(Lori) Sept 25-26 We zoomed out of Edinburgh and back down to England (even less fanfare upon entering the country- just two rocks, one on either side of the motorway - that had white paint printing 'England' on them. We stopped off at Ledburgh Abbey in Ledburgh, just to poke around (I had seen some artifacts & info on it up at the Scotland Museum); enjoyed the 3 different styles of architecture & an amazing sunburst type window (we're looking at remarkably well preserved ruins here) before continuing down to Hadrian's. We booked into the youth hostel - a bit cheaper, ordered breakfast & the big goal: laundry.

Susi planned a looooong hike for us today, which included a stop at a museum just down the road from the hostel. We hiked to two different ruins, one at Vindolanda & the other at Housesteads. Most impressive thing to note, besides all the awesome artifacts, from the exhibit at the vindlanda museum: tablets of all sorts of letters, business notes, military notes, household servants' communications... all from the first Roman occupation. My favourite was a note from a prefect to some other commander asking about directions for their next strategic ploy - it's the p.s. note that is so great: the men are out of beer, please send more supplies quickly. Now that's a real slice of life, approx 100 AD!

The major part of the day was hiking Hadrian's wall- dating from about 112AD - Susi will talk more about it, but there is something fantastic about hiking along this 73 mile long wall built almost 2,ooo years ago & is still standing in many places. Hands actually put those stones in place - sentries actually paced the same path - all a very long time ago. The weather was glorious - the views spectacular! Almost 20 km of breathtaking vistas - priceless!

We're in a restaurant called the " Twice Brewed" (right next door to the "Once Brewed" Hostel) that offers WiFi, so I'd best get on with posting this!