Road Trip Part 1: The Angel and the Wall.

We had a friend's wedding to attend on Saturday up at Gretna Green, so we made a weekend out of it and turned our journey into a little road trip!

Our first stop was The Angel of the North up in Tyne and Wear, near Gateshead. 
This 66 feet tall, 200 tonnes steel sculpture stands proudly on a little hill, arms outstretched ready to embrace it's visitors. 
It's a pretty impressive thing to stand underneath, but I must admit - I was looking for something standing taller when we were looking for it on the drive up.  I was pretty surprised when it finally appeared behind the bushes just ahead of us at the roadside. 
We sat, had a cuppa, took some snaps and selfies like the rest of the visitors, then it was back in the car.

Our next stop was Hadrian's Wall.
We parked up at the Twice Brewed Inn and had some food (and a sneaky pint of ale for me).  After we were finished stuffing our faces, we trekked over the road and up the hill to the wall.
We had a little explore round Milecastle 39 and the famous Sycamore Gap (featured in the Robin Hood Prince of Thieves Movie).
The wall now stands about a metre and a half high in most places - imagining it as it once would have looked standing at 20 feet high is pretty impressive. 
Walking along and sitting on the rocks that have sat here for nearly 2,000 years was a pretty humbling experience.  Well, I thought so - my kids just wanted to jump off things!

All the walking did the trick though - once we got to our Travelodge for the night, the little monster was zonked! 

Here are a few snaps.