Our complete trip route!

A: Arrive at London Heathrow Airport
B: Work and explored Reading. had dinner with George and Hadee, and saw the old Reading abbey and jail.
C: Walked through the Ancient Roman Baths at Bath
D: Spent a couple of days at Dick and Jane's in West Down, went to church.
E: Visited Steve's mom and the town of Ilfracombe with Dick and Jane.
G: Spent the night in the Llanthony Priory in Wales, and ancient monistary.
I: Drove through the beautiful Welsh hills.
J: Lay seige to Grosmont Castle.
K: Pillaged Skenfrith Castle (snuck up through the water gate)
L: May our way to White Castle (no, not the burger joint), and then on to Raglan Castle.
M: Spent the night in Newport.
N: Moved on to the Cotswaold Hills to Upper and Lower Slaughter.
P: Spent the last few days in London, caught a live show at the West End, visited the Tower of London, and saw the sights with George and Hadee.





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We are back!

We just got back from our 10 1/2 hour flight. Not many posts from the last part of the trip due to no internet access, and too tired to post now, so look again in a day or two and we will fill in the blanks. In the mean time, Zzzzzzzz......

Holy cow these roads are narrow...

They say a picture paints a thousand words, well here is a short video of some of the typical roads we have been driving down...

We lay siege to four Welsh castles today!!!

We hit four, yes FOUR castles today, and all were fantastic! The first we went to was Grosmont. This one was tucked behind a small village down a unassuming footpath. It was amazing to be standing there and thinking back on what was going on those hundreds and thousands of years ago...a humbling experience.









The second castle was Skenfrith. This one was similar to the first, in the middle of a small village and you just walked right in. It has some of the original metal bars over a window, still remaining from medieval times...










The third in our whirlwind tour was White castle, so named due to the whitewash type coating that was originally applied to the outer walls, but long since gone. This was the first one we saw that had a moat!










The last castle was Raglan. It was the newest, the best preserved, and had the most restorations done. It was also my favorite, as I came across the fairest maiden in the land...

Monks must have been short!!!

This morning we attended church with Jane. There is a team of trained bell ringers that go around to the Anglican churches in the area and ring the bells. Jane's has 8 or 10 bells and they ring them to a musical tune for about 20-30 minutes. It is quite lovely, unless you don't get up for church. Then it is probably annoying! We enjoyed them. The service was very different than what we are used to, but very nice too. Every village and town has an Anglican church building and they are all the same. Very big with a very tall square bell tower, and the building is built in the shape or a cross. (As we were driving along we saw many, many churches that looked like this.) They have just a small congregation now-a-days, so financially it is tough to keep it up. Currently the most pressing problem is bats in the building, and they are not permitted to deal with them (I guess they're protected or some such baloney). Their 'by-products' stain the floor and wood pews and it is messy.


An interesting practice which we noted in the huge Abbey we toured in Bath, as well as the smaller one in West Down, is the burial of the dead right in the floor of the church. There are several graves in the West Down church (Jane's), as well as an wooden effigy of a knight which is set on the floor under some windows. It looks sort of like the carved sarcophagus the Pharaohs used in Egypt. No one knows for sure if the fellow is in there or buried out in the cemetery or in the floor somewhere. There was a large tomb and effigy in the Bath Abbey belonging to one of the previous vicars from many centuries ago.









After attending church with Jane, we headed for Wales to the Llanthony Priory (Abbey). Boy did that place give me a headache! I banged my head on the top of the doors several times, but was it ever worth it. We slept in one of four rooms that were used by monks. It was amazing looking at the ruins, and even more amazing thinking how old the place was...simply fantastic!

We are at Dick and Janes

What an adventurous trip! Roundabouts, curbs jumping up against the tires, people driving on the wrong side of the road (and car), traffic, roads so narrow that the car brushed against the greenery (hedge rows) on both sides....Yeeehaaa!!!! We purchased a GPS unit to help us get around, and it took us right to Dick and Jane's front door. No small feat since their street address is "Coronation Farm" - the name of the house, and nothing else! Small farm villages dot the area. It is gorgeous! Went for a walk this morning and did some exploring. This is really an amazing place. Gina keeps commenting how she feels like she has stepped into one of the Lord of the Rings movies! Just hope the Orcs don't jump out of the hedges...

Oh no! Too late!!!

Took a Bath!

We got our rental car and headed off to the city of Bath to see the ancient Roman baths! Was very interesting, and we even say the skeleton of a woman buried in the nearby church! We have gotten a real appreciation of how old things really are in other parts of the world compared to the United States. Buildings have been rebuilt on the ruins of others for thousands of years. They found the bronze head from one of the Roman statures when they were digging up a street to do some sewer work...amazing!