3 nights in Wales - footsore and fancy free
Apr 17th, 2009, 10:03 AM
#21
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Hi nona,
Thanks for sharing.
It's a shame about the mine, when we were there a few years ago we went right down the mine shaft,
I guess the prospect of hundreds of risk assessments every day was far to great.
Muck
Thanks for sharing.
It's a shame about the mine, when we were there a few years ago we went right down the mine shaft,
I guess the prospect of hundreds of risk assessments every day was far to great.
Muck
May 5th, 2009, 08:32 AM
#22
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So, next off to the Brecon Beacon mountain railway, a narrow gauge steam train trip to a reservoir. First the drive. We got rather lost as our sat-nav had a nervous breakdown but it was all very scenic. I knew the area was called 'the valleys' but until you see it you can't imagine quite why. Very narrow valleys with villages and towns running along them at the bottom, often less than 10 streets wide, with another couple of rows of houses on terraces on the bottom of the slopes, then extrememly steep slopes. I was intrigued by this, it was almost miniature alpine, and it is a beautiful area.
But we were getting worried about time - we had only an hour to catch the last train. Finally started pulling our way up one of the mountains away from the valley and found ourself on a large very flat plateau. Completely different environment to anything else we'd seen on this trip. How nice I thought. then we reached the road going back down the other side. I was driving. Dear God. Ever seen 'Top Gear' where the boys take a car out to some mad hairpin bendy mountain road. that was me that was. I drove incredibly slowly constantly muttering 'I don't like this. I don't like this.' We were on a single track road, with a several hundred foot sheer drop to one side with no barriers, going down hairpin bends that were sharper than 180degrees. If we'd met anything coming the other way I think I'd have died of fear.
Made it in one piece but running short of time, the sat-nav again decided to go made and kept sending us looping up and down the same stretch of road between two roundabouts. I picked a direction trying to navigate from a simple map on the back of a tourist brochure, and luckily got the right way as we picked up signs for the railway. Train leaves at 4pm. It is now 3.50pm. I start driving like a loony and swearing blue murder at Mr Ns stupid sat-bloody-nav. Mr N makes me pull over and takes the wheel so I can 'navigate' but really because I'm mistreating his poor blameless car.
We pull into the railway car park at 4pm. Hordes of people walking out of the station. Park Mr N, Park! anyhere! Yes on the road here! I don't care where. Run Mr N, Run! (I do get a bit stressy sometimes). We fly into the ticket office, ah says the man, I've just released the train. I think you've missed it. But he phones the guard and - thank you very nice people - they hold the train just for us. So we made it by the skin of our teeth.
After all that, the train trip was quite pretty, the weather was a bit overcast by then sadly, lovely views, just time to jump out at the other end to look at the reservoir with distant mountains, eat an ice cream, and get back on the train. Teensy bit of an anti climax to be honest. A good half of the other passengers were train spotters/model train types who talked non-stop about this bit of the train, and oh look at that bit of track down there, and what type of shed they would have had, and the wheel combinations, and on and on and on, which did get a bit boring after a bit.
We'd had enough for one day, so after my apologising for turning into a bad-tempered mad woman, we headed back to the hotel and just chilled out reading the papers for a couple of hours.
We were quite tired, and it was Easter Sunday, so we thought we'd stay in the hotel to eat. Big mistake. Special Easter Sunday menu posted up all over the hotel turned out to be lunch only, not dinner. What was on the menu was fairly highly priced, which would be ok if it was good, but it was dire. Mr N had more luck than me with an acceptable veggie soup followed by ok fish, but my chicken liver pate was so runny I virtually needed a spoon to eat it, and my roast lamb with all the trimmings was very very obviously left over from lunch time and heated up. Including the vegetables, which had turned colours never before seen in nature. For that I was charged £16. I didn't have the nerve to complain after having had a big 'discussion' already over the special menu not being there, and asking to be moved to another table instead of being marooned in the middle, in a draft, all by ourselves. So, lovely hotel, but seriously don't do the food.
Monday morning
Time to go home
I went for a final wander down the beach, alone again due to Mr N's contempt for beaches that can't decide if they are coming or going, and found some pretty (and for me unusual) shells but decided Swansea beach needed them more than my windowsill. At checkout there was a bit of a queue as the computer was having a bad day and charging everyone for breakfast, regardless of whether they'd had it or not. It didn't take long to sort out though, but it's a shame a couple of things marred our view of the hotel overall (this and the godawful food) but I would go back there again.
Our plan was to stop off at St Fagans open air history museum for lunch and a little final glimpse of Wales. This is near Cardiff and although we got stuck in some traffic, it wasn't a bad journey. We went straight to the restaurant for lunch at about 12, early, but we wanted to beat any rush as the beautiful sunny weather had brought people out in huge numbers. Mr N had a lamb stew with rice, and I had fish and chips, and we shared a couple of farewell Welshcakes. The meals here were about £6 each I think. They didn't have a huge choice but all the food was fresh and tasty so it's a good spot to stop.
Entry to the museum is free and it is a 200 acre site with a main indoor museum building, with displays on topics such as the Welsh language, Welsh music, and Welsh clothing. We didn't like it much as it was all a bit superficial and one of those 'modern interactive' places. I like museums full of cases of thousands of 'things' to poke around in, not ones with empty rooms with a handful of items beautifully displayed with buttons to activate recordings and videos, but that's just me. You might love it.
I did love the outside area. 200 acres full of transplanted buildings from all over Wales, with period interiors you could explore. Shops filled with all the victorian packages and products. A school room. farmhouses. A spiral drystoned pigsty. Cottages. An 18th century pub cock-pit. Everywhere you went you spotted another fascinating building just the other side of a field, and off you'd trot. We only had an hour or so to look around but I could have spent most of a day there.
