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Monday, October 02, 2017

Family Vacation in the U.K., 10th October 2016, Day 11: Durham to Edinburgh via Hadrian's wall and Vindolanda

I write this post after nearly a year of the events, so readers may please excuse if there are inconsistencies. Today, we checked out of the hotel in Durham and proceeded to drive to Edinburgh. A little after we had left, Hannah and I began to discuss what might happen if we veered a little off-course to explore Hadrian's Wall - a definite tourist attraction this side. We saw only portions of this wall as we drove parallel to it on the route that would start east of us near Newcastle and goes west to Carlisle. However, we did drive to the ancient Roman artifacts of Vindolanda - where we spent nearly two hours seeing the ruins of an ancient Roman settlement - houses, fort, and all. 

These are some of the memories we stored in the camera. 











A reconstruction of a reinforcement along the Hadrian's wall









The Hadrian wall in the distance

The most dramatic find at Vindolanda was the museum that had completely well-preserved Roman artifacts dating back to the dawn of the modern age around the 1st to the 3rd century AD. The Wikipedia article gives credit to the ANOXIC soil conditions here that have prevented oxidative damage in the form of decay and rusting. The above photographs will bear me out. The last photo shows a portion of the intact Hadrian's wall running parallel to the motorway.

From here, we then proceeded on the journey to Edinburgh. We arrived in Edinburgh around sunset. Here, we had booked a flat on AirBnB. It was a lavish 2 BHK flat in a quiet area of the metropolitan city. However, it was on a higher floor and it took us some effort to get our luggage up into the flat. There was a well-appointed kitchen and large, spacious rooms. The property was well-maintained. The only issue we had over the next few nights was that the bath-tub was too smooth and we slipped while standing and taking a shower. Other than that, the property was great. 

For dinner, we went and picked up food from an Indian restaurant located less than a few roads away. We retired for the night. Tomorrow would be a busy day as we were all set to travel further north to Loch Ness. 


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