Nott What You'd Expected...

Longest Post Ever (5 of 5.... Thank God)

DAY FIVE: ALNWICK, HADRIAN'S WALL, PUBS

One of the best parts of our travel thus far has been a chance to run in some of the most beautiful cities in the world. In York, Brandon and I ran through the city on our first morning, and Hilary joined us on day two for a tour along the river. Day one at Alnwick was no exception. Hilary and I woke early to run across the river along the Duke's land - through pastures, along brooks, over hills, and through a patch of Burning Bush, or as it's also known, nettle. The view of the castle was amazing in the rising sun, and running through a town is the best way to familiarize yourself to the surroundings. We didn't take a picture, but this is about as close as you'll find:


Our day began with a tour of the Castle before it was opened to the public. Our tour guide was Kristine's husband, who is the owner of the soothing Robert Leechesque voice that took us around on the bus tour. The tour was incredible. Marble everywhere, precious paintings on every wall, and enough history to make any fan of Histories Mysteries salivate. The chandilliers were huge, the statues were carved by expert artisans, and every ceiling was carved marble or wood. It was incredible. At one point, in the Red Drawing Room, he pointed out two identical cabinets that stood on opposite sides of the oppulant staircase. After explaining their construction of mostly gems and precious stones, he told us that they were not only taken from King Henry's Palace of Versailles in France, but that the last similar cabinet to be sold at auction was worth 20 million US dollars. And these two were A) bigger, and B) a pair. Essentially, we were standing in a room with over 100 million dollars worth of furniture. Disgusting.

It was definitely a new experience, just being in the presence of such excess. In the US, we have our celebrities that we are obsessed with, but in the UK, it's a very different feeling. There is resepct, an expectation of continued oppulance, and a history that we cannot fully understand. The Duke's family has ruled over the area for the last 900 years. Everyone in the area knows the Duke's children's names, ages, where they attend school, and their relationship status. They know the color of the Duke's kitchen walls, they can tell you how many times he's had the Prince of Wales over for tea. Again, it's hard for us US students to comprehend the fascination with a family who has done essentially nothing to get where they are. While it may be stressful or difficult to run the enterprise that is Alnwick Castle Enterprises, only the fascination with rich celebrity brats on VH1 comes close....

After leaving the Castle behind, we began our day of Historical Importance. Kristine is a walking encyclopedia. Maybe i've mentioned it before, but she's a genius. And what's better is that her voice is identical to Emma Thompson (think Love Actually, Nanny McPhee)... I would just close my eyes and imagine Nanny McPhee giving me a tour of Northern England.

Hadian's Wall is a 70 mile long, at times over 15 foot tall wall that combines a wall, a ditch, a millitary supply road, and mile markers with 2 turrets ever 1/3rd mile, with 16 forts along the way. In 2000, a British Engineering firm was asked to give an estimate of how long it would take them to build a similar structure over the same landscape. They gave an estimate of 10 years. It took the Romans, in 122AD, just 6 years.

The Road was built to draw a kind of border to the Roman Empire - Hadrian was interested in consolidating his power and at the same time wanted to keep the 'barbarians' to the north out of his territory. The wall was built out of locally quarried limestone, and essentially stood intact until the 1730s when it was dismantled in many places to create a road through the English countryside. For the most part, any building made of stone in the area is constructed with stolen stone from the wall after the Romans left the UK in 410AD.

One of the interesting stories from the area that we walked along was that of the Robin Hood Tree.... In the film staring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman, there is a scene in which an Anglo Saxxon hiding from the Normans is stuck in a tree that Robin Hood and his friend save... The scene was filmed at the tree in the following picture, and since that time people have been convinced that the story actually happened in history. The tree has become an iconic symbol of Northumberland, and is even used by the BBC as an icon on the nightly news to discuss the area.
Because of the attention, people now believe that Robin Hood Somehow traveled the 400 or so miles up to Hadrian's Wall in order to save some Anglos... and thus is the start of a new 'folkhistory'- like a rumor that becomes 'true'.

We also visited some roman ruins of an old fort (still in amazing shape), and, before walking our 4 miles along the wall, we made our way to Vindilanda- the archeological dig of ruins that resulted in the finding of letters written by common roman citizens, in 2000 called "Britian's Greatest Archeological Find" and "Britain's Top Treasure".

After a long bus ride back to Alnwick, we ate at an italian restaurant with an overly touchy owner, who asked us "What is the most posh-est island in the United States" To which we replied (to each other) "What the hell is he trying to say?" to which he later replied "Washington DC"..... yeah, we still don't get it either.

Brandon was absent, as he had tried to visit the Duchess' garden (began as a 1 million pound venture, now worth more than 40 million pounds and growing).... Brandon had slipped in at the last second before it closed, and managed to get some great pictures..until they closed and he was stuck. After 45 minutes of running around, jumping 7 foot walls, and calling us on my cell phone that I had let him borrow (running out of minutes all the while)... he finally met up with us and had dinner with the Muggli's, who had spotted him running down the street.

The gang decided another lame night of not going out was in order, until three St. Cloud State students who also stayed at the castle came up and asked us if we were interested in going out to their favorite pub. Brittney, Paige and Dave took us to Ye Olde Crosse (about 1 block from the castle) also known as Two Dirty Bottles.

The scene was kindof trashy, but in the back room we met up with their friend Craig (described here as a chubby-headed, extremely pale, blond-haired, England jersey-wearing drunk.) Craig had the most amazing Scottish/English accent (we were very close to the border). I've never heard such amazing insults fly out of a person's mouth, nor has the F word been used as so many parts of speech. Clearly, as a future English teacher, I paid attention. We also met his friend, the tattoo-covered Ross, who combined with Craig, made up a duo of insult-slinging, nasty barmaid hitting-on guys that the likes of which had never been seen by Brandon, Aaron, Ryan, and myself (the ladies decided against braving the Alnwick nightlife)

We talked about Manchester United, The National Lottery (a gift-giving campaign that rewards valuable historical properties with money from the government, but is on TV like American Idol.... at one point, the TV showed a picture of a Scottish Church with a number to call if you wanted to vote for it .... so strange..) We were also introduced to The Tuckers, a local band that had just won a national competition and are to perform on BBC4 on October 12th... keep your eyes out.. The Drummer and lead singer were at the bar, so we're pretty much famous.
(www.thetuckersonline.com and www.myspace.com/thetuckers)

At this point, the group is ready to be back home. The flat sounds sooo good right now. Email, telephone, anything to make us feel connected to the real world. It was great to find out that even the most disgusting looking pubs can turn out ok depending on the people, and meeting the StCoudians was fun... even if it was just group of Americans who were born and raised in the Twin Cities....

posted by Kevin @ 11:28 AM