Monmouthshire 1 - Tintern Abbey/ the moon and 6d/ daffodils and primroses/ the most complete abbey in Wales /Storm Freya

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So where in the world is Gabby? Our girl is parked up in a car park outside Tintern Abbey or Abaty Tyndyrn in the Welsh language.

Storm Eric has left us and we now are in the grip of Storm Freya. Spring has arrived. Well in some places there are signs of Spring. The clocks have not changed yet. We have another week of meteorogical winter to suffer before the sun moves into its summer phase.

The primroses and daffodils look pretty as they line the roads. Yellow everywhere you look. The Hawthorn are bright fresh green as their leaves are opening So too are the Blackthorn bushes which are covered in frothy white flowers. However. the down side is that the rain falls . Quite heavily at time and it is extremely cold.

We drive up and see the magnificent abbey. We had paid our £3 to stay a few hours . Parking spaces are many which makes a change. The overflow car park has no markings which makes it easy to park Gabby. There is evidence that others had parked overnight and slept on the site . Banned but it is clear that they have stopped as their vans are covered in silver screens and also they are up on blocks. Making a mockery of the rules they will ruin it for us . Eventually councils will cotton on to their rule breaking and the height barriers will go up. The sign clearly says no overnight camping. This means no sleeping in a van but the folks parking flout the rule believing that it does not apply to them. I know I feel I shouldn't judge but it's hard not to when parking is so problematic in our small island . More and more this selfish sort of behaviour makes the situation worse for the rest of us.

We are getting used to being in Gabby again . That has taken some time as I find myself searching more than one cupboard for the items I am looking for. Esventually though it does click and I remember where things are kept . Finding them becomes a little easier and of course this is proving to be a good shakedown trip. We need one before we go away and this is an excellent chance to check those drawers, to make sure everything is where it should be and to make a list of things missing out of Gabby.

The WiFi works perfectly and quickly and we have decided it was well worth having it fitted. The TV works well too. The weather doesn't affect it the same way as it did with Kathrein. The wind would have played havoc . She would have gone up and not come down. But Van Bunkle is under a dome so we could even watch it in the worse of winds that storm Freya brings us. We have a dripping tap in Gabby. Perhaps it was just the water dripping due to the rattling and rolling Gabby was doing on our poor roads. Later that night it stopped. Something easily sorted before the first long holiday of 2019. Glenn was somewhat relieved it was one less job to attend to.

Our day started reasonably well. We passed through Monmouth and headed in the direction of Tintern. The opposite way to the way I remember travelling to Tintern in the 1970's and 1990's. The road was closed today . A police car and barrier blocked our way. We had to find another way round. Ignoring Silly Sat Nag is not always easy. She knows best and tries her hardest to take us back the way we have come. Turn around where possible she screams at us . We ignore her and her pleas to turn right and right again knowing we would only end up in the same place. Turn left and then left again - no silly girl we know better than you do. It is a long way round and we feel like throwing the beast out of the window . Maps come out and we plan our route avoiding the barriers. Thank heaven for maps and map reading. Silly Sat Nags are brilliant until you come across immovable objects in the way. Eventually after a long detour and a trip to Aldi we find ourselves looking at the spectacular abbey. The scenery it is set into is lovely. The rain has meant that the grass seems greener and the vegetation lusher. The rivers though are breaking their banks. Fields that once were green are now lakes . Everywhere is sodden. It has not been a bad winter so we muse on why there is so much surface water this year. I doubt we will ever know. We even hear that the small village where we had chosen to live is flooded. The roads are unpassable due to deep water and horses have needed to be rescued from the flood water. We always had that slight worry but were happy to put it to the back of our minds. Perhaps we made the right decision with that wonderful thing hindsight.

What a sight. It looked the same as it did in the late 70's , just as I remembered it looming large in the landscape. A place of great serenity. We even had it to ourselves. If only the stones could speak - what a story they would tell. I love being in a building and having it to myself .

Tintern is the most complete of the abbeys of Wales . Last time I was here I had lunch at the Moon and 6d . A pub on the corner that served chicken in the basket and I sat on high wooden high chairs with a 6d embedded in the seat . Chicken and scampi in a basket . The haute cuisine of the day. In fact the only thing you have to eat in a pub. The choice of food was not as limitless as it can be today.

