LATIN LESSONS
What did the Romans ever do for us? A lot, actually. Money, roads, wine, evidently rabbits (but not nettles, which is a myth)
It’s a grey, cool, damp day. To the soldiers on the Wall this must have felt a gloomy margin of the world
Local food is central to my cycling enjoyment. I don’t just mean one-offs, like when I had a scone in Scone, cheddar in Cheddar, or York ham in Ham. I mean on-the-go eating culture, the new everyday tastes that colour a trip: night-market stews in Taiwan; south-Indian thalis; rainbow-hued Colombian roadside-snack sweetcorn; deep-fried Mars bars in Scotland…
So when I cycled Hadrian’s Wall, a popular 85-mile coast-to-coast route across wild Northumberland from Carlisle to Newcastle, I just had to do it Roman-style, consuming food and drink familiar to those soldiers on the Wall. No tea, coffee or chocolate; no potatoes, tomatoes or pasta. And no forks. But plenty else, including beer, sausages and custard. Here’s how it turned out…
Beer necessities
What did the Romans ever do for
