Europe - Trip 1

Day 13 - January 20, 2002

This day started much like the last one. Nice breakfasty bits, Sue and Sarah chatting, Todd in his robe in the office or reading. Excellent and relaxing time.

Sue and Sarah in Housesteads

We finally got off our arses and took a drive out to Housesteads Roman fort out back west. The drive was nice with the windy roads that you'd expect in the English countryside. We stopped to try and take pictures a couple of times and literally we blown back into the car - we decided to save our strength for Housesteads.

Todd risking life and for the prefect shot

When we pulled into the lot both of us recongnized the locale and figured that we'd been there in '93, though we drove in from the opposite direction - was nice to see it a few years later, not so much for the changes but the refresher. The wind was still howling and some of the rain was turning to sleet so we wrapped up well and hoofed it up the hill. Great views from every direction.

We walked about half a mile along the wall and took shelter in one of the old mile forts until even that wasn't enough to keep us warm. We walked back, toured the fort, took some pictures - Todd needed to take a leak and was thinking to pee on the wall but then thought the better of it even though the story would've been funny.

The same view of the wall as in '93

We left the fort area and zoomed over to Sarah's Mother's place for "tea" and found a full dinner of lasagne, bread, wine and dessert waiting for us. Finally got to meet Hillary and her husband Paul after hearing stories for years. Was a fabulous evening.

The same view of the wall as in '93

After dinner we headed back to Darlington but made a stop in Durham to look at the cathedral (as impressive as Yorkminster). Within seconds of getting out of the car a fireworks show started up over the city - and as we were at the highest point in town - we got a great show.

Off home and too bed...

windy and cold mostly with shit loads of rain