http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , United Kingdom , Wales en-us Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:13:08 +0000 Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:13:08 +0000 My old school friend Hilary was staying in Wales for a few days with her sister and her cousin so we took the chance to meet for the afternoon and went on a boat ride across the aqueduct at Froncysyllte. There was so much chat that we relied on Alex to take the pictures. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-791119.html Yet another glorious day so Alex and I took Mum for a walk to the river. We all enjoyed it even the dog and ended up at Ineke39s house for coffee and cake. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Meifod/blog-790207.html Another lovely day dawned. So after throwing 3 pairs of curtains in the wash I set off to meet Kate at the halfway place between her house and mine. Which happened today to be at the canal. If that sounds daft there are one or two other walks about equidistant. It was glorious we met a few boaters and the dogs enjoyed the walk Ruby swam as well. Then lunch one cache grabbed and back hom http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-790039.html Another glorious day and Ineke had a day off so we set off for Barmouth. We had a lovely day with sun and sea then did a little geo caching on the way home. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-789944.html Now that Suzy is back on the drive and I am firmly back in work I find myself singing Sweet Dreams are made of these who am I to disagree I39ve travelled the world and the seven seas Everybody39s looking for someone or in our case something. A song made famous by the fabulous Eurythmics and which sums up the last 5 weeks exactly. Our holiday was made of dreams and will remain as dreams http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Denbighshire/Ruthin/blog-789465.html Alex had 4 days off together this week so instead of taking an extra day39s work as he usually does we decided to drive up to Glasgow on Monday. We left at 5.30 in the morning taking Maisie with us and arrived about 11. Its 290 miles door to door. Here are some pictures to show what we did. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-788900.html Yesterday was wet and windy and did I mention COLD so Ineke and I decided it was not a day for gardening and we went for a walk in the bluebell woods. It was lovely of course we missed the rain and in the woods the wind was not so bad. And the smell..............And today is spring sunny calm and warm definitely a day for gardening and for taking a flask of tea across to my wood to see http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-787762.html Yesterday was very busy. We visited a crafter39s guild in Bovey Tracey and were able to purchase some of their creations. Just like anywhere else the skill and natural talents of the artists result in extraordinary creations.Lunch was served to us at Blackmore Manor a working dairy farm they milk 200 cows in a parlor 12 at a time. Blackmore is also a BB and for 50 quid per person you can sp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Cardiff/blog-787213.html I have read several articles recently about geo caching so after a bit of research on google Ineke and I decided to take Caroline on our first geo caching expedition. So armed with maps but sadly no GPS phone and 4 trusty blood hounds we set off from Guilsfield a village nearby. We had a lovely walk through woods and countryside with the added excitement of looking for treasure. Ineke h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-787091.html Christmas 2012 was to be my first Christmas away from my family in New Zealand. I always I imagined that I would end up spending it in a hostel in one of Europes major cities I would meet a group of random travelling orphans like myself and we would spend the day eating precooked supermarket ham drinking a mulled wine or four and sharing stories. However of course things dont always go as pl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Pembrokeshire/Tenby/blog-785707.html A couple of weeks ago an accident befell Alex39s new tent due to freak winds. So he and Ineke took it to a repair man on the Wirral and today we all went to collect it. It was well mended much to our relief and we spent a great day at the Wirral Country Park and the Marine lake at West Kirby which is a man made lake for learning to surfboard and sail but noone trying it out today. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-785130.html For several years I39ve wanted to go to the Green man festival at Clun but due to working on Mondays haven39t made it. Today dawned sunny and warm so off we went. Its a great bit of theatre as the Green Man meets the Ice Queen on Clun bridge and after a bit of a tussle winter is driven from the valley. Of course there39s plenty of folky stuff and entertainment and it was a lovely d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-784603.html Today is Mum39s birthday 88 years young. She and Dad went out for lunch and Alex and I called with a birthday cake candle and presents this afternoon. We had a jolly time and the sun shone. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-784363.html Martha Emily arrived on Saturday morning at dawn. She and Sophie are both well Martha feeds happily and we are all pleased as punch. The days are full but mostly revolve around watching every move and gurgle she makes and we can39t say we39re that busy exactly. Tom has gone shopping with a long list of stuff for Martha as well as mundane food items for us. we await his return with interes http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-782298.html 9 days to go so the blog is created.....Justine and i will be venturing to china but taking the long route from bangordevonlondonmoscowpermyekaterinburgkrasnoyarskirktskukulan baator beijing before our travel around china begins. Each leg of the journey is about 30 hours on a train we chose 3rd class of course so shall get the ultimate russianmongolian experience.... so http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/blog-781593.html Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn39t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark TwainAfter months of negotiating sabbaticals researching destinations planning our itinerary and saving some money we are now less than 100 days away from o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-780975.html We did it. The clans gathered from 4 corners of the world and we had a really good night. There were 90 people family and friends a band good food and a spectacular cake. In the end Dad had 55 or so cards and three celebratory meals before the party one with Mum on THE day one with Alex and me Pat and Kerry the following day and yet another with Liz and Jerry on Friday when theyarrived. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-780676.html Welcome to Llandudno As the UK was embracing its first days of warm weather in early June I decided to visit a place which I knew was famous for its Victorian festival early May each year but which was nothing but a name on a map as far as I was concerned and was I in for a pleasant surprise indeed Llandudno is a beautiful Victorian seaside resort located in the Conwy County of Wales and off http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Conwy/Llandudno/blog-780548.html Suzy is getting ready for her satelitte dish to be sorted we hope. Booked in on Friday this week to a guy in Telford who hopefully will sort her out. We are not paying as although the guarantee ran out a few weeks ago we could not and were really not prepared to travel again to Dorset to have it fixed. The company did not want to come up to do it on our drive and they did not want to send us bac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Denbighshire/Ruthin/blog-779842.html the last week and a good dollop of snow too. Alex managed to get to work by leaving the car at the bottom of the drive but mine was snowed in by the house so I got out a new jigsaw and turned up the fire We really had a lot of snow we couldn39t even walk on the field for 4 days. And it was hard to clear from the roads as there was nowhere to put it. There are still huge mounds of icy sno http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Powys/Welshpool/blog-778599.html