Newcastle impressed us from the start.  Not only did it have a Bookcrossing stand in the centre of the train station, with lots of free books for the taking, but also – once we’d picked up our hire car from Newcastle Airport, we came across this.  The Angel of the North.

The Angel of the North, designed by sculptor, Antony Gormley, has stood upon its hilltop, just out of Newcastle since 1998 (apparently it celebrated its 10th birthday on June 22, though the party was ultimately called off because of high winds).

The Angel of the North is clearly visible to those driving along the A1 – as we were – and there are tourist information signs letting you know where to turn off for a closer look.

Matt got out the camera, and I took my turn to pose in front of the statue with my arms outstretched – and then with my arms stretched around the feet of the Angel.

When I was a kid, we went of class trips to the Waitakere Ranges.  We’d stretch our arms out like this and hold hands, and see how many of us were needed to measure the circumference of a Kauri tree. It would’ve taken a fair few of us, I reckon, to measure the circumference of the Angel.

Tash

So, in the early centuries of AD, a wall was built in Northern England.  This wall defined the edge of the Roman Empire in Britain, a Roman Empire ruled by one Emperor Hadrian.  Hence the name.

Over 1800 years later, parts of that wall still exist – and are able to be discovered and walked along, on a long weekend escape from London, on a rare sunny day at the end of September.

We stopped at the Corbridge tourist office, picked up maps.  We asked for the best wall-walking spot, and were told to travel on – almost half-way across the country on – to Housestead’s Fort.  Again, as the name suggests, there was a fort there.  But the focus of the day was the wall: first finding the wall (unexpectedly difficult), climbing up onto the wall, walking along to wall for as long as we could, then next to it for a while, while it stretched out in front of us as far as we could see.

Tash