A Wales of a Good Time, Part 5

Friday, July 6, 2018

It's our last day in Wales. David, Wayne and I go to Cardiff to see the sights.

We start with a bus tour of town and checked out the architecture and history.

Cardiff City Hall

Cardiff City Hall

The Boer War Memorial

Clock Tower of Cardiff City Hall

Interesting architecture 

The bus brought us back to the Cardiff Castle, which was our next stop

The keep on the hill in Cardiff Castle

One of the gate houses.You can walk on the top of the castle wall, or you can walk inside the wall itself. We did some of each.  During WWII the castle walls were used as air raid shelters and provided safe spaces for hospital staff to help.

The front of the keep on the hill. Yes we climbed to the top.  More circular steps, oh joy!

The grounds contain a manor house.  We were able to view a couple of the rooms.

The castle clock tower

The outside view of the manor house with the City Hall Clock Tower in the background.

After the castle we went to see one of the few transporter bridges that is still in operation.

The gondola can hold 6 cars at a time, and lots of walk on passengers.  We rode over and back for the fun of it.

We thought about climbing the tower because they let you walk across, but it was really windy so we passed.

From there we went to my cousin Kim's Alpaca Farm.  This time she was there.

She currently has more than 90 of the little cuties, counting the babies.

Me and my cousin Kim with one of the few that will let strangers touch her.

Wayne made another friend

The babies are so cute!!!

From here we returned to David's house to spend our last night with him, his son Jack and Jack's girlfriend Jasmine, Louise and Morgan. We had a wonderful time, drank too many adult beverages and stayed up late talking.

Saturday morning my other cousin Andy drove down and picked us up and hauled us back to his house in Loggerheads.  We spent Sunday repacking and trying to make room for all our new stuff. Early Monday Andy took us back to the Manchester Airport where we were suppose to depart at 10 am. We actually didn't get in the air until 1;15 PM.  With the 8 hour time change and about a 9 hour flight we arrived in Vancouver at 2:30, about 2 hours behind schedule.  Good thing our train wasn't until 5:45.  We had time to get through customs, find some food and catch a cab to the train station. The train trip south to Everett was a little behind schedule, but John and Cheri were waiting for us, so all was good.  When we got to the motorhome we quickly got the coach opened back up. We have now been awake for 24 hours, it was time to sleep!

It was a wonderful trip, the trip of a lifetime. I wonder where the next adventure will take us? I'm sure the next one will be on bikes, but even without them this trip was a winner!

A Wales of a Good Time, Part 4

Thursday, July 5, 2018

We got up and on the road early today, as we had a big day planned.  In fact it turned out to be 243 miles by the time we got back to David's house.

 We started by driving to the walled city of Tenby. The castle and walls were built in the 13th century. Inside the walls is a really cool, tightly packed little town.

 At the port we got on a boat, headed to Caldey Island.

 We went past the ruins of the castle on our way

 This is the rescue boat, ready to be deployed to help with emergencies at sea 

 We arrived on the island on one of the sand beaches.

 The post office and Museum for Caldey Island. This island has be inhabited sine the Stone Age and has been home to various orders of monks since Celtic times.  It is now owned by monks of the Cistercian Order.

 One of the many chapels on the island

 Either the tower or the building is leaning.

 We walked out to the opposite side of the island to the lighthouse.

 The lighthouse

 The view from that end of the island. Besides the natural beauty and hiking on the island, the monks that live there make and sell chocolate and Perfumes.

 We then headed back to the boat, stopping at the beach so Wayne could check the water temp.

 The tide had changed, so instead of returning to the dock at the harbor, we ended up at the beach.

 Next we headed to the most western point of Wales, St. Davids. It is the smallest city in the UK in terms of size and population.  To be a city in the 16th century, you must have a cathedral.  It was originally a monastic community.  Between 645 and 1097 in was raided by many, including the Vikings. It survived and housed many of the highly sought after religious, intellectual minds of that time.  The cathedral was started in 1181 and is still in use and is beautiful.

This 13th century Bishops Palace is maintained and open to the public for tours. We got there too late to go in, as usual.

This is the celiling of one of the wings of the cathedral

We have been in many churches, abbeys and cathedrals on this trip, this is the first time I have heard the organ actually being played.  It was wonderful.

We then headed home, stopping by Fishguard Bay

Wayne found a friend

We had a nice walk at Fishguard Bay to stretch our legs before getting back in the car for the long ride home.  It was another great day!

A Wales of a Good Time, Part 3

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

When on vacation I never keep track of the calendar date, unless I have a reservation or something.  So the 4th of July passed us by with little fanfare, (and no rain, take that PNW!!)

 We started the day by attending Morgan's Field Day at school.

 It was fun to watch and cheer for our young friend as he won the potato on the spoon run.

 Then it was off to St Fagan's National Museum. This is an outdoor heritage museum showcasing the historical lifestyle, culture and architecture of the Welsh people.

 It consists of more than 40 relocated buildings brought to the grounds of St Fagan's Castle which is actually a manor house not a real castle.

 The grounds have many formal gardens

 The manor house was really quite dark

 Some of the original furnishings were fun

 Wouldn't we all like a kitchen this size??

 Louise, Morgan and David in the castle yard

 Wayne walking through the formal gardens

 Now that is really one planned out and executed garden

 Outside the 'castle wall'

 We walked through this tunnel to get to the rest of the museum, and yes we checked for spiders in our hair!

 The spinner was working at the woolen mill.  He said it took about 20 hours to spin the yarn that would be used in about 2 hours of weaving.

 One of the old barns moved to this site.

 That is one big tree Wayne is standing next to.

 An old farm house moved to this site

 Another old farm house

 After St Fagans we went my my cousin Kim's farm to see if she was there. We found these guys instead.

 Then we went to the Royal Mint. It was originally in the Tower of London, where we saw a display about the workings of that time.  It was moved out of the tower to Tower Hill in 1812 where it remained until the current location was opened in 1968.   This Mini is located in the lobby and is thought to be one of 2 made for the promotion of the Beatles' "Penny Lane"

 Although you can't take picture's in the mint, we did go on a tour and I even minted a 2 Pound coin, which I gave to the new grandson Finn.  Here we are looking at the exhibits after our tour.

The mint also made all the medals for the 2012 London Olympics.