Another day of travel.
We left Edinburgh this morning a few minutes past 8:00 am.
Our first stop was at Floors Castle in the town of Kelso. It is currently owned by the 10th Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe, and is the largest privately owned castle. The land that it is on is about 5,000 acres (if I remember the numbers correctly), with the Duke actually owning 56,000 acres in the area. The first floor which we were able to tour seems like a living history museum with many items from the 12th and 13th centuries.
Around noon today we re-entered England. There was a section of the highway (think two-lane country road) that was actually on top of the original Hadrian's Wall. The original ditch was right on the left side of the road. Hadrian's Wall was built by the Romans to keep the 'Barbarians' out of the Roman controlled country. The stone itself was 15 feet high, with the ditch on the northern edge of it. Over the years and various 'conquests' by others, such as the Norsemen and earlier English the wall was torn down and the stone reused. We did stop at a section of the wall that was still around, but with a lot of the stones removed. This was in the town of Heddon-on-the-Wall.
We then drove through the town of Newcastle and immediately following the town of Washington. This was not the original name of the town, but is where the father of our George Washington had an estate, but left for the colonies. The last name of the father was different. It originally Heartburn, but he changed it (common practice at the time) to something else that was close to Washington. I'll have to look it up later.
We stopped in York and took a walking tour. It still has a Medieval center and an almost complete medieval stone wall around it.
Our hotel is just outside the city.
The Wayward Traveler and his traveling companions.
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