Keeping out the barbarians and sand

August 1

We are unofficially investigating boundaries now; what are the walls and what gets kept in and what gets kept out? I feel like I’ve already done this dissecting with our packing for the year. This time, packing was easier. We packed our bags for four days of camping and equipment necessary into our rental car and the four of us set out further north.

Due to our upcoming journey to Italy, an easy place to start examining divisions is one of the most famous of Roman boundaries: Hadrian’s Wall. This 73 mile barricade was commissioned by Emperor Hadrian and built by 16,000 men between 122-128 AD. It’s purpose was not defensive, but instead meant to mark the border between the Britons, who were under the civilized Roman law, and the barbarians, so called anyone not sensible enough to submit to Roman rule. A milecastle (gateways and a small fort) was built at every Roman mile along the way (altogether 80) and there were two observational turrets in between (altogether 160).

When Rome fell, so did the protection of this wall. The frontier garrisons stopped being paid, and consequently abandoned around 409 AD. Birdoswald, where we stopped to see the wall and had some warrior training with the guides there.

Alex was surprisingly mellow about this. In fact, he didn't really want to put gear on at all, except that his sister was and that competition could not be ignored. She asked us pretty much every five minutes, "Is it time for my warrior training, yet?" Finally, the big moment came...

We stayed here for around two hours or so until it started to rain. We followed the wall for a ways.

We stopped in the market square of Alnick (pronounced "Annick").

We walked around for a bit and had a cup of tea next to Ye Old Cross, which had some dusty bottles in the window and the following sign,

“These bottles have been here for over 200 years. Whilst putting them here the man collapsed and died. It was said that if anyone tried to move them they would suffer the same fate. They have never been touched since.”

Alnwich Castle is featured in the early Harry Potter movies. We only saw the outside, but it was quite impressive!

We set up our campsite in Waren Mill, close to Bamburgh Castle and fishing village of Seahouses. We had fish and chips in the harbor until it started to rain again.

Despite the rain, Alex and Eleni couldn't resist the dunes. And, you can imagine the boundaries that they came up with here. What does this wall keep in and keep out? Despite my attempts to elevate this posting to historical themes, I keep going back to packing. Unlike Hadrian's wall and the barbarians, I was unsuccessful at keeping out the sand, and Alex and Eleni promptly went through outfit #1 (2 more to go).