Wednesday September 4

Today we left Edinburgh to drive to the Lakes District, stopping along the way to spend some time at a part of Hadrian's Wall where Housesteads Fort was erected by the Romans in 122AD to keep out the dreadful Picts. Time and stealthy people in search of good stones for their foundations have eroded the walls, so that today -- where they exist at all -- they are 3-4 feet tall at most.

Terry, Steve, Sue at Hadrian's Wall

In Hadrian's day they were 20 feet tall with sentry posts every mile or so. The Wall stretched 73 miles across the entire width of England at its narrowest point. The population of the fort we visited was 20,000 soldiers plus hangers-on.

Standing at the most northwesterly point of the ruins of this Housesteader's Fort, Hadrians Wall looks like the Great Wall of China as it winds its way over hills into the distance. But it's not, of course, but rather is just a remnant thousands of years old.

We stopped at a pub (named the Twice Brewed Inn) for a hearty lunch before our hike. The food we eat continues to be much tastier than we expected.

Without a reservation for the night, I borrowed Terry's phone (having no phone service myself, thank you Verizon) and made about 10 calls before getting two rooms in Buttermere.

When we left Hadrian's Wall, we had a two-hour drive to Buttermere, the last of which was more exciting than we had anticipated. As we left the main motorway for the final 25 miles or so, we found ourselves on progressively smaller roads, finishing the last 10 miles on a lane about as wide as 1.5 cars could fit with tall rock walls on both sides, just waiting to scratch the finish of our rental Passat. The final 6 miles were not heart-stopping, although I don't know why not, with periodic slowdowns to let a truck or several cars or many bicyclists pass by in the opposite direction.

For the last few miles, to make it very special, lambs grazed freely on the one-foot verge of the tiny road, so our speed slowed even further.

Lambs in Buttermere

When we rounded a corner and found ourselves in Buttermere, we were weak with relief.

Inside the Bridge Hotel we went to find two really nice rooms on the second/third floor (hard to tell how many floors in this building, and we wondered if we should have brought breadcrumbs to drop to help us find our way back down later), no lift, and incredibly delicious pub food for dinner.

And then to bed.

We walked a mere 5511 steps today, 2.5 miles, but we came a long way.