Checkout from our AirBnB was 10am, but our rental car was not ready until noon. Have no fear though – moving anywhere with three under 6 naturally eats up two extra hours in time.

Today we traveled from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Crayke, England (near York) which straight shot is a 4 hour drive. We decided to breakup the trip with a visit to Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall.

Vindolanda was an auxiliary fort built (and rebuilt) by the Romans who occupied it from 85 AD to 370 AD. At any given time there were 500-1000 troops station there who came from as far as France and North Africa. The fort was abandoned around 410 AD as The Roman Empire declined.

The first known account of Vindolanda after it was abandoned was a mention of the site in the book Britannia, published in 1586. Modern excavations began in the 1930s and continue to this day. It’s estimated that only 25% of the site is unearthed, and that the teams will need to dig for another 150 years at their current rate.

After Vindolanda, we jumped back in the van and drove just a half mile up the hill to Steel Rigg, one of the many access points to Hadrian’s Wall. Just a short walk from the car park (AKA parking lot), you enter a wooden gate and are immediately greeted by sheep. And rams. So many sheep.

#1LittleSister was thrilled at the chance to see real sheep up close. Her favorite activity right now is an iPhone game for littles called Peekaboo Farm. You tap on the barn door and it opens to reveal a farm friend who makes its noise and then they say the name. “Bahhh SHEEEP!”

Hadrian’s Wall spans down the hill from the sheep and up a steep incline to another hill across a ravine. The wall spans a total of 73 miles across the whole of Northern England. We were just seeing a small portion of it. Visiting Hadrian’s Wall has been a bucket list item for Amir since the day I met him. We tried to squeeze it in when we were last in England in 2014 but couldn’t make it happen.

There was no way we could all make that climb with the two youngest in tow, so he embarked on a solo sojourn. The cliffs are so tall that they dwarfed him in size. I’d lost sight of him until I realized he was the small spec at the very top waving vigorously like the wacky waving inflatable flailing arm man.

Tonight we’re finishing the back half of the drive to our house in Crayke. This drive has given me more time than usual to write, but I’m a little bummed we’ll arrive after dark and will have to wait until the morning to explore the grounds here. Tomorrow we plan to spend the whole day at home, welcoming some of Amir’s English relatives and soaking in the atmosphere of our new temporary home.

– Steph