Carlisle and Hadrian's Wall

Carlisle is located at the tip top of England. It was a fun place to visit, mostly because we stayed with the cutest family--a mother and daughter who know Carrie from her mission. There wasn't loads to do in Carlisle admittedly, but this is where we got one of our best tastes of English life. We were introduced to two very popular soap operas there: Coronation Street and Emmerdale. Coronation Street (they call it Corrie for short) was pretty stupid but I found myself getting sucked into Emmerdale. I'm wondering now if you can watch it online.

Also, Denise, our venerable hostess, would say to us, "You all right?" whenever she asked us how how we were.

Below is a picture of the Carlisle Cathedral. With all of our visits to castles, it was fun to visit something a little different.

I LOVE this statue.

We were taken shopping and introduced to the UK-style of fashion. Pretty much, I thought it sucked. Take me back to the garrishness of the 80s. Ugh. I was expecting more, and yeah, I am all-American when it comes to what I wear. You could argue that I'm super boring, I prefer to say that I'm timeless.

Another look at the countryside. Pretty.

Hadrian's Wall! This was unexpectedly one of the highlights of the trip. I think because we were outside and had no idea what we were doing. We just went with it and followed the wall. I loved the walls over there--it was mile upon mile of stacked rock.

Hadrian's Wall is a stone fortification built by the Roman Empire under the rule of the emperor Hadrian across the width of northern England. It was built to protect the Roman British from the Scottish Pictish tribes. It also marked the frontier of the Roman empire. I also learned from my dad that it's suspected that Hadrian's Wall was built more to keep the Roman soldiers working and therefore less likely to revolt. It's thought that the Pictish tribes were never really a threat to begin with but Hadrian employed the construction of the wall in order to preserve his power.

We ambled down this path and found out we were going in the wrong direction of where we were headed. My pants were muddy and it was cold, but I loved it.

According to Kaylin, a scene from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was filmed on this bluff.

Check out that fog! Ah, I'm missing England right now.

What famous movie was this railroad station featured in? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! Oh yeah, that was kind of exciting. I really need to watch that movie again just so I can confirm this.