We went to Scotland this past weekend as a group, which was great fun and gave a nice contrast to the noise and smog of London. Tom and I went up early on Friday morning, leaving on the 7:30am train to Newcastle. Our goal was to hike around Hadrian's Wall, an old Roman wall built by Emperor Hadrian to keep the Scots out, but we never made it there. We got off at a train station that was literally in the middle of nowhere- there was the town post office, and that was it. Beautiful countryside, though, with lots of sheep and horses. After an hour's hike uphill along a strange public footpath that took us through people's backyards and pastures, we found a museum called Vindolanda that was built next to the ruins of a huge Roman fort/town built to house the soldiers who were building Hadrian's Wall. The museum was very interesting- they've discovered so many things there. Their prize artifacts, though, are Roman writing tablets that are very well preserved, as they were discovered in a layer of clay that kept out the oxygen. They were translated into letters between slaves, birthday invitations, and storekeeper's lists, including the only known Roman woman's handwriting. When we went up on the hill to look at the ruins, the weather was beautiful until we got the furthest away from the museum, then it HAILED and POURED. We were on a hill, so the wind was incredibly strong, too. Both of us were completely soaked, so the thought of walking another mile to the wall, then another 5 miles to the next town where we needed to catch the train just sounded awful. We got a taxi, which I think was the best idea.
Here's a few pictures from this day:
L: A really adorable little house we walked by on our hike
R: Happy hikers!
Top: A view of the Vindolanda Museum and ground- it was a relief to find it, as it felt like we were hiking to the middle of nowhere
bottom: The ruins of the fort
We caught the train to Glasgow, where we got in just in time to enjoy a delicious Italian dinner at a restaurant near the train station, then make it to our Hostel, where we spent a relaxing evening reading on a comfy couch.
The next day, Tom and I went to the Science Centre for couple of hours before we had to meet the group at the train station. It was pretty typical, and geared mostly towards small children, but we had fun anyway. It was a long walk back to the train station, and it took us right through the middle of the city, which to me felt just like San Francisco. It was very hilly, and cold, and historically an industrial city. We all went to our Guest House to check in, and it was very very nice- I didn't have to sleep on the top bunk of a bunk bed for once!!!
We all took a tour of the Glasgow School of Art, which is the best art school in the country, and is housed in a building designed by Charles Renee Mackintosh, a famous Glasgow architect. He really liked to joke around about his designs- the top floor felt like you were in a dungeon basement! Some of us also went to the Willow Tea Room for afternoon tea, which is also designed by Mackintosh, and the tea and scones were delicious. I am learning to really appreciate a nice cup of tea here.
Tom and I walked around a bit, looking at the shops, and trying to understand people's accents (which was near impossible sometimes), then went to a pub for dinner before going to a play as a group called She Stoops to Conquer at the Royal Theatre. After the first 20 minutes, the play turned out to be pretty funny, and was all about mistaken identity and love. After the play some of us went with out professor to a pub that had 400 different kinds of Scotch, and since we were in Scotland, we decided we had to sample some scotch. I wasn't really a big fan, but it was fun to taste the difference in flavors.
I wish we had stayed there longer, as we missed out on some really cool museums and other things. A day is not enough to see that entire city!
Here's some pictures from that day:
L: Tom having fun at the Science Museum
R: Lights hung above a street in Glasgow
Bottom: The Glasgow School of Art
On Sunday, we took the train to Edinburgh- what a cool, old city! Most of the buildings look like old castles. There is Edinburgh Castle right in the middle of the city on a craggy hill, and we got to go there and walk around. We went to the rooftop garden of a museum to get a good view of the city layout. You could see the ocean! It was by far my favorite thing about the weekend, but we were there for a few hours. I wish I could go back- I don't think I can fit it into our busy schedule. We don't really have any more free weekends.
On the way back to London, we stopped at Berwick-upon-Tweed, which was a cute walled city on the coast. Nothing was open, as it was a Sunday afternoon, but we walked around the huge wall to the coast, then back on top of the wall to the only open pub for dinner. The town was very cute. Then we took the exhausting train ride home to London and got home around midnight. A long but good weekend.
Pictures from that day:
L: The Royal Mile in Edinburgh
R: Edinburgh- notice the bridge in the distance? The city is layered, some is up and some is underneath
L: Edinburgh Castle
R: A bad attempt at a picture of the wall around Berwick-upon-Tweed
So, all in all, it was a great weekend. Meanwhile, there's so much going on here in London, too! I'll save that for later though.
Cheers!
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