Stow-on-the-Wold
We are staying for two nights at Stow-on-the-Wold at the Sheep on Sheep hotel. A very charming town and a charming hotel. Tomorrow we got to explore more of the Cotswolds. Stow is famous for being the sight of one of the last Royalist defeats in 1646, apparently King Charles 1st stayed at the Kings Arms. Latest invasion, according to my sources, a guy who works at a furniture shop here, is Ellen DeGeneres! The word is that she bought an extremely expensive house here.


The Queen's Head Inn, a nice little pub.

The cross in the center of the Square

The Porch House, claiming to be the oldest pub in England, something like 972. I asked the bartender what was the oldest part of the pub and she said that beam right above your head. See said beam

Interesting saying in someone's window

St. Edward's Church

The doors into St. Edward's church flanked by two yew trees. Some say that when Tolkien was here, he used these trees as inspiration for the Doors of Durin

Stanway Manor
One of the things we have liked about Rick Steves tours is that you generally spend two nights in one location and then do a day trip. So from Bath we went to Avebury and Oxford and then to Stow-on-the-Wold for two nights. Today we went to Stanway Manor house. It's only about 10 minutes away, then we drove through the Cotswolds and got back into Stow with the afternoon on our own. Our guide at Stanway was named Paul and he was a hoot. Gave us a nice tour of the manor, about 4 rooms that we saw and then we saw the mill. The Estate of Stanway goes back to 715 and it belonged to an abbey. In 1533 it was leased to Richard Tracy and the descendents have lived here ever since.The current owner is James Charteris, 13th Earl of Weymss. He is usually is around but not today. It was a really different thing to do and I don't think a lot of tours stop here.


Looking back at the main gate of Stanway house.

Side shot from the yard.

Ya gotta have a pond!

He has a water fountain that I believe is run by natural pressure unlike the Bellagio is pumped out, according to Paul.

Scene inside the mill. It has been rebuilt and is producing a lot of flour that goes to local restaurants.

On To Wales
Today we are finishing up our stay in the Cotswolds and heading to Wales, but first we have two stops. The first is Stokesay Castle. This is one of the few surviving fortified manor houses run by the English Heritage. It dates back to 1317 by Laurence of Ludlow who got the blessing of the King to add fortifications. It's been through a number of private owners over the years, and it was finally given to the English Heritage in 1992. It's been restored and there are some nice "mock-up" posters that show how it might have looked back then. Also there is a good audio guide. Next we had a pit stop to see the River Dee in Llangollen.


Castle from the outside

Entry through the Gate House

The Grand Hall where the feasting might have taken place

Main hang out place for the family. I don't know if they had cable

Detail over the fireplace

Another big room

This is the large south tower and you can wall all the the way to the top. Did I say walk? Climb is more like it

Some baby swallows in a nest in one of the rooms. I was told the Castle is kept open to let the swallows come in

Another outside view from the moat

Falls at Llangollen

Hoping to see a steam train, but no luck

Conwy, Wales
We have entered a new country, Wales! There has been, historically some discrepancy if it was a principality or a country. I can say it is a country. Wales, along with Scotland and England make up Great Britain. Add in Northern Ireland and you have the United Kingdom. Add in the Isle of Man, Isla of Dogs and Isle of Parakeets and you have the British Isles. Some may think that this explanation is unnecessary, however, before I got here I thought England was where muffins came from, ( they don't) and 60 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play. Conwy is bigger than Stow, has a wall around it and a castle, and appears to be kind of a party place. Lot's of restaurants and little shops. We are staying at the Castle Hotel feels very upscale. Had a group dinner at the hotel then on our own.



Suspension Bridge coming into town

Towers at Conwy Castle

More Castle

Statue of Llywelyn the Great, not to be confused with Llywelyn the So-So. Lived here from 1173 and 1240

Down at the Harbor, actually on an estuary which really drains down at low tide.

Smallest house in Britain. No one around so I don't know the details.

You can climb up and walk around the city walls. Parts of it were closed but we still got pretty far up.

Front of Plas Mawr which was built during Elizabeth the 1st's reign.

