We left Dublin in the early morning to fly to Newcastle. We only just made the flight as Newcastle airport has about 1.5 kms between security and the gate and then you get a bus to the plane. We were special, we got a personalised car trip! Anthony only just made it as he stopped to buy water. He was unaware you could get water on the plane...

In Newcastle we picked up another hire care and took off to find Hadrian's Wall. We stopped at Vindolanda first which was a Roman auxiliary fort just south of Hadrian's Wall, (which it predates about 85AD). I wandered around the grounds and saw a 1970s recreation of the wall - the first version with an earthen mound topped with timber wall which was later replaced by stone walls once the Romans realised the timber didn't last long in the English climate. Then it started raining so we moved on.

A bit further on we came across part of Hadrian's Wall overlooking the valley (including Vindolanda). The wall was built by the Romans to keep out "the barbarians" in the first century from coast to coast across Northern England (120km). Here we are 1800 years later and Donald Trump is talking about building walls to keep out the Mexicans. Some things never change.

We then drove in to the Lakes District - beautiful countryside, gorgeous villages and lovely lakes. Famous people connected with this area include Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth. Anthony said he'd never heard of the guy, but he did know Peter Rabbit! Keswick was a gorgeous village along the way, but we sped through to Ambleside where Anthony found the parking was easier. We stopped for lunch and then took off towards the Yorkshire Dales. By now the sun was shining.

We had a fight with the GPS, but no matter how hard she tried we won!

We drove through the Yorkshire Dales with dark clouds chasing us. The area was large, empty and almost desolate. There were large expanses of hills, stone farm walls and grassy areas dotted with sheep as far as the eye could see.

We drove through a number of little villages all reminiscent of "Midsomer Murders" (in fact one very small village had three homes for sale, I figured that was because of the three murders!). We also couldn't find James Herriott either!

The next stop was York. As we drove into the centre of town we found that our hotel was within the old town walls just 100 metres from York Castle. I know what I'm doing in the morning!

It is now 9:30 pm in York and 6:30 am in Sydney. Both locations are 16 degrees, but York is in summer!