York

James and I spent the day in York. The first part of the day we walked the city walls. The walls have been preserved and are mostly complete. We then went to #Jorvik which is an excavation and recreation of the Viking trading post that was here in around 900 AD. It was really interesting to see the layers of "dirt" from other times to get down to the Viking era. It was about 6 metres of material. Of course below the Vikings material were the Romans and Anglo Saxons material, the Romans were another 2 - 3 metres below the Vikings.

James was not feeling well so we just sat around in the afternoon waiting for our train at 5:30.

More Pictures

Kathie was working and James was chillaxing so I cruised around town and took some more pictures.  The first few are from the new castle in Newcastle - dating from around 1172.

This is the view downstream from the bridge in front of the castle.  The white lines you see in the water are foam from whitecaps because it was really windy.

This is the castle wall close to the river with a satellite dish on the building behind it.  I wonder if they knocked some off the wall to get better reception.

This is the Barbican or entrance way to the castle.  This is where the drawbridge would be mounted to go over the moat, and, if the enemy got into the Barbican the archers and other soldiers would punish them from above.

Football anyone?  St James Stadium.  We are staying right across the street.  So Newcastle and Victoria are about the same size and St James seats about 55,000 people, and Sunderland which is just down the road has another stadium that is about the same size.  I wonder what kind of team in Victoria could draw 55,000 people on a regular basis.

Tower of London

We spent a large part of the Saturday visiting the Tower of London.   Here is a pic of Paul and James outside the tower (and you can see part of a more modern London towering over the top).

This is really as misnomer because there are a lot of towers that make up the castle.  We walked the walls, saw the Crown Jewels, viewed the Coins and Kings exhibition,  saw the Bloody tower and the Beauchamp Tower, and viewed lots of weapons in the White tower.  And climbed stairs, and more stairs, and more stairs.  Paul's cousin MaryLou met us there and they had a good visit while walking around.

Churches and Castles

Yesterday James and I went out to the Priory at Tynemouth.  It was very windy and rained on and off while we were there.

Today James and I went out to Alnwick Castle (pronounced Anick).  This is a working castle and has been in use for most the last 1,000 years. There are a number of movies that have been filmed here including a couple of the Harry Potter movies and Robin Hood as well as several TV shows.

We got try some archery.

Here is the view from the Gun Terrace.

James walked a little close to this dragon's cage.

Here is the main castle.

This is the view of the castle from the Gun Terrace.

Another Day Another Roman Fort

Today James and I went to another Roman Fort.  Arbeia is at the mouth of the Tyne River and served as a supply fort for the forts along Hadrian's Wall.  Its layout was similar to Segedunum and it housed the same number of soldiers, however, it also had a number of granaries and could store 3,200 tons of grain.  I didn't take any pictures because it looked just like Segedunum, flat with outlines where the building used to be.

The weather today was very wet in the morning and wet, very windy, and sunny late in the afternoon. Yesterday was warm, the nicest day we have had since we got here.

Yesterday Kathie, James and I toured Newcastle's new castle.

This is a picture in the chapel.

This is a set of stairs going up to the very top.  You have to stoop to get up the stairs so the guys on the roof can shoot you as you crawl through the opening.  I took this because of how worn the stairs were.

 This is a picture of the castle (is this OK Faye?).  When I get home I may try to get rid of the little yellow car in front.

 Here is another picture of old and new.  The new brick building with the old wall in front.

 This was the view from our hotel room this morning.

Juxtaposition Pictures

Friday James and I took the Metro (subway) up to Segedunum.  It is an old Roman fort near the end of Hadrian's wall that would have been built around 122 AD.  The fort has been excavated and laid out to show where the building used to be.  The fort housed 600 infantry and calvary soldiers as well as the commander, his wife, supporting personnel.

The area in front (the big square outline)is the commander's house (it looks like it had a courtyard), to the left is the calvary barracks and to the right and under and across the road were the infantry barracks.  The hospital was in the back by the trees and the bath house has been rebuild and is the white building back left.  It looks like a very small area to house 600+ men and their horses.  James and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how it would work.

Here is another view of the wall turret not far from our hotel.  It is interesting to see the old wall from 1000 years ago with the modern building in the background.

It is very different here.  Most things we need are within walking distance.  To get further afield there are buses, the Metro and the railway.  To get to Segedunum we walked across the street to the Metro, hopped on, and got off a block away from the fort.  To get to London yesterday, we walked to the railway station, about a 7 minute walk, we hopped on the train and landed at Kings Cross a three hours later.  To my aunt's from there we took a couple of other trains and walked to her place.

Quick Post

We are on our way to London and points south to visit my Aunt. Up early to catch the train, 3 hour train ride to London then another hour or so to West Wickham.

I will post more pictures tomorrow.