Thursday is market day in Hay-on-Wye so we decided to head off to explore this picturesque village that lies on the Welsh side of the Welsh/English Border in the County of Powys. The market is very traditional and is held every Thursday in the Memorial Square, the Butter Market and around the Town Clock, from 8am to mid-afternoon. Hay-on-Wye is also well known for its second-hand book trade so we spent an enjoyable couple of hours browsing through the market stalls and the multitude of book stores. From Hay-on-Wye the plan was to drive over Hay Bluff and Lord Hereford's Knob and then along the Honddu Valley to Llanthony Priory. We programmed the SatNav for Llanthony and headed off up a single track road with hedgerows on either side. We had hardly left town when we ... read more

Today we set out to see some Welsh waterfalls. From Bailea we headed towards Brecon on the A40 before turning south onto the A470. We stopped briefly at the car park opposite the Story Arms as this is the highest point on the A470. Walkers can set out from here to walk to the summit of Pen-y-Fan. We thought that the view would be more impressive but, according to the information board, we were only half way up the mountain. I'm sure if we had more time, a hike to the top of Pen-y-Fan would have been on the agenda, but there is a limit to what can be achieved in a week!! After our brief stop, we continued along the A470 until we turned off for Penderyn on the A4059. Before we reached Penderyn, we ... read more

With the SatNav programmed for Wallingford, we said our farewells to Marilyn and Jim and headed off for the cottage in Wales where we will be staying for the next six nights. We headed away from London along the M40 until we reached the A329 where we turned off to Wallingford. Hmmn, so glad we made the effort to drive through Wallingford ... not!! We didn't see a single thing that was reminiscent of Causton in Midsomer Murders. Ah well, it wasn't far out of our way. After taking a couple of (very ordinary) photos of Wallingford, the SatNav was re-programmed for Burford which is at the gateway to the Cotswolds. We headed along the A4074 towards Oxford and after taking the ring road around the south of Oxford we joined the A40 heading west and ... read more

We headed off into the city today with Marilyn and Jim to visit the British Library which is situated very near St Pancras Station. Since we were back at King's Cross Station this morning we stopped in at St Pancras - without our luggage in tow - to take a few photos. We even took a photo of a couple of Eurostar trains which is something that we failed to do on Wednesday when we actually caught one!! We walked from the station through the St Pancras hotel which has just reopened after begin extensively restored. From the hotel we walked around to the Sir John Ritblat Gallery in the St Pancras building of the British Library. The gallery hosts a permanent display of many of the library's greatest treasures. It contains over 200 beautiful and ... read more

The weather forecast said rain developing later today, but it was already pissing down when we woke up!! As we were eating breakfast we tried to ring for a taxi, but there was so much demand for taxis that we could not get through - our calls kept terminating before we could be connected to the despatcher!! So, once again, we had to go to Plan B! Today that meant hauling our bags to the Metro station Cardinal Lemoine in the rain and making our way to Gare du Nord by train. It wasn't too bad actually - it was only a short walk in the rain to Cardinal Lemoine and after that we were underground all the way and out of the rain. After we had negotiated the stairs at Cardinal Lemoine and changed lines ... read more