Day 9 - South Wales and North Wales

May 10, 2008

It was really hard getting up but we managed and went downstairs for breakfast. We ate in the dining room overlooking the back garden. The food was excellent (English Breakfast with good jams to try on our toast) and there was Celtic music in the background.

We talked with Rosemary a bit about her vegetable garden and enjoyed the meal. We started feeling like we wouldn't be able to eat many more of these meals as they were just so big and heavy. We decided to ask for a half portion size at the next B&B. We got back to the room around 10am and finished getting ready and packing the car while I tried to wrtie as much as possible.

Around 11am we were out of the room and I had to stop in the middle of writing so we could start enjoying the day. We decided to take a walk up the street like Rosemary had suggested. It was a beautiful day with the sound of running water and birds chirping in the background. The smell of the fragrant foilage all around us was so delightful and we just enjoyed taking it all in. We both wished we could have stayed there longer, but we had reservations at the next B&B to keep.

We got back to the car around 12:30pm and eaded back down the road to the Abbey. We didn't particularly want to take the audio tour, so instead we went in the gift shop and bought a guide on the abbey to read later, a celtic necklace and earrings for me, and a proper tea cup for Jeremiah. We walked around Tintern a bit and walked across a bridge; it was beautiful.

We got back in the car to head to Clearwell Caves (we had seen a brochure for these iron caves at the B&B and saw that they weren't too far away so we thought we'd check them out). We walked up to them and decided to pay the £5.50 each to walk around them inside. It was very neat; the temperature inside the caves was around 50 degrees F so it was a little cool and there was water dripping in many places so it was also damp.

The miners built pools to collect this water to be able to have something to drink while they wree working. Boys, as young as 5 years old, used to work in these caves and all the young boys, called Billies, had to carry very heavy loads of iron to the train cars that would then take the iron out of the cave (they had a block o firon about the weigh of what they had to carry and we could barely lift it!)

The caves were really dark and for most of our tour, we were the only ones around so for me it was eery and a little scary. Jeremiah loved it. After we walked through everything we headed back to the car to start our scenic trip to the next B&B in northern Wales.

We first went through the Forset of Dean and then backtracked a bit to go through the Black Mountains. It was all very beautiful countryside willed with lots of sheep and windy roads (they really should call this place "Sheepland" instead of England because there are just so many sheep everywhere!). (Oh, on this day, I was a bit cranky from all the driving, looking at maps, headaches, and just plain feeling sick - not a very fun day for me but Jeremiah was sweet and put up with it all.)

We stopped in a small town to eat after getting gas at a small services station on the side of the road (~10 gallons for around £37 - not too bad for here). We headed a little farther north and foiund a place to park. Just about every place was a pub or closed and we wanted to try to stay away from pubs as the food did not sound that appealing. We finally found a place that sold pizza so we went in there. We sat at a little table and were practically ignored for the first 15 minutes we were there. The set-up of this place was different as it was a Take Away place as well as a restuarant. The restaurant seating area was full so we walked in to the next room where you could order Take Away and there were 2 small tables, so we sat at one. The entire time we were there, they were busy taking and filling Take Away orders as the line never died down. The waitress for the restaurant walked by our table numerous times but never acknowledged us. We weren't sure what to do so Jeremiah got up to order food from the Take Away line. I then got the attention of someone to ask them what we did if we wanted to eat there. She told us to just take a seat and someone would come by for our order. So we sat and waited.

We finally placed our order and waited some more. After about 10 minutes, the waitress came by to let us know our pizza would be ready in 15-20 minutes. 30 minutes went by and it finally came. She also brought our 1 of the side salads we had ordered but that was it. We were missing plates, forks, and the 2nd side salad. The waitress got busy at the counter trying to figure out what people needed to pay for their meals. Fortunately, by this time another waitress came on duty so I got here attention and asked for our missing items. She brought them right to us.

We quickly ate our food which was decent and paid our billed to get out of there as quickly as possible. By now it was 8:30pm and we had told the next B&B that we would arrive between 8:45 and 9:00pm and they were still another hour away from where we were.

We got back to the car and started driving. We called when it got closer to 9 to let them know we were running a bit late and I think they said that was alright but I couldn't quite tell as I lost the signal. It was still pretty light out and didn't relaly start to get dark until after 9pm which was nice so we could still see well. We got really close to the B&B around 10pm and then came to a deadend as the GPS tried to take us down a bicycle path thinking it was a road; so we had to turn around and find another way. By now it was dark.

We followed the new path the GPS was taking us down and hoped that it would get us there. It took us up some steep roads in the mountains and some really small lanes. At last I saw the sign on the side of the house for our B&B - Huelwen Guest House. It was now 10:15pm and we were so thankful we were finally there and that the GPS hadn't failed us.

The hostess showed us to our room which was very nice, clean, & spacious (Room 4 - it was much bigger than any of our other rooms so far). She showed us to the dining area and there was a group of people sitting on some couches talking; they wre from New Zealand. They invited us to have a drink with them.

We brought in our stuff and went back out to the group reluctantly to have a drink (by this time, we just wanted to relax and not have to make small talk). We sat down and they were all very pleasant (2 girls and 3 guys). They were all living in London a it is pretty easy to get a working Visa here and it is a central place for travelling. Some had been here for 2 1/2 years and others less time, like 3 months and another 6 weeks. Apparently, it's pretty common for Kiwis to move to London as there are just so many more opportunities here than back home.

They said they actually know more Kiwis here in London than in some towns in New Zealand.

After a bit, (as I'm sitting here writing this in our room, I looked up out the window and saw a baby sheep walk up the hill - very cute!) the host and hostess sat down and chatted for a while. It turned out to be very fun and we really enjoyed the social time.

You could tell Andy and his wife really enjoyed having guests around and liked to open their home up to travelers (Highly recommend this place!). They were very friendly and I would definitely come here again to spend more time in the area. Just before midnight, we headed back to our room to get ready for bed. Just before 1am, we hit the sack for a much needed night of sleep.

Until Later!
Love,
S&J