Another UNESCO world heritage site we visited was Hadrians Wall, the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain dividing east and west. Spanning almost 2000 years of history you can visit four English Heritage properties along this 73 mile wall. Hadrians Wall is the best known frontier in the entire Roman Empire, and stands as a reminder of past glories of one of the world’s greatest civilisations. Being there still invokes a sense of standing at the edge of the world, imagining what life would have been like at the forefront of Roman Rule in Britain.
We took a walk beside the wall at Steel rig, they have now requested that you don’t walk on the wall as it has become one of the most popular tourist hikes in Britain, people will trek the 73 miles as a walk over a few days and they are trying to preserve and protect this ancient site.
Angel of the North
After visiting Ruth, Nige and Roses daughter and having a guided pub crawl around Newcastle, very fun, we headed south. Just outside of Newcastle is believed to be the largest Angel sculpture in the world so we stopped by to take a picture, viewed by 33 million people every year, mostly due to its location near the A1 motorway, its in full view from this very busy highway. Thats me and Rose at the foot of the Angel!
Its 175’ wing span is bigger than a Boeing 757 and almost the same as a jumbo jet, it stands 65’ high and weighs 200 tonnes. Commisioned by Gateshead Council and created by Antony Gormley, OBE, The Angel now stands on this site. When asked,” why he chose an Angel”? the sculpturer replied,
“ The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them. The angel has three functions - firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears - a sculpture is an evolving thing".
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