The Best Photo

I was labeling photos from Europe this morning and found this one, which may be the best photo I have ever taken. It's from the parking lot at Tintern Abbey. I was so taken with Welsh that I was snapping pictures of the bilingual signs and ended up with this one. That's undoubtedly the Rick Steves Great Britain book cradled in my arm.

Wales is Pretty, Yes?

These are some of the sites we visited in Wales.

We rode the train up the coast to Harlech Castle, and it rained all over us. Harlech Castle is a fantastic ruin, though.

Kirsten and I peek out from beneath an arch where we were waiting for Stash. After visiting the castle, we asked a local for a treat recommendation and took refuge in an ice cream shop.

This is the beach at Aberystwyth. "Aberystwyth" is fun to say.

Aberystwyth Castle - Please note the beautiful, blue sky. In Wales.

View from Aberystwyth Castle

Dyfi River - close to the resort where we stayed.

Dyfi River on the way into Machyllneth, the town where we caught the train and went to market and which is an impossible name to pronounce.

We found some sort of pagan stone circle on one of our many hikes through the Welsh countryside.

Cymru

The UK has introduced me to two new things I love. (I know, they've already given us so much, right? Digestive biscuits, Shakespeare, The Vicar of Dibley, crumpets (I ate three today). They're a nation of givers. Except for the bus driver who gouged us on Monday, telling me the fare to Machynlleth was 2.40 instead of 2.00, so I had to go rummaging through my bag for my envelope of coins--Romanian coins, European coins, Turkish coins, British coins--which, naturally ripped apart when I pulled it from my bag, scattering coins ALL over the bus floor and delaying our departure, when really the fare IS 2.00 and I could have purchased a second delicious treat at the bakery with that 40p he charged me and maintained my dignity on the morning bus. Except for him, they're a nation of givers.)

1. Fuchsias--Somehow, I don't think I've ever seen these flowers before, but they're all over Wales.

2. Seaweed Peanut Crackers--I imagine that these did not actually originate in Britain, but it's where I found them and came to love them. They're little ball-shaped crackers and there's a single peanut inside each one. They're fantastic. Unless they're in your backpack during a terrible storm at Harlech Castle and they get wet. A soggy seaweed peanut cracker is no good at all.

Completely unrelated--I met a sheep farmer and quizzed him about his sheep dogs. He doesn't enter them in trials, because they refuse to run uphill. They jump on the ATV in the morning and then herd DOWN.

Saturday I'm off to Scotland and then I'll be back in the US with a USB drive and all the promised pictures from the trip will actually appear on the blog.

Wales

We're in Wales, staying in an 18th century mansion that's been converted into condos. The bathtub is the perfect size and shape in which to read and you can step right outside the door and grab yourself a sheep--the place is overrun with them. Much to our amazement it has been sunny and beautiful in Wales, so we've been able to go hiking up the green, green hills to see the Roman steps and lovely vistas.

Kirsten and I have seen enough castles to keep us happy for a good long while, but Stash is visiting from Texas (a castle-free state), so tomorrow we're going to hunt down a Welsh castle for her.

Just another week and a half before I return to the States. Eeek.

We Should Have Brought Enzo to England

We rented a car on Monday. The Coordinatrix is the designated driver and I am the designated navigator. The Coordinatrix is better at her job than I am. It's a good thing she's so even-tempered, because driving British-style is tricksy, particularly since we were upgraded to an Audi that opens with one of those fancy button clicky deals. The button in our clicky thing is dead, though, so we have to use the KEY and if we use the KEY, the car alarm goes off if the ignition isn't turned on within 15 seconds. Brilliant, right? It took us three car alarm incidents before we pulled out the manual and figured that one out.

Monday we went to Wales. The sun was shining! First we went to Tintern Abbey, my new favorite place. It's a fairly impressive ruin from the outside.


The inside, though, is so hauntingly beautiful. There's something about the fact that is a ruin, that the roof is gone and the outside is covered in lichen, that make the beautiful, airy interior with its grass floor even more remarkable.





After Tintern Abbey we visited a Welsh open-air folk-life museum. There was a castle and gardens and forty other buildings transplanted from around Wales, including a cock-fighting arena (the animal competitors wore spurs and magic charms). My favorite part of the castle was this bushy plant in the rose garden. It's a secret room.



If I lived there, I would spend all my time in the bush. And I would wear makeup and fix my hair if I were going to have my picture taken coming out of the bush, which I did not do here. [Note: I always put my sunglasses up on my head like that and then my curls wrap around the glasses and I have to spend several minutes pulling my hair out of the glasses. I'll be bald if I keep it up.]



And then we got trapped in Cardiff, because I'm not such a good navigator and it was rush hour and British roundabouts are rubbish. We did eventually escape and made our way to Caerphilly to eat dinner in sight of the castle, Britain's second largest after Windsor. Word on the street is that it's haunted.