Roadtrip to Wales and back

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23/01/2009 - Since Hannah and I were now living and working in London, we decided to take the Friday off work and go for a little road trip. Today our plan was to stay the night in Bristol, and have a few sightseeing stops on the way. After an hour or so drive we stopped in Salisbury to have a look around the city. The main attraction here was the spectacular Cathedral which was one of England’s largest. It was amazing, an extremely impressive building however still shadowed by York Minster Cathedral in York. We continued to explore the small city which really felt like a small country town after spending so much time in hectic London. We eventually made our way back to the car and drove on to our next stop, Stonehenge. Stonehenge was one of the top sights on my list when I knew I was coming to England, I was so excited.

It was half an hour drive from Salisbury and strangely enough stood literally meters from the motorway. We parked up, grabbed an audio guide and headed through the walkway underneath the motorway. I thought it was quite impressive, especially even after thousands and thousands of years experts were still unsure exactly what the stones were used for. We slowly walked around the stones while listening to the interesting audio guide until we had done a complete loop. It was a fascinating place, just a shame it has been so neglected and now surrounded by busy motorway. After a few more photos we walked back to the car and continued on our way to Bristol. We arrived at the hotel later that evening and decided to have a swim in the indoor pool and afterwards headed into town to find some dinner. We ate a really nice pub round the corner then headed back to our hotel to sleep.

24/01/2009 - We woke up and checked out early for another big day of exploring. However since we were conscious of how much money we were spending we decided to not bother paying for another night in a hotel but drive home later tonight. After a brief look around Bristol in the morning we continued our road trip into Wales, we were heading for Cardiff. It took just over an hour to get into the city where we parked right next to Millennium Stadium. It was hard to believe that this massive stadium was squeezed smack bang in the centre of town, quite an unusual sight. We walked over towards the amazing Cardiff Castle in the centre of town and bought tickets inside. We began exploring around the grounds of the castle until we realised there was free tour through the inside starting shortly.

We headed upstairs for the meeting point and eventually the tour guide showed up and began showing us around inside Cardiff castle. She lead us through different rooms and corridors, each of which were decorated in extreme detail, it was stunning. Shortly after the tour came to an end, we thanked our tour guide and headed back outside to explore more of the castle grounds. We headed over to the guard tower and climbed the stairs to the top. We had a fantastic view overlooking the amazing Cardiff castle on one side and on the other side a view of the city. I took some photos before heading back down the guard tower as we slowly made our way back to the car. It was only a short stop in Cardiff but from our quick visit I was really glad we made the journey.

We continued the drive and headed for the World Heritage town of Bath. I had been repeatedly told how beautiful this town was but many different people and once I got there I realised that they weren’t kidding. Bath was stunning, beautiful buildings and loads of history gave this town a fantastic atmosphere. We explored around the city with an aim of finding the famous baths which were used in Roman times. However we were distracted by our stomachs and decided to find somewhere to eat. I was keen on exploring the baths so we chose a pub where we thought we could have a quick lunch and be on our way. However it was exactly the opposite, they were so slow and made us wait ages before they would even take our order. When it finally came out it was terrible, we had sat here for over an hour to be served a very average lunch. We paid the bill and headed over to explore the Roman Baths.

Once inside we grabbed an audio guide and slowly walked around the amazing baths while listening to the commentary. The baths were stunning and in fantastic condition considering they were used in Roman times thousands of years ago. They sat in the open air and were surrounded in walls and statues made of stone, in the background, Bath Cathedral stood towering overhead, We spent a good few hours in this amazing place and I enjoyed every minute of it, but as it was getting late in the day we decided to make a move. We stopped by Ben & Jerry’s for some ice-cream before making our way back to the car. It took us a couple of hours drive before we were back in London, after a short but sweet weekend away.

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Photos

Stonehenge
The mysterious circle at Stonehenge

Cardiff
Cardiff Castle view from the Castle grounds.

Cardiff
Cardiff Castle grounds with the guard tower in the background

Cardiff
Fantastic view across Cardiff castle with Millenium Stadium in the background

Bath
Exploring the beautiful town of Bath

Bath
The amazing ancient Roman Baths in the World Heritage listed toen of Bath

Bath
The Roman Baths are in fantastic condition considering how old they are