home    servas    itinerary      Durham    the Lakes
Chester's Fort We made our way from Durham to Newcastle airport by train and taxi, and there contracted for a little Fiat with which to navigate our way to the Lake District, which is ill-served by public transport.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne  vista	After much circling of the small blue conveyance, with and without the rental agent, surveying its many dings and scratches, we ventured out into the world of driving on the wrong side of the road. Newcastle is a transportation hub and a very busy place -- less so, thankfully, than London or most other southern England places for renting a car.
Having driven on the wrong side before, I wasn't completely intimidated, but it never starts out easily -- in Newcastle, it's a roundabout first thing, and then zipping along a motorway with the prevailing traffic travelling at 70 mph. Driving on the left changes many of the most basic assumptions about driving.	photo credit: Chad Abramson

For starters, you shift gears with your left hand -- that took me a couple of days to adapt to. When you merge, you look right, not left. When you react quickly to a problem, you pull the car left, not right -- that's always the hardest one for me, and as it only comes up under dire circumstances, it's the most disturbing experience because I almost always get it wrong at first. Since most drivers are right-handed, I think driving on the left is silly ... but I don't think the Brits would care to hear my opinion. We pulled off the motorway in Hexham and found a Safeway (!) where we bought ourselves lunch supplies for a couple of days and found a map of the Lake District. Then we headed off the beaten path to check out Hadrian's Wall.

Chester's Fort strongroom

Hadrian's wall was built by the Romans to protect their northern border in the first three centuries A.D. They clearly planned to be around for awhile, judging by the size of the strong room in the Administration building. Hypocaust under the Commanding Officer's house Even though much of what we saw was reconstructed, it's clear to see that roman engineering was quite amazing. In this cold northern climate, their heating innovation, the hypocaust, was obviously important to living comfortably.

Artist's rendering of the Administration Building

River Tyne, part of Hadrian's Wall, and remains of the bridge foundations	Chester's Fort was built just above the point where the wall crossed the River Tyne, and the remains of the bridge abutments show another example of superb Roman engineering. Evidence remains of two arched bridges, the second broader and sturdier than the first, but both made of dressed stone.

Artist's rendering of the Changing Room	Rochelle & Chad feeling right at home
The Romans loved to bathe, and built baths wherever they went. The hypocaust technology allowed them to have Hot Rooms and pools all heated with wood and charcoal.
Rochelle's in the hot room and Chad's in the fire pit, examining the stoke hole used to heat the hot room's hypocaust.

Finally, after ten days on the road, and feeling comfortable with Roman technology, Chad decided it was time to take a bath. When he'd dried off, we got back into our little blue Fiat and headed on west along Hadrian's Wall, only slightly distressed by the fact that most of its most evocative sites were closed due to Foot and Mouth Disease.

On the way from Hadrian's Wall we passed through Greystoke. The sense of history, of the centrality of the smallest corner of the British countryside to our literary terrain, is remarkable. Here, a stuffy and exclusive old homestead provokes Chad to jump out of the car to take pictures of gate and sign.

Later, an old stone farmhouse of no especial note provoked me to a similar response. Imagine living in a farmhouse that has been falling down for centuries!

previous: Durham     next : the Lake District Travel along with us!

	updated 11 July 2001 : 3:32 Caspar (Pacific) time this site generated with 100% recycled electrons! send website feedback to the Solarnet webster
© 2001-2002 by Caspar Institute. All Rights Reserved.