To Hadrian's Wall via Carlisle From east to west Monday 16th June

First up today I founid a Samsung store somewhere near us, and we ended up in the biggest shopping centre in Europe, it is huge.  Got lost trying to figure out all the different "towers" but in the end, a technician fixed my problem with the tablet.  That stupid call centre person would never in a million years been able to fix it,because the Lebara network had to be reinstalled, along with the Telstra one.  I was a bit concerned that they had caused a problem that I might not be able to get it fixed, cause there are no Samsung stores in Australia, and only 10 in Europe, this one opening only 6 weeks ago.

From there we drove to the East Denton Hall.  Surrounded by police on a manhunt, the home is now the residence of the Archbishop of Newcastle.  Years ago it was the home of John Rogers a great grand uncle who owned coal mines here.  I counted this morning and lost count at about 230 separate coal mines were operating around this area.

Pretty impressive, East Denton Hall built in 1600's

None operate now, they import coal. Along the highway we drove to Hadrian's Wall, but instead continued west to Carlisle.  Last time we were here, I remembered a rather pretty town, with a huge castle, and it was pouring rain.  Well today it was beautiful and sunny.  The distance from Newcastle in the east to Carlisle in the west is 48 miles.

We checked out the castle, which is pretty solidly built, and later became a fortress and is still used as soldier's barracks.

This cannon is on the top and is aimed at a church!

Barracks

Views over the town

Not a real good view through the ramparts 

Solidly built

Maybe this is how they told the time, when the light shines through

Not quite lost in the dungeons

We had lunch then returned towards Hadrian's Wall, first passing through the centre of the UK

Hadrian's Wall is managed by English Heritage, and funny that the only time you can get to really see the wall is in the commercially confined spaces.  Well whatever, but in 124 the Roman soldiers built 78 miles of the wall and then forts and towns in 6 years.  Bit hard to imagine I guess.  But worse still they filled in the sides of the wall with dirt, leaving quite a challenging climb, especially for someone who has back or leg problems.

I made it though, after one break.  Pretty impressed that I managed that.

See all these stones, well they are not the wall, but there are thousands of miles of them all over the UK, to fence sheep and cattle runs.  Bet they managed to grab a few from the ancient ruins, before they were  World Heritage Listed.

Model of the town that was inside the walls, they ran a video which explained it all.

Not the sort of place to visit in the wet, or cold and windy conditions.  Home then, through very scenic countryside, and we passed so many "trampers", must be the weather for it.