Hadrian's Wall Adventure - Day 1, Newcastle to Heddon-on-the-Wall (photo heavy)

It's been over a month since Jane (Mrs Crabapple of Crabapple Landing - hee hee) and I got back from our Northern adventure. Beyond time to get starting on recounting my adventure, especially as Jane has already posted two days worth of travels! I wasn't feeling up to posting in October, though, and as this blog is supposed to be fun - amongst other things - I didn't want to push it. Tomorrow, being 1 November, I'm starting Nanowrimo, so I won't many more opportunities until December and that's just too far away.

I have 7 days to get through for the trip, however, so I will be posting updates so everything is up to date. Jane has some fab photos up - go check them out if you haven't already! Between us, I'm sure we have pretty much every square inch of the Wall covered, so I'll try to keep them at a reasonable minimum, but it was SO AWESOME!! Jane takes way more photos than I do, and each one brings back fantastic memories made with a great friend.

So without further ado...

This was part of the refurbished Quayside area. This lovely art piece reflected the important part the sea played - and continues to play - in Newcastle's history. Rum, too, apparently, is important. It also had a bell, which fortunately for Jane I did not realise until we weren't near it anymore!

This is the Millenium bridge, which raises to let ships through. It's actually much bigger than it appears and there are even times posted of when it gets raised. Our tour boat got to go under it to get turned around, which I thought was great! It's the little things. ;)

The iconic Tyne bridge. Where there are pictures of Newcastle, there will be pictures of this bridge. I remember seeing it on a show called 'Minder' back in the 80's when I was living here ('here' being England, not Newcastle, just to clarify).

There was a zip line set up on the brown building in the foreground and no, we did not go on it.

This is a statue of a sea god. Below is the statue of the siren he's facing - it's not a very good one, though. She's in the middle of the picture, just at roof level with the building behind.

Newcastle is pretty cool.

Dinner at the Slug and Lettuce. This Mac 'n Cheese was fantastic as was the refreshing run and coke. You can see Jane's macaroni & cheese burger across the table. Delicious! I helped Jane over the weekend translate from Newcastleonian into English. They do speak quickly, but it's one of my favourite English accents (sorry, dialects!)

Manor Station, our first walking day. We took the Metro to Wallsend station, just two stops away.

Segendunum - the Roman fort where the wall starts. The tower was closed, but from the top you can see the remains of the Roman town that was there. We got our first stamp for our passport and then we were off! Tramped through rain for most of the day and made excellent time in our enthusiasm.

The River Tyne.

I love the row housing of England. No matter which part of the country you're in, it's there, just built to reflect regional building materials - usually some kind of brick.

Patience the cat perpetually stalking the seagull.

Back in familiar territory! That was fast...

There were two of these remembrance benches. A lovely tribute by the river.

Newscastle Castle, which gave the city its name. It's a 12thC castle and had we had more time, we definitely would have taken time to poke around. We took the opportunity to get as up close and personal as we could, though, on our way by. We'd taken a boat tour of the river on Sunday, otherwise I think this would have likely been on our agenda. Looks like I'll have to go back for a more thorough visit.

Quirky mile markers through Newcastle (I actually took this to show how short Jane really is...shh!)

The path wound through the urban landscape of Newcastle, past suburban pubs, and slowly into more rural landscapes.

The rain cleared and the sun came out in time for us to CLIMB THE HILL into Heddon-on-the-Wall, which I kept calling Heddon-on-the-Hill because...well...it IS! Phew! But what a view.

We had a fantastic early dinner at a pub called The Three Tuns. Huge plates of food, but we ate every scrap. We made excellent time into the village - about 6.5 hours to cover 25 km - so had a couple of hours to rest and relax before making our way out of town to the B&B.

Our first glimpse of 'The Wall.' 2,000 years old...amazing!

The best thing about English scenery is that you can see for miles and miles and miles...but I still miss the mountains.

Feeling a bit giddy and quite confident as we approach our B&B for the evening. It was a beautiful walk around some pastureland.

The B&B was comfortable and roomy, and we slept very well after our 27 km walk. There was some questionable DIY about (lighbulbs in the shower?!), but the owners were welcoming and friendly and we were well pleased to get settled in for the evening. We needed to rest up for Day Two.