Tintern had always been a popular haunt of romantics and painters . Luckily this kept it in such pristine condition. The Abbey was built in 1131 by Walter FitzRichard of Clare an anglo norman lord . One of many who built and founded something or another in this area. We paid nothing to visit . Belonging to Cadw we entered for nothing. Our card is more than paying for itself this trip. So that is a huge bonus as entrance fees do add up over a holiday.

As we stood looking up at the Great West window we contemplated abbeys . Was it better than Valle Crucis in North Wales ? There was certainly more of it standing. Was it better than Jumiege in France? Actually it was. You cannot help but compare what you have seen in the past. We underestimate sometimes our own heritage.

We entered the warming room. Ah a warming room. The imagination ran riot on such a miserable day . The tiny entrance opened up to a room which once housed the only fireplace in the abbey. Used to warm up the monks and dry their clothing it must have been a most welcome room. But of course on a wet day it must have been full of wet clothing which would have steamed away leaving the room with that damp Monday washing day feel. How we wished we had a warming room today though with a cosy fire as the rain permeated our clothing. Our coats were sopping wet , our hair wet and without any roof on the abbey we would continue to get cold and damp. How nice it would have been to dry our wet clothing and ourselves in front of a roaring log fire.

There were rooms for the monks to get their hair cut and they could be bled four times a year. I don't know if this was through choice or necessity. The thought of the warm up was interesting but the bleeding less so. We walked from the drying room to the extensive remains of the kitchen and the hospital. The monks certainly dined well . The river would have yielded up a daily diet of fish for them. There were probably rabbits to be caught and pigeons by the hundred. Possibly a swan or two on the river . Latrines to one side. The plumbing in the abbey at the time was state of the art and highly sophisticated. Nothing was too good for this bunch of Cistercian monks .

How did the abbey builders build such a wonder? Where did they cart the materials from? We pondered all of these questions as we looked up at the walls and the workmanship. Had we noticed the benefactors graves and memorials scattered around the grounds? The East window was impressive. It must have looked stunning with glass in it. We had to imagine the altar and the choir stalls. Much of this grandeur had over time disappeared. The stonework used for cottages and homes nearby. Why waste a plentiful resource when it was going free?

We had to imagine the niche in the wall where a statue of virgin was once housed. As a place of worship this building must have been magnificent in its time. Money would have poured in from the pilgrims who walked this way. . Local titled monied families would have paid for masses to be said for them. It was no wonder that envy crept in and it was eventually broken piece by piece. The riches were stolen . Its lands were taken. It didn't rot though. The roof went , some of the walls fell down but in the main it stayed there in the landscape welcoming us to its portals. Perhaps the romantic poets helped with their tales of the abbey . Possibly the artists helped too as they visited with their easels and watercolours to capture the ruins. Without those visitors I guess the abbey would have disappeared over time stone by stone.

The abbey was a welcome start to our south Wales trip. We knew we had a number of castles to see in the area so an abbey was a good start. It was an area neither of us had given much thought to. We had never visited and it was all from this point going to be a new experience for us.

Food next - not the Moon and 6d just the Old White Monk Café . A tiny cosy place with a few tables . We weren't the only ones there. We tucked ourselves into a corner and ordered coffee and chocolate , a small breakfast and a Welsh Rarebit. We lingered long over our food. There seemed little point in getting wet again as we had only just started to dry out.

Eventually though we had to give in and give up our little piece of warmth and move on. The rain still drizzled when we came out but we were refreshed. Another wonderful place ticked off the list of places to see. Our next stop was to be the first of many castles along this part of Wales. Come along with me on the journey.

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Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Filled with music....
Certainly stunning. What are the stone piles for? Are they for the course of maintenance or restoration or is it evidence of decay?

[JenGog]

piles of stone
Hello there Dave. I could be wrong but I think they are just random carvings. The archaeologists have no idea where they actually go so rather than guess and put them in the wrong places they choose to leave them in a heap on the floor. Sad but I hate to see them put together in the wrong places. Better to see them and imagine i think .