Last Two Weeks In May.

Monday 19 - Thursday 22 May. We both spent working. On Thursday we went to the movies here in Greenwich to see Indiana Jones and the crystal skull. A good adventure movie.

Friday 23 May. We both worked, but Kevin picked up our hire car at lunchtime from Lewisham and parked it close to Bellerbys College. At 6 pm we headed off ( Via trains ) to Shakespeares Globe Theatre to see the "Footsbarn Show" (exerpts from Shakespeares plays) It was a lot of fun and very entertaining. We headed home for a good sleep. This time we were not groundlings as kevin had booked us a seat.

Saturday 24 May. We awoke early at 4 am showered, breakfasted and packed our bags and headed off on our Wales Trip. We were away just after 5 am. Our early rising was to avoid the traffic on the roads as it was a Bank Holiday weekend and to be in Swansea by daylight to tour the Gower.

We had an uneventful drive out of England and crossed the Second Severn Crossing into Wales at round 8 am. So we had made very good time, we by passed Newport and Cardiff and headed straight for Swansea in the South East of Wales.

South East Wales is home to 60 % of the country's population. You hear the Welsh language spoken daily on Swansea's Streets. We decided to explore the Gower. A 15 mile long peninsular with sweeping bays, cliffs, caves, blowholes, marshes and cockle beds. It has medieval castles, boutiques and restaurants. The Mumbles is a delightful area with lots of seaside entertainment.

Going around the headland is Bracelets bay and Langland bay. Langland bay is a sandy surfing beach and very popular. Another narrow golden bay is Caswell Bay, and its beautiful too, they all belong to the Wales National Trust. The Gower had some nice beaches and we saw a couple of Surf clubs as well. Kevin had a chat with a couple of lifeguards getting their surf gear ready for a competition the next day ( Ausiie surf skis and boards )

At the Western end of the Gower, the village of Rhosili lies. It is a fabulous place for walkers and beachgoers alike. Rhosili Bay is taken up by 6 kms wide of sandy beach and protected by high cliffs. The isolated string of rocks at the end of the peninsular are called Worms Head.

We back tracked and then emerged down at Broughton Bay via extremely narrow winding roads with lovely green leafed trees and hedges bordering the road edges.

We moved around passing little villages on our way eventually arriving at Llanelli. Kevin had to check out their rugby football club of course. We carried on round the coast to Kidwelly where we discovered Kidwelly Castle high above the Gwendraeth river. Next we came across Carmarthen and St Clears, Pendine, Amroth, Wiseman's Bridge, Saundersfoot and Tenby.

Tenby is a picturesque seaside town and has not been spoilt by tourism. We could not locate a B&B here so drove on to Penally, where we found a delightful guest house and had a fabulous rest. Tenby is a really attractive seaside resort area which we both would have liked to have stayed longer. We spent an hour I suppose looking around and seeing if any accommodation was available but all was booked out being the long weekend.

Sunday 25 May. We had a traditional Welsh breakfast and headed over to Pembroke and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. We saw the Pembroke Castle in the midst of the city. We crossed a toll bridge to Neyland and up through to Newgale and St Davids - two beautiful waterfront spots.

We carried on up the western coastline to Fishguard and Newport, again both attractive towns. We passed through Cardigan, Aberaeron, Aberarth and Aberystwyth - the Cambrian Coast.
Aberyswyth is an essential stop. Its a very attractive seaside resort. At its northern end we took a trip on the 1896 Cliff Railway up to the summit of Constitution Hill for a fabulous view of the town and a photo or two. We also stumbled across a whole bunch of minis ( car show ) on display which was interesting and saw a raft race on the water between univ students. This city apparently was home to Prince Charles during his Univ years so we were told.

To the south we saw the remains of a 13th century Castle and this city has all the flags of European countries flying along the seaside promenade incl NZ 's flag and the red dragon flag of Wales. Immediately inland ( about 20 miles ) from Aberystwyth is the Devils Bridge, a tiny settlement. The main attraction is the Bridge - where 3 bridges are built on top of one another. The Top one is the most modern 1901, below it is the stone bridge 1753 and at the bottom the original bridge from the 11th century. We viewed this world famous site before moving on.

We carried on North to Machynlleth - just on the edge of Snowdonia. It is a very sparsley populated region. We carried on to Newtown in Central Wales, but decided not to stay here continuing on to Llandrindod Wells, a small town where we found a lovely B&B for ourselves.

Monday 26 May. We had a great breakfast and then continued on our adventure of Wales. We headed South, going down through Central Wales to Llandovery and crossing over the Black Mountains. It was very windy as we drove across this area which is very remote moorland with bleak peaks. I can see walkers would love the challenging and exhilarating walks there. We visited Neath, Merthys Tydfil , Abergavenny and Monmouth. All historical market towns. Monmouth is where Charles Stewart Rolls lived. ( Co -founder of Rolls Royce) There is a staue of him in the town.

We carried on down the Wye Valley and stopped at Tintern Abbey. It was founded in 1131 for the Cistercian Monks. The Abbey is a beautiful example of Gothic Architecture. William Wordsworth was attracted to this area too. A few photos later we headed onward.

We drove on down to Chepstow, a pleasant historic market town with another impressive Castle built in the 11th century. We drove through Newport just to see this city and since the weather was now grey and drizzly we decided to go home to Greenwich instead of staying another night in Wales.

We found that we had covered over 940 miles with our hire car ( Peuoget 307 ) in the space of 3 days and had seen alot of Southern and Central Wales and we arrived back in Greenwich around 8 -9 pm on Monday evening. It is our plan to see some of the Northern areas of Wales later in the year. Kevin took the car back on Tues morning and then it was back into the classroom by 1.30 pm.

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 27 28 & 29 May. All working days for us. Kevin's classes are all in study mode as their exams loom next week ( A levels ) with Foundation and MQP the following week.

Kevin went off to the England v USA soccer game on Wednesday night as I was working. It was held at the Wembly Stadium and 72,000 people were present, so the atmosphere was amazing. David Beckham was playing for England in his 101st match. England won naturally 2-0. This stadium has only recently been built at a cost of some £ 800 m but it is an amazing environment to view football.

I'll say cheers for now. June signing off.

Kevin here now. The football match was a buzz. The game finisherd at 10 pm but it was almost 12 pm before I was back in our room. A large patriotic crowd ( plenty of mexican waves and singing ) and some good football as well with long travel times there n back but well worth it. Plenty of security and police on horseback noticed in the walk back to Wembly Park station and onto the trains.

The Wales trip was good. This Sat ( 31 May ) we are off to see the Guiness Cup Rugby Final ( Leicester v Wasps ) at Twickenham which should be a cracker. I have also bought us a ticket to the Royal Ascot horse races coming up on 21 June ( Royal family will be in attendance ) and I am hoping I can also get some tickets for the 1 day international cricket ( NZ v Eng ) at Lords in June. The other matches are out of London.

Thats all for now. Until next time. cheers