The next day it was out to Hexham, site of the Housesteads Roman Fort, which is connected to Hadrian's Wall. But first we had lunch in Hexham, and Eero got into a little trouble.
We also took a quick took inside Hexham Abbey. Here are Amy and Cielo taking a break outside.
Then it was on to the fort and the Wall! A whole bunch of sheep beat us there, including this guy, who wasn't very polite about it (sticking your tongue out, indeed!):
The fort was impressive, and its footprint was well preserved along with some nice details like the bakery and the toilets building. You can barely see Eero's head along with Cielo and Vernon and in the middle here:
Hardian's wall isn't what it used to be, but the sheer breadth of it (across the northern part of England) is impressive. Plus it makes a nice place to relax, or just hang out:
The next day, Vernon and Amy got up early to take Amy to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the rental car so she could catch a train back up to Glasgow to meet John. The rest of us were off to York!
We happened to be in town as a York horse racing weekend was beginning, so there were lots of in-country visitors in town. We were staying at the York Marriott, which was not only walking distance to the old walled part of the city, it was also in sight of the York Racecourse, so we saw a lot of people headed out to apparently tailgate (or the equivalent, when you walk there) at the races. They were generally young, better dressed than we were, and carrying twelve packs.
The structure in the picture is Micklegate Bar, which is on Micklegate, "gate" being a word for a road in these parts, and "bar" being a word that means "gate". It was the gate (er bar) on the south entrance through the city wall.
The first picture below was taken during out York walking tour - Alison is helping Eero remember to smile for the camera. You can see, at the very back, our guide - he's the one in the black hat, black vest and white sleeves. The tour was a lot of fun and a fair amount of walking, and ended up at the Shambles, York's "most photographed street", of which the next picture is a photograph duly taken.
We were a little puzzled to see these yellow bicycles all over York, especially after we made reservations at a well known restaurant there called The Blue Bicycle. But it turns out the Tour de France's second day started in York this year and these were a sign of celebration:
The big attraction (in more than one sense) in York is the York Minster, which is the largest gothic cathedral in northern Europe (it's hard to compete with Spain and Italy). The first day we got there too late to go in, but we hung out a bit in its square. York was further south than Glasgow, but sunset was still after 9pm.
Since they had closed up for the day, we walked around. In the green area on the other side from the picture above, we found this carved bench. The kids enjoyed imitating the carvings:
After going almost all the way around the Minster, we came across this area where modern stone carvers are working to repair and replace some of the old gargoyles. Eero and Cielo had to try these out, too:
The next day, we finally got into the Minster. Among other things, it had some really nice examples of heraldry in cloth:
It has a beautiful interior. We didn't really take enough pictures inside. There's a new underground visitor center that among other things shows how the tower was shored up in the 1960s to keep it from collapsing. A lot of Roman artifacts were found when they were excavating the center, too, as part of an organized archeological dig.
The site has been occupied one way or another for more than 2000 years. One of its claims to fame is that it's where Constantine the Great happened to be before he was emperor, and in fact it's where his father Constantius died and thus where he was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers. This started a Roman civil war but as we all know he eventually won.
The high point of the York Minster (literally) was climbing the 275 stair steps up the tower. Part of the climb takes you from one corner of the Minster across an open walkway to the midway point on the tower itself. We got a selfie of Alison and Vernon , and someone else to take a picture of all four of us as a bonus.
The ultimate point you can reach is heavily fenced in, but there are still some great views.
The kids were great about walking (not to mention climbing 275 stairs) throughout the trip.
Next we were back to Glasgow! The rental car agreement required that we arrived back at Glasgow Enterprise by 4pm, since we were coming back on Saturday and that's when they closed for the weekend - we'd have to keep the car until Monday if we missed the window. Through judicious speed management, we made it with one minute to spare (although it turned out that the staff were very flexible and would have let us in up to 5pm, and also forgave a scrape to one of the wheel covers on our Hyundai - recommend!).
