Heading south from Isle of Mull

Once again, a ferry ride back to the mainland. Sam and I sat near a woman who was offering bread to the seagulls. Sam also did this and hollered so loud when the bird grabbed the bread that I jumped and my picture did not come out. LOL

She told me that she lives near Liverpool and had come to the Isle of Mull on holiday and felt a strong desire to move there. There was a shop near the ferry to another small island that is for sale and we talked about making middle aged life changes and how to make ends meet

For years I have heard about a Scottish food called haggis, but never knew what it was. So when we stopped for lunch we had the chance to order it. Graham had told us that it was the Scots' joke on the English and other than telling me it needs a sheep stomach to make, I knew nothing about ingredients. I prefer not to know in order to keep out preconceived notions when trying something new. Well, it was great!! It turned out to be a ground meat (probably beef but perhaps lamb) concoction on mashed potatoes!

Walls...throughout history people have built walls to keep people out or to make people stay inside an area. The practice continues to this day with modern wall (fence) construction along the US-Mexican border, for example.

In Roman times, Emperor Hadrian built a wall along the narrow width of what is northern England to keep out the Scots and Norseman. Today there is a coast to coast hiking trail but only remnants of the wall exists. It was, in its heyday, 8-10 feet tall with a 9 foot moat to the north and 2 story towers built every half mile or so. Soldiers were posted along the wall to sortie north or defend the perimeter.

I found a b&b on the Cumbria-Northumbria border in a tiny town which boasts the longest section of the wall. Over time, after the Romans left, the wall was dismantled for the stones to be used in the construction of churches, abbeys, mansions and other buildings so currently, Hadrian's Wall is maybe 3 feet high.



We needed to purchase a few things that were not tourist oriented and got the directions to a mall in the city of Newcastle. It was a HUGE mall, bigger than anything I had ever been in except for the Mall of America.