place, but there is some hope as a sign points to a sprout that is coming up from the stump. Maybe in another 160 years, it will be as it was.

Along the route, we met many kind people, and particularly the hosts at the inns and B&Bs. On one detour we took off the trail to see a monument, we ran across a man working on his car. He started up a conversation with us, about the area, the restaurants, where he was from, where we were from… such a nice conversation with a complete stranger. We met him again the next day at a pub in the next town, and, again had a nice conversation. Kind of restores your faith that people really are kind and worth meeting.

Finally at the end… at Bowness-on-Solway. It is a beautiful little village on the estuary. Tides coming in can be dangerous, so be careful walking near the water. There can also be “quicksand”… We didn’t go out to the water since it was a bit chilly, and instead found a nice pub to spend some time in before walking back to Port Carlisle for our B&B.

The next day was the fairly uneventful trip home. A bus ride to Carlisle… a train to Euston Station in London. In reality… an interesting “replacement bus” to Preston, where we got our (delayed) train… finally… back to London.

It was a great… albeit challenging… week of hiking. Not to be missed!

London – 9 months in…

It’s been over 9 months since we relocated to London. It has been kind of a weird transition … from Tokyo back to Atlanta, then selling most of our possessions and moving full-time to London. After 9 months, it is feeling a lot more familiar. We have our favourite places to walk…restaurants…pubs.

Working for a British-incorporated organisation, I’m slowly and reluctantly adopting the British spellings (organisation vs. organization, etc.). Have to admit, there are still times when we struggle to understand British English. Some of the accents, and some of the slang, just doesn’t work in our American brains (I’m still struggling with “gobsmacked,” not to mention the Cockney accent).

It is enjoyable to see some of London that is off the tourist paths. We particularly like to walk along the Regent’s Canal, a part of a huge, intricate canal system that goes through the city. Interesting narrow boats, lots of historic areas, and just an enjoyable place to take a long walk and not feel like you’re in the middle of a big city.

Narrow boat on Regent’s Canal

The weather…well, it is England. Lots of days of cloudy, damp sometimes rainy, drippy, glop. What I didn’t expect was the wind. It is often really windy. Reminds me of growing up in Kansas, but with more drizzle and chill.

We have pretty much adapted from living in a 4,000 sq. ft. house in Atlanta to a 900 sq. ft. apartment 20 floors above the Quay (canal that was once used for shipping in this docklands area). It’s really kind of surprising that we don’t miss our big house more. We do have to be more careful about what we buy and how much stuff we have, as there isn’t a lot of extra space. But somehow, that really hasn’t been a big adjustment. Maybe because this apartment is actually about twice as large as our apartment in Tokyo. And there are some advantages…a lounge/terrace on the 56th floor, and a really nice gym and pool/spa facility. One major irritation — when the wind is really strong, the building has a dampening system to mitigate the sway of the tower. Effective, but it sounds kind of like a thousand irritated squirrels climbing on rusty springs in our ceiling.

View from the top floor lounge of our building.

My job has been interesting and demanding, always with too much to do and not enough time to do it. But I enjoy it, and hope that I am contributing to the organisation. My contract is for another 2 years…we still don’t know what we will do after that. Retirement…back in the US…somewhere else…just not sure where to go. But that’s a decision for a later time.

For now, we’re trying to take advantage of every day we have here. Seeing all we can in London…taking some local trips (Winchester and Alfriston have been really good ones). I still have travel with my job, which means an upcoming business trip to Tokyo (with a few personal days’ trip to Vietnam). So much to see, so many places we want to go.

Winchester Cathedral

So, nine months into this part of our life experience, I have to say I’m glad we made the decision to move to London. It hasn’t always been easy. But nothing in life is. It is an unusual opportunity, and we appreciate the chance to take advantage of it.