Hadrian's Wall Trip 2012--Part 2

Hellooo, me again.

So in my previous blog I told you all about the first day on of our Hadrian's Wall trip. The second day was even more fun. We got up nice and early and got the boys back for their hideous ways, as I mentioned before =P. Then we walked from the hostel (which was called Once Brewed) to Housesteads which was another Roman fort, and it now has the ruins and a little museum. We walked alongside the remains of Hadrian's Wall and it was great. But then again I love going walking, and was hard-coring it at the front, whereas some of my classmates were moaning at the back. Haha. We walked for about 2 hours ish and the weather was grim. It was the dreaded sideways rain and was windy as anything. But it was beautiful scenery and we saw the remains of some of the sort of mini-forts along the wall. Here are some of the pictures I took, note the pretty rainbow. =D

Right so Housesteads was another great archaeological site and I think my teacher said it's known for the bathhouse ruins as it's very rare. The main thing that managed to stick in my memory despite the fact the rain had penetrated my supposedly 'waterproof' coat was that the Romans had underfloor heating!!! How crazy is that! I mean I don't have bloody underfloor heating, yet some Roman soldiers in a military fort in the first century AD did! What they did was they built their rooms raised over the ground, with little columns holding the floor up. So there would be a spaced between the ground and the flooring of about 4 ft. They would then light fires under the floor, meaning it would feel heated. Luxury or what??

So that was the crux of our trip to Hadrian's Wall. I really enjoyed it, it's a very interesting area to visit and there is loads to see and do. I also have a great class and good teachers so it was a total laugh =D. Plus although I admit we did more work on the first day, hence why the first blog is a lot longer, I did learn a lot about why the wall was built and what it was like for those living there. Which I think will definitely come in handy when we do our second coursework question after Christmas.

On the way back from the trip we stopped off in Durham for an hour as one of my teachers went there at uni. It's such a beautiful city and we visited the cathedral, in which Harry Potter was filmed. Well not all of it of course, but I never knew the courtyard at Hogwarts was really at Durham cathedral. Being a complete and utter Hazzy P nerd I was in ecstasy. And when I say nerd I mean nerd. Our teacher got told off by some mardy church dude for not making an appointment. There wasn't even that many off us and we were quiet, but hey. Twas ace.