2000-year-old shoes

Another wonderful day tracing the progress of the ancient Romans as they built Hadrian's wall and fortresses along the way. Today began with a visit to Housesteads - one of the most famous sites. Its position on top of a (very cold and windy) hill, with views in all directions, really gave us a sense of scale and perspective.

Then, on to Vindolanda - where there were numerous artifacts to see that came to light relatively recently - in the 21st century, that is to say. The most famous were the writing tablets that revealed so much about ordinary, everyday life. But also, it's where the biggest collection of ancient Roman shoes was discovered; shoes discarded through being worn out. Of the hundreds and hundreds, only one pair was found (bottom right). The cutest had to be the child's shoe (bottom left), while the shoe - top right - was my favourite undersole!

Finally, we visited the Roman Army Museum, where we learnt a lot. Best of all, we chatted briefly to one of the top archeologists involved in the dig at the museum's site. He was able to answer a number of Mr PP's questions that have arisen as he's learned more about the Romans in Britain.

We dodged the heavy showers and had enough dry periods to enjoy the sights. These included very new-looking lambs. They looked like 'ours' in South Devon did three months ago. (The Devon lambs are now nearly as big as the ewes!) We also felt the temperature difference ourselves. The north-east is quite a contrast to the south-west!

We're now in Cockermouth for a couple of nights - just long enough to have a taste of the Lakes before we move on again. Drove to the coast to try and see the sunset over the sea, but found we couldn't get very close to the water. Still, we spotted the Scottish mountains across the Solway Firth against a stormy sky with shafts of low sunlight.