Advertisement
Published: September 14th 2007
Edit Blog Post
9 Sep
We drove down to Plymouth where we spent the morning wandering around an area that holds a major place In England’s nautical history, and America’s too I suppose since this is the spot from where the Mayflower set sail. Lot’s of people, being a Sunday but parking was fine as we got there early enough. Our next move after lunch was to Lands End. Tom and Shirley had been here many years ago and were astounded at the amount of commercialism that has come in the intervening years. Who would have expected a horror show or a Dr Who sideshow in a spot so remote. We also tripped over an annual motorbike ride that sees thousands on bikes riding along the motorway and of course thousands of spectators in all the lay bys and on the bridges over the top. We are now on the outskirts of St Ives in the flashest park to date, games rooms, pool tables and such. The weather is still beautiful, very similar to Auckland in March with cool nights and sunny days.
10 Sep
Our first stop this morning was at the Cornish fishing village of Looe, (you figure the
pronunciation), more wee skinny streets more tiny wee houses and interesting nautical memorabilia. The tourist come on here was definitely food with pastry shops all over the place. Tom and I shared a large size Cornish pastie and it was a worthwhile effort. We then back tracked a fair way and we are now in Wales, tonight in Newport and will hopefully be in a camp in central Cardiff for the next couple of days. The camps here are full whereas all the others we have stayed in have been nicely empty. We found a shop that sold better priced booze so now the camper looks like a party about to get underway. Hey Juan it was great to hear from you last night sorry I missed you in the US, Next time!
11 Sep
Well here we are in central Cardiff. Today was a full on one. Our first stop was at Tintern Abbbey which is a derelict Cistercian Abbey founded in 1131 that has been restored to show in part how things were in the olden days. The masonry is astounding and the audio tour was well worth the pound charged. Things were certainly harder in
times gone by. We went from there to Caerleon which is an even older ruin. This one dates from AD75 and was the site of a full fledged roman garrison town complete with baths, amphitheatre etc. after a late lunch we went on to Cardiff and are now parked in a council camp ground right in town. It is council so not as flash as “Caravan Club” but certainly adequate. Tom and I went off to Cardiff Castle and did a guided tour. My first castle other than London Tower some years ago and interesting. We popped into a pub for a beer afterwards and then went to look at the Millennium Stadium. Of course the whole place is rugby mad what with being Welsh and World Cup to boot. There are a couple of crazy Poles here in the park painting an old freezer truck that has been converted to a camper. No English, not very hard workers but good to drink with. Their boss just arrived, he did not see it in the same vein we did but as they are all carny people it was not too bad. Footy tonight on TV, Maybe in a pub but
probably in our van due to prices.
12 Sep
Our first stop today The Millenium Stadium tour. We got taken through the opposition changing rooms where Australia will be kitting up on Saturday, we also got to sit in the royal box (Shirley picked the Queens seat quite by accident) and view the pitch from the various stadium tiers. We also got to go right down to field level and although it was not really okayed, I walked on the hallowed turf. Tom and I visited the Waterfront Museum in Swansea while the ladies went to the shops. We had a change of plan mid afternoon and decided to head off to Ireland. Our bloody van was too heavy so we had to dump all our water and on our arrival at Rosslare we were too late to get into a camp so we spent the night on the side of the road without water for the toilet or 240 volt power for computer and our various chargers.
13 Sep
Well we are now in Ireland and it is mid afternoon and I am writing this from a camp just out from Blarney Castle. We will
visit the castle in the morning and hopefully get on the internet in the village here.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.216s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 5; qc: 44; dbt: 0.1401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb