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Published: September 28th 2018
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LAST NIGHT: We had a fantastic evening. At 6:00 we were taken to Cardiff Castle for a Medieval Banquet which was more than delightful. The musical talent rivaled Nashville. We were serenaded both in Welsh and English by five very talented singers. Our meal was very good too, but the highlight was our evening tour was of the tower inside the walls of the outer bailey of the castle. You will see from the pictures how elaborate it was. I don’t think we have ever seen anything like that. There is much more to Cardiff Castle than we had the time to see, so please Google for more info.
PS...NOTE TO DR. NICOLE...to get to the top of the Clock Tower we had to climb 130 steps up on a circular stone staircase. We made need an appointment ASAP when we get home!
NOTE: I made a mistake downloading pictues today. I loaded the ones from today first, and then realized I had neglected to download the ones from last night. In order to show them in order I would have had to delete them all and start over. When you see the view of the Market House in
Shrewsbury, the ones AFTER those are of last night. I made a note on the picture.
We were back to our hotel after 10:00, so we were not in bed until 10:30 for a short night’s sleep to be ready for a 8:00 AIS this morning! The first part of our drive was through the reclaimed coal fields and company towns of Wales. HUGE mountains created by coal slag heaps over many, many years. The coal seam was 40 miles X 60 miles long. There are no longer active coal mines in Wales. Today, governmental, environmental and health concerns prohibit the burning of coal in most instances. We are finding that as a whole the UK is way ahead of the US in developing eco friendly answers to difficult environmental problems. (By the way, this industry around 1900 employed over 250,000 miners. So therefore, trying to clean up the environment the last 30 years has had a major effect on workers.) Since we lived in Kentucky and West Virginia, we could recognize many of the signs of coal towns, including the company houses lined up along the roads to the coal mines. Laura...FYI...lots of their roads go through ”tunnels
of trees”. They are so big that they have to be trimmed and they form solid canopies over the roads. Cool beans!
Lots of mountains along our journey today on our way towards Brecon Beacons National Park. We had a coffee stop at Hay on Wye which is known as The Town of Books because there are over 50 book shops there. It is a funky little town for sure!
Shrewsbury was a fun stop for a city tour by the Shrewsbury Town Crier. He was fantastic! Funny and informative. One of his claims to fame is that he is the tallest Town Crier in the world, measuring in at 7’2”!! Check out my picture with him! Daniel and Austin...you would look normal height next to Martin! Shrewsbury is filled with over 700 ”black and white half-timber“ houses along with amazing Medieval houses and those built in the Norman times. I have several pictures of the black and white half-timber houses so check them out.
Our day today is to end at our location for the next two nights is Chester, England. Below is Google’s description of Chester:
“
Chester is a city in northwest England, founded as a Roman fortress in the 1st century A.D. It's known for its extensive Roman walls made of local red sandstone. In the old city, the Rows is a shopping district distinguished by 2-level covered arcades and Tudor-style half-timber buildings. A Roman amphitheater, with ongoing excavations, lies just outside the old city's walls”
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VAYON SWICEGOOD
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Leaning buildings
Is it just my imagination or are the buildings leaning forward? Even the doors seem to lean!