Then sadly back towards home. No toll on the Severn bridge going from Wales to England, which was nice considering the cost the other way. I took the opportunity to bore Mr N with info on the Severn Bore.
And that was our little holiday. Small but perfectly formed, as they say, and I would thoroughly recommend the area. We only touched on it really and I know that we could have filled another couple of days quite easily.
But we were getting worried about time - we had only an hour to catch the last train. Finally started pulling our way up one of the mountains away from the valley and found ourself on a large very flat plateau. Completely different environment to anything else we'd seen on this trip. How nice I thought. then we reached the road going back down the other side. I was driving. Dear God. Ever seen 'Top Gear' where the boys take a car out to some mad hairpin bendy mountain road. that was me that was. I drove incredibly slowly constantly muttering 'I don't like this. I don't like this.' We were on a single track road, with a several hundred foot sheer drop to one side with no barriers, going down hairpin bends that were sharper than 180degrees. If we'd met anything coming the other way I think I'd have died of fear.
Made it in one piece but running short of time, the sat-nav again decided to go made and kept sending us looping up and down the same stretch of road between two roundabouts. I picked a direction trying to navigate from a simple map on the back of a tourist brochure, and luckily got the right way as we picked up signs for the railway. Train leaves at 4pm. It is now 3.50pm. I start driving like a loony and swearing blue murder at Mr Ns stupid sat-bloody-nav. Mr N makes me pull over and takes the wheel so I can 'navigate' but really because I'm mistreating his poor blameless car.
We pull into the railway car park at 4pm. Hordes of people walking out of the station. Park Mr N, Park! anyhere! Yes on the road here! I don't care where. Run Mr N, Run! (I do get a bit stressy sometimes). We fly into the ticket office, ah says the man, I've just released the train. I think you've missed it. But he phones the guard and - thank you very nice people - they hold the train just for us. So we made it by the skin of our teeth.
After all that, the train trip was quite pretty, the weather was a bit overcast by then sadly, lovely views, just time to jump out at the other end to look at the reservoir with distant mountains, eat an ice cream, and get back on the train. Teensy bit of an anti climax to be honest. A good half of the other passengers were train spotters/model train types who talked non-stop about this bit of the train, and oh look at that bit of track down there, and what type of shed they would have had, and the wheel combinations, and on and on and on, which did get a bit boring after a bit.
We'd had enough for one day, so after my apologising for turning into a bad-tempered mad woman, we headed back to the hotel and just chilled out reading the papers for a couple of hours.
We were quite tired, and it was Easter Sunday, so we thought we'd stay in the hotel to eat. Big mistake. Special Easter Sunday menu posted up all over the hotel turned out to be lunch only, not dinner. What was on the menu was fairly highly priced, which would be ok if it was good, but it was dire. Mr N had more luck than me with an acceptable veggie soup followed by ok fish, but my chicken liver pate was so runny I virtually needed a spoon to eat it, and my roast lamb with all the trimmings was very very obviously left over from lunch time and heated up. Including the vegetables, which had turned colours never before seen in nature. For that I was charged £16. I didn't have the nerve to complain after having had a big 'discussion' already over the special menu not being there, and asking to be moved to another table instead of being marooned in the middle, in a draft, all by ourselves. So, lovely hotel, but seriously don't do the food.
Monday morning
Time to go home
I went for a final wander down the beach, alone again due to Mr N's contempt for beaches that can't decide if they are coming or going, and found some pretty (and for me unusual) shells but decided Swansea beach needed them more than my windowsill. At checkout there was a bit of a queue as the computer was having a bad day and charging everyone for breakfast, regardless of whether they'd had it or not. It didn't take long to sort out though, but it's a shame a couple of things marred our view of the hotel overall (this and the godawful food) but I would go back there again.
Our plan was to stop off at St Fagans open air history museum for lunch and a little final glimpse of Wales. This is near Cardiff and although we got stuck in some traffic, it wasn't a bad journey. We went straight to the restaurant for lunch at about 12, early, but we wanted to beat any rush as the beautiful sunny weather had brought people out in huge numbers. Mr N had a lamb stew with rice, and I had fish and chips, and we shared a couple of farewell Welshcakes. The meals here were about £6 each I think. They didn't have a huge choice but all the food was fresh and tasty so it's a good spot to stop.
Entry to the museum is free and it is a 200 acre site with a main indoor museum building, with displays on topics such as the Welsh language, Welsh music, and Welsh clothing. We didn't like it much as it was all a bit superficial and one of those 'modern interactive' places. I like museums full of cases of thousands of 'things' to poke around in, not ones with empty rooms with a handful of items beautifully displayed with buttons to activate recordings and videos, but that's just me. You might love it.
I did love the outside area. 200 acres full of transplanted buildings from all over Wales, with period interiors you could explore. Shops filled with all the victorian packages and products. A school room. farmhouses. A spiral drystoned pigsty. Cottages. An 18th century pub cock-pit. Everywhere you went you spotted another fascinating building just the other side of a field, and off you'd trot. We only had an hour or so to look around but I could have spent most of a day there.
Then sadly back towards home. No toll on the Severn bridge going from Wales to England, which was nice considering the cost the other way. I took the opportunity to bore Mr N with info on the Severn Bore.
And that was our little holiday. Small but perfectly formed, as they say, and I would thoroughly recommend the area. We only touched on it really and I know that we could have filled another couple of days quite easily.
