3 May 2014. <GB-WLS> Llandogo, & Tintern, & Chepstow, Monm —
Woke up to a beautiful sunny spring day. Decided to repeat one of Susie's walks from last night. Of course, the sheep had left the orchard, and the bluebells were lit entirely the wrong way for a photograph! But an enjoyable walk neverthless.
We have noticed the air full of floating white specks. Turns out to be dandelion seeds wafting in the wind. To give you an idea of their density, I include a photo of the roof of the Sloop Inn — those white specks are dandelion seeds!
Set off down the road (by van) to
Tintern Abbey. Could almost have walked it — it's only a couple of miles on. Warren wanted to visit the Abbey, in part, because of the poem by Wordsworth, "
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey", and in part because of a book of etchings of the ruins of Tintern Abbey that he had had as a child. An amazing site. The Abbey is a 12th century Gothic marvel — its sheer size takes your breath away. And the lovely sunny day made it feel warming and welcoming. In spite of quite a few people going through the place, it is still a place of calm and beauty — and, let's face it, majesty. Warren had a field day with his camera! It's amazing how sunshine can affect a day -- when we arrived at Tintern Abbey it was earlyish, hadn't quite warmed up to its fullest, but there were quite a few people there. By the time we left, the place was alive with people picnicking on the grass or at the Anchor Inn tea rooms opposite.
Chepstow Castle
After this we drove into
Chepstow, to look at the castle and just have a poke around.
The Castle is huge, and we decided to just look it over from outside without going in. It overlooks the Wye River tidal estuary -- the tide was out, and boats were marooned on the mud banks of the river, waiting for the tide to return. The tides have an effect right up to Llandogo, where we were last night. Then we walked up into the town centre, through these quaint roads — laneways would be a better description. Walked past a hair salon and decided that Susie should indulge herself with a shampoo and dry — and she had a wonderful conversation with the girl doing the job (as usual).
A street in Chepstow
After this, we walked around a bit more, past an old priory — the buildings weren't original, as it had suffered a major collapse in the 1700s (where have we heard that story before?), but it's still a beautiful old church.
Then we walked down to the Chepstow Museum, near the castle. It's in an old family home that was once a private girls' school (for about 20 pupils), then the Chepstow Hospital, before being transformed into a museum in the 1980s. The collection is mainly Chepstow memorabilia, a faitly haphazard collection, but interesting. In the foyer was an interesting display — it wasn't even a museum exhibit, but was toys on sale. The thing about them was that they were mostly toys popular in the 1930s to 1950s — and they are still being manufactured today! Things like Blow Football, and Bobs, and things we haven't seen in Australia for decades!
After spending a leisurely day at Tintern and in Chepstow, we set off for our next destination — Caerleon Roman Amphitheatre and Baths. We will stop off somewhere on the way so that we can make an early start there in the morning, and then proceed down into Cardiff.
Distance driven — today, 28 miles ( 45 km ); to date, 621 miles ( 1,000 km )
No comments:
Post a Comment