The word is a very exciting place

 The Western end of the Hadrian's Wall path is in Bowness-On-Solway, a little village on the Solway coast, a massive tidal estuary. It's the site of the Roman fort of Maia, possibly the second largest fort on the wall. It also joined the coastal defences that stretched further down the coast towards Maryport & Ravenglass, which would have defended the area from raiders attacking from Ireland, as well as any Celtic raiders from Scotland (Caledonia) trying to get around the wall by sea. Bowness-On-Solway is a quiet little place, but a quaint and beautiful place to start the walk. I caught the bus from Carlisle, which seemed to go through every hamlet, farm and fishing hut possible, and taking around an hour. The busses are not very frequent, you need to research ahead the times so you can arrange transport either to or from Carlisle. It's bus number 93, operated by Stagecoach, and you can find a link to the timetable here  Stagecoach Route 93

 Wetheral is a cute little village by the river and it's a perfect day trip from Carlisle. Trains run every hour from Carlisle station, and you're there within 10 minutes. What could be easier? It was a very grey day, with frequent showers of cold rain, quite amiss from the July weather I was hoping for, but there we go, you can't have everything can you! 

Carlisle is a sleepy town that sits on the Hadrian's Wall Path. Originally the city was a Roman Town called Luguvalium, which also operated as a supply point for Hadrian's Wall. The city had been on the border of England & Scotland for many years, and has seen it's fair share of fighting. Eager to learn a bit more about it, I headed to Carlisle Castle, a red stoned extensive castle surrounded by beautiful green lawns. 

 Blackpool is one of those place I fondly remember visiting as a child, the bright lights, the amusements, the theme park, the beach. I always remember it being a fun, exciting place, compared to when I've visited as an adult, and I'm reminded it's seedy, run down and a little forlorn looking. I started by catching an early train from Manchester Piccadilly to Blackpool North, it took around an hour and a half, before arriving into Blackpool around 7am. It was supposed to be hot today, so I purposely got their early to avoid the heat, as I wanted to walk the entire length of the seafront. Fun little tram themed seats! They weren't very comfortable though! 

 I walked a different way back to the city centre and back to hotel each day, just to see what different things I could see. The night before I came across this beautiful row of terraced houses. While this morning I went along Tib Street and noticed these ceramic parrots sat along the window ledge. I suppose it keeps the pigeons away!

 The next day I found myself a delicious little bakery not far from the hotel for breakfast. The hotel seemed to change more for breakfast than the room, and I decided to try somewhere new each morning. So I treated myself to two ham & cheese croissants with a caramel latte to get the day going. They were jumbo sized croissants, and certainly filled me up for the morning! I was about a 15 minute walk from the city centre, so I set off to the People's History Museum. Now this, is what you call a museum. Fantastically curated & designed, it tells the story of the development of democracy, workers rights and the fight for equality.

 Manchester is the UK's third biggest city, although that is frequently cause for debate! I think in terms of population it's third, but culturally & financially, it's the runner up to London (sorry Birmingham!). I'd never been before, and decided that a few days here would be a great start to my journey Northwards, especially as it was a long train ride to Carlisle! It's around 4 and a half hours to Manchester Piccadilly from Southampton Central, although due to issues somewhere on the line it was an additional hour before we arrived. But hey, that's what delay repay is for! (Also if you can, always try and book train tickets in advance via a site like  @thetrainline.com , you can often (but not always) get your train tickets at a discount. And who doesn't like a discount, especially when combined with delay repay, where if your train is late you can claim a partial or full refund) Anyway, I got off the train, checked into the cheap little hotel I was s...

 I was getting more and more excited about my trip to Hadrian's Wall, and looking forward to spending some alone time walking, and just being able to figure out what was going on in my head a bit more. I'd got the guidebook, new walking trainers and was starting to book places to stay in while I did the walk. I had a leaving do with work at the local pub, it was lovely to be able to see everyone for one final time and say goodbye properly. I did have a rather sore head in the morning though! I also had a meet up with some friends at Gunwharf Quays, where we had an afternoon with some drinks at the Alchemist there. It was a very nice bar, with some interesting & delicious cocktails, like this amazing Parma Violet flavoured one!

July was a strange month for me, I had finished at work, and had planned to head up to Hadrian's Wall at the end of the month. It was a strange month because I'd not really planned anything, it was almost like being in limbo. That being said, being off work was rather nice, not having to get up and spend all day trapped in the building while working! One of the first things I did was to spend a day walking to Winchester along the Itchen Navigation Way. The Itchen Way is one of many walking paths set up in the UK, that follow routes taking you through cities and countryside, other examples are the Hadrian's Wall Walk, and the Borders Abbeys Way (both of which I've since walked, and I will be posting about on the blog soon, so keep an eye out!). Although the Itchen Way starts near Sholing, I picked up the trail on the riverside, and this was the first picture I took, of the mail centre where ironically James was picking up a parcel that day!