Hadrian's Wall, Day One

I don't remember exactly when or how we decided to go to England and hike Hadrian's Wall for our honeymoon, but I know it was originally my idea and that I wanted to show Lady some of England and make up for our 4-hour layover in London where all she saw was the underground. I'd been to the Wall once waay back when, so I knew it was a Thing that Existed, and somehow I heard about there being a walk as well.

Research happened and a plan was put together and a feasible schedule assembled and before we knew it, we were on the plane at the start of a seven-hour flight. Even though I had read the entire guidebook cover to cover, I still wasn't fully sure what to expect. I'd never walked that far before. It could rain the entire time. And maybe we hadn't brought enough shirts after all.

I worried about all of this and more while trying to get some sleep on the plane, then navigating the London trains and underground while hungry, sleep-deprived, and dehydrated. We finally got to Newcastle upon Tyne at two or so in the afternoon and still had to navigate our way to the Wall's beginning, then walk seven miles to our lodgings. We fortified ourselves at Starbucks because it was the first coffee place we saw, thoroughly rocked by culture shock already what with the trains and the money and the wrong-way driving and the incomprehensible northern accents and the filter-not-drip coffee. All the little things that being a little loopy amplified to confusion.

Somehow, though, we found the metro and we rode our way to the appropriately named Wallsend stop. From there we wandered down to Segedunum.

( Cut for photos and your convenience. )