On the road to Vindolanda...

Is Causeway House, the only house in Northumberland still thatched in heather.  And available to rent as a holiday house if you're interested :-)

When I woke up at 7am I could feel the heat already building.  A very cool shower was enjoyed.  

Our plans today were to visit Hexham Abbey, Sill - The National Landscape Discovery Centre, and Vindolanda, an amazing Roman Auxiliary Fort just south of Hadrian's Wall.  

We ended up dillydallying after breakfast including chatting to another couple of hotel guests who are here with their dog (a very friendly black lab so I got cuddles.  Really missing Lola!) and had just found out they'd become great grandparents :-) so left a good bit later than planned.

Hexham is one and a half hours from the hotel and as we drove along the A69 it was nearing lunch time so we decided to carry on past Hexham (poor Hexham Abbey was ditched from our plans!) and go straight to Sill as we knew it had a nice cafe and more importantly an accessible loo! 

Having enjoyed air con in the car, we were taken aback by the blast of heat when we opened the car doors!  Hot! Hot! Hot!  Thirty degrees according to the car! 

We made our way inside Sill and headed upstairs to the very nice cafe.  The cafe is floor to ceiling windows and even with the doors open the heat was oppressive. I hardly ate any of my lunch, I was just too hot.  Didn't stop D from tucking into his very nice looking ploughman's lunch.

Afterwards we headed downstairs to the Landscape Exhibition, an informative and interactive exhibition covering all aspects of landscape, how we shape it and how it shapes us.  Very thought provoking.  I really enjoyed it.  

From there we headed five minutes along the road to Vindolanda (or Vindaloo as D kept saying!)  

We had a long weekend in this area in 2019 and I'd been so excited at the prospect of seeing the Sycamore Gap.  I knew I wouldn't be able to get physically close to the sycamore, but we could see it from the main road and that was so exciting.  As we drove past today I was so sad to see just the gap.  I will never understand the mentality of the two a***holes who cut that beautiful tree down!  

I don't know where the time went this afternoon but when we arrived at Vindolanda we only had time to wander round the site for around 45 minutes (not nearly long enough.  It is huge! You could spend a day there)  but we enjoyed what we managed to see.  I grew up next to the Antonine Wall and Bar Hill Roman Fort so the Romans have always fascinated me.  The lady in the ticket office told us excavations will continue there for at least another 150 years.  They have discovered nine forts at the moment and think the excavations could eventually lead all the way to Hadrian's Wall, a mile north of the site.  Amazing!

Dinner was booked back at the hotel for 6.30pm so we didn't have time to visit the museum. Totally bad planning by us!  But the woman kindly marked our ticket so we can return and get into the museum for free.  Not sure we'll manage to return in the two days we have left though as other things on the list to see.  

Got back to the hotel with just enough time to freshen up before dinner.  The restaurant staff (to be fair all the staff we've encountered) know us well now and we are greeted with such warmth and humour.  The whole place really is exceptional. 

After dinner, which like my lunch I couldn't finish due to feeling so warm, we headed outside for another wander through the grounds.  I am enjoying this little after dinner routine we've created :-)  The sun was still warm but the shade afforded by the trees was enjoyed and the little breeze most welcome.  

The birds were singing their hearts out and my Merlin app tells me we were entertained by a common chaffinch, song thrush, wren, rooks, wood pigeons and a chiffchaff, which I'd never heard off.  

We returned to our room feeling a wee bit cooler but stopped by the bar to pick up water and some ice.

Some Vindolanda shots and pics from our evening walk in extras. 

PS I am so sorry I;m not getting the chance to interact much but I will catch up once we're home :-)