Hadrian’s Wall, Bamburgh Castle and Leeds

The 13th September we went south of England in our rented car. We stopped at Bamburgh castle after a recommendation by a friend of mine, Bron who lives in Leeds. The area, Northumberland, is said to be where England as a nation was born and the inside of the castle was very impressive – more so than Edinburgh. It was located next to a beach and overlooked a cricket pitch. The inside was fantastic and probably the best we had seen and there was hardly anyone there so it was great to experience it in all of it’s glory. After this we headed West to see Hadrian’s Wall. Kyle had seen this before but I hadn’t – it was the historical fort of Vindolanda. It was really misty which added to the overall aura of it. The history was amazing and I was so pleased to have visited.
We then headed to Leeds to be with my friends Bron and Andy and their son Adam. It was so nice to be there with familiar faces and a NZ accent! Straight away we were plied with alcohol and had a general catch up and yarn into the night.
The next day we had a lie in and then headed to Yorkshire to meet up with Max, Max and Max’s girlfriend Nicky. Was SO great to see these guys again after a month. Max and Max were on our Indochina tour with us and we got along so well.

We went to the Golden Fleece pub and had a great catch up but it was a shame it was so short. After we said our goodbyes to them we went to Yorkshire Museum which was so cool. The middle section of it was a street based in the Victorian era and even had noises and smells. There was a sweet shop that you could actually buy sweets in and then it got dark and ‘rained’ as well. Such a cool experience. We were a bit rushed and then by the time we had finished that we had to back to Leeds as we had booked a dinner with Bron and Andy. We desperately wanted to go back to Yorkshire but there just wasn’t enough time. That evening we went to “Spoons” (Whetherspoons) and had a meal AND an alcoholic beverage for seven pounds. Outrageous. It was such a great time with good company and alcohol and that evening back at the Lindsay’s place we had more alcohol and watched some great videos on YouTube (Jim Jefferies Gun Laws America – which we’ve watched many times since!), and just chatted.
A side note is that this whole time I had been slowly adding gluten to my diet and so far had no side effects. I had a battered fish and some cookie dough pudding (oh my gosh amazing!) and was fine!
The next morning we watched a heated game of South Africa vs the All Blacks with South Africa winning – we were all (except Bron) very happy! We said our goodbyes and then we headed to Bath.
- Danielle