On Thursday morning we decided to spend he morning checking out Pembroke Castle. This imposing complex has been a fortress since the 12th Century and is now a major attraction of the town. We left our car parked behind the hotel and walked up the street and entered just after opening time , at 9-30am.The gatehouse is impressive and still intact and then in the clearing in the centre of the walls there is a huge map of Wales spread out in colourful style with the main Welsh castles marked on it. We went into the first tower, Here on the wall, projections and audio tell the story of different owners and stages in the life of the castle.These are well done and very informative. We climbed up to the various floors of the tower. Each ... read more

My main reason for visiting south Wales was to immerse myself in the places important in the life of Dylan Thomas. On Monday morning, after a tasty breakfast near our hotel at Buon-Appetito, we walked back down Wind St and arrived at The Dylan Thomas Centre just after it opened at 10-30am. This contains an exhibition arranged around a chronoogical retelling of Dylan's short life. It is free to go in and contains many artefacts of his life. We spent over an hour here. Fletcher was pleased to discover that Dylan had won prizes for the handicap mile and cross-country running at his school, Swansea Grammar. We were able to listen to recordings made by Thomas himself, reading his own poems. In his youth he was a member of the Little Theatre in Swansea and acted ... read more

Our last full day in London was a pottering sort of one. I slept in and we left the hotel about 10am. We had two major goals in mind. Firstly, to purchase our tickets for Sunday's train journey to Swansea and then to revisit the Courtauld Gallery to see their collection of Impressionists. For the first we went to Victoria station but were dismayed by the very long queues there. Having checked out the W.H.Smith store there (and found the fourth in a series of books I have been reading which I did not know existed) we went across the road to a pub called The Shakespeare for brunch. I thought this most appropriate! While we devoured our egg and bacon sandwich and scrambled eggs we discussed where to next. We decided to go to Charing ... read more

We have been wanting to travel the Trans-Siberian railway for over 30 years. Each time we were going to Moscow we tried to add it on but the dates did not fall into place. So this year, as we both celebrate our70ths and in October, our 50th Wedding Anniversary, we decided a trip would be a great present to us. Now, whenever we are coming to Europe we always try to go to London first as we never tire of this great city. Our plans also extended to going to South Wales so I can visit my favourite poet, Dylan Thomas, birthplace and country. We left Adelaide on Wednesday, 11th, from Adelaide airport and had a 3 hour flight to Perth. Here, after a short wait in the Qantas Club, during which we caught up with ... read more

Saturday morning it was bright and sunny. We all met by the cars at 10am and headed into Avarua for the markets. These are held every Saturday and are a bustling place with plenty of tourists and locals, and a mixture of souvenir and food stalls. As usual the local Cultural Group was putting on a show with young dancers doing the traditional dances to the beat of the drums. We wandered around here for about an hour and a half and then all recovened at Trader Jack’s for lunch. This is an iconic Cook Island restaurant. It overlooks the harbour at Avarua and has been hit by 3 different cyclones since 1986 when it was established. Now they can no longer get it insured so if a cyclone approaches they take out all the glass ... read more