Blogs from Tintern, Monmouthshire, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

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 ... read more

Useless & Colin Buckle Up So, holiday season begins, and ‘The Duke’ had his first lengthy road trip - culminating in a ferry crossing to a whole other country (or 2). Hitchhiking along for the ride was Colin the Clanger. Col has some travelling experience but ostensibly this was gonna be his ‘trip of a lifetime.’ So, to ensure Colin didn’t ‘peak too soon’ we eased our way into the trip with a nice visit to the local vets. Colin said goodbye to Useless and then was warned about what happens to naughty Clangers with a visit to one of Leonard Brother’s cells. After several minutes of clanger crying it became apparent that the message had got through and we were ready for the road. In keeping with the ‘ease him in gently approach’ we headed ... read more

Or something like that. Basically, I went to a couple falling-down places in Wales, and Welsh has lots of consonants, etc. And now I'm done trying to be clever. At least I didn't got to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is an actual town in Wales that has the proud distinction of having the longest name of any town in Britain. Supposedly, it translates as: "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave." Anyway. Moving on to what I actually did and saw. On the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday, two friends (Jen and Jaime) and I took the scenic drive to Chepstow along lots of curvy roads that lined the Severn River. As soon as we arrived at Chepstow Castle, though, ... read more