The Mussel Statue, I'm going on a limb here and saying that mussels are found here although it is not a month with an R.

Llanfairfechen
Today started out with rain and we are going to be outside. We are visiting a sheep farm and having a shearing demonstration and to learn about being a sheep farmer. Llanfairfechan is a little town about 10 minutes from Conwy. We are met at the bottom of the hill by Gareth Wyn Jones, who has built a covered trailer to take us up the hill to his farm. It was a great morning, even with the rain. Gareth is a bigger than life character and his wife Rhian is lovely. He picked a couple of people off the tour to "help" him wrangle up some sheep. Actually it's part of the show and actually Max the dog did most of the work. So after driving the sheep into a pen, our "team" picked out a yearling for it's first shearing. It was very interesting how the lamb just laid back into the V of his legs and let itself be shorn.
Disclaimer: None of us know who Gareth Wyn Jones is. Once we got back we Googled him and found out he has 2 million followers on Youtube, is on the BBC quite often and has more money than we think. Is he a bombastic person and controversial, I guess. Is he as rich as it says on Google, I doubt it. Does he speak for the farming community, yes. Is a very entertaining individual, Hell yes.


Loading up on the trailer, a lot of hunched shoulders

There go the volunteers!

Bringing back contestant #1

Let the shearing begin

Giving us a lesson about sheep farming. I don't think you can see it well but there is a big poster for Snowdonia 1890, which was a show he was on

Caernarfon Castle and Snowdonia National Park
After our sheep herdin' we headed to Caernarfon for a guided tour of the castle. One of the cons of any structured trip is that you don't get to spend enough time in places you would like to linger. We only had about a half hour after our tour to rage through the castle and repel bad guys. The drive through Snowdonia or Eryri National Park was breath taking. I'm used to most of the US National Parks but this is right up there with them.


One of the side streets of Caernarfon. The town is very popular and it was filled, although this street looks kind of empty, it got busier later.

Shot from outside the Castle just before entering

Another outside shot

Welcoming scuplture

Inside the walls

I guess they had more than enough stones to build this wall

These shots really don't do it justice, taken from the bus.

Long waterfall cascading down the mountain

Enjoying your report. We spent a few nights in Betws-y-Coed few years ago, and wished we had more time for Wales.

Conwy to Keswick
Today we are leaving Wales. No rain and not sunny but cloudy. Our first stop is Bodnant Gardens, 80 acres of a large variety of terrains. These are the gardens of Bodnant Hall which have been donated to the National Trust by the Aberconway family who still live in the house. I think it might be one of my favorite stops on the trip. Man can make a lot of really cool buildings but they can still pale against nature. Did the terraces, then into the forest to the old mill and back up this hill to the house. Could have spent all day. We met an older couple who come every two weeks. Good on 'em.


Walking up to the start of the gardens past Bodnant Hall

Working our way along the Terraces

Add some more color, please

A pond just off the Terraces

Looking at the pond in front of the Pin Mill

Please let me into the gardens...well, OK.

Shot of the Pin Mill at the end of the long narrow pond

In the forest over by the Old Mill

Water falls at the Old Mill

On the way back to Bodnant Hall

The Lake District - Castlerigg Stone Circle
Just before you get into Keswick, there is a stone circle which is about a 10 minute walk off the road. The circle has 38 stones and is believed to be about 5,000 years old. It's free, you do have to walk and then have to climb a couple of cantilevered pavers to get into the field. It was a pretty nice setting, although after we had walked 10 minutes, you could see a road right behind the circle that was two minutes away! Probably no parking for the bus.


Climbing on the cantilevered rocks to see the Stone Circle

Long shot with people in the middle

Up close, it was fun to walk around. There was a little girl, 5 or 6 jumping from stone to stone.

Couple of old Druids. Notice the dark clouds, this doesn't bode well.

We just got back from playing paintball, it was a blast

More stones

All lined up in a row

Keswick - Pronounced Kezick
This past January we met two wonderful people, Andy and Barbara, from England and we told them we would be in England in June and visiting a Lake District town called Keswick. They corrected us that it is pronounced Kezick. Well we caught up with them and had a wonderful dinner. It was our misfortune to have pretty rainy weather in Keswick. We did get in a lake hike and a boat ride around Derwentwater Lake before the heavens opened up. So we didn't get to walk around the town much, only to get our laundry actually and then walked in the rain to a group fish and chips dinner.


Things were looking good when we first got into town

Boats for 3 or 4 people moored on the beach on Derwentwater

Hope Park just down from our hotel

Shot of a meadow with trees

This is the boat we took out on the lake

Island with a big house on it and a dock

The Lake District is very beautiful with mountains and lot's of forest around the lakes.

Several small islands in Derwentwater Lake

It is Derwentwater, not Derwentwater Lake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derwentwater

Thanks for the shots of Keswick. In NYC there's a shop called Myers of Keswick featuring British foods. We've gone to it since it opened back in the Seventies or Eighties -- can't remember. It's the best place to buy bangers, Cumberland sausage, pork and stilton pies, etc.

Enjoying your report.

Got it! I'm looking at the map now, I guess saying Derwentwater LAKE is like saying Derwentwaterwater!

My one slight bummer on this trip is that I didn't get to spend more time walking around Keswick because of the rain.

It’s often quoted that there is only one lake in the Lake District - Bassenthwaite Lake, just north of you in Keswick. All the others are either waters or meres.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen
Heading to York but the first part is all about the Romans. First stop is Vindolanda, and old Roman colony and fort. It was under Roman occupation from around 85AD until 370 AD. Although there were some historical accounts of being aware of the site in the 1600's and 1800's, it seems like excavation really started when a guy, Eric Birley bought the farm that the ruins are on, and started digging n the 1930's! A lot of stuff was found, tons of stone artifacts and on the day we were there a woman found a roman coin! Other really interesting things were these wooden ink tablets that scientists have been able to retrieve writing. One was an invitation to birthday party. There are dozens of shoes and a pair of boxing gloves, I bet they belonged to Cassius Clayus.


Sculpture at the entrance to the site. Not sure if this was found there.

You can get an idea how big the site was. It had a fort and a vicus, a town which would grow around the soldiers

Walls of a bath

Some tiles that would be used to heat the floor or make a sweat lodge.

Statue at entrance to the museum

Old Roman stone thingy, yes I think that's the technical name

Lot's of shoes. They were pressed down into mud and then had layers of dirt on top helping to keep them intact.

One of the ink tablets. i won't attempt to describe the process of retrieving the letters. This one was an invitation to a party and its says, "Please don't bring your famous deviled eggs, they give Claudius gas."

Hadrian's Wall
Just down the road a piece from Vindolanda is Homesteads Roman Fort. This will be our access to take a look at Hadrian's Wall. I won't go into a lot of detail about Hadrian's wall, Google it, it's quite a story. I will say that I was surprised to learn that it stretches from Coast to Coast in England, which is only 73 miles, or about the length of Los Angeles.. Building began in 122AD during Hadrian's reign. There was system of milecastles, every mile? We hiked up to one. It's not believed to be too terribly defensive, although there were large ditches in front of the wall our milecastle had a small gate and a small bottle of hand sanitizer! (put joke here) It was quite a trek up the hill to see the wall. We didn't go into Homesteads but it is another fort like Vindolanda.



Parking lot at Homesteads. Not quite full but more than a few cars and some coaches

Us, starting up the hill. We are headed to the trees in the top middle of the picture. Sure glad I'm not a Roman in armour.

A pretty good view of the wall stretching out before me.

I'm actually walking on the wall. There is a little bit here to walk on. People hike the entire wall and we saw a number of people with trekking bags.

Another shot

Still another shot off into the horizon

And here is the milecastle. There was an outline of a few rooms or maybe guardhouse. Given it's name I'm lead to believe that there was one of these every Roman mile.

Thanks Tdiddy12. I am really enjoying your photos and commentary.

hard to imagine what this was like with mainly trees in all directions which is a more likely landscape

In terms of multiple names there are seven rivers called Avon or Afon in the UK.

Avon and Afon means river.

Thanks elydah! Sadly, I'm sitting on my bed at the Kensington Radisson trying to get the last few days of our trip into my Trip Report.