Friday, August 30th Train to Swansea

We figured that at the end of today we are halfway through our trip. Whooo hooo

Before starting our day trip, we explored the castle in Shrewsbury.

The the plan was to take the "Heart of Wales" one carriage train from Shrewsbury to Swansea. There are 34 "stops" but about half of them are "request only" stops. Stops like Llangunllo, Dolau, Ffairfach. The route goes through the countryside, up the hills, along streams. The countryside was bucolic. The ride was beautiful. Sometimes the train would squeeze between the foliage brushing the bushes along the sides of the train. Of course there were tunnels.

This is Llanwrtyd

Its also a popular hiking path. People would get on in hiking gear and then get off at the next stop to continue their trek. Also bicycle riders would get on and off. At one of the stops we had to wait to connect with another train to exchange staff. We ended up talking to a local man about the area and plants and being in Wales. Delightful.

Once in Swansea, we caught a train to Cardiff, settled in and found a pub for dinner. Ended up talking to a couple sitting next to us who live just around the block. Got some advice on planning our day tomorrow.

I had to add this picture. This happens every time we do our train excursions.

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Pretrip practice

Hello my friends and family. This is just a practice "run" of posting on our Britain blog. I always have to relearn the steps. So.... we leave on Monday Aug 19th mid morning flying thru Seattle and then straight to London. We arrive Tues morning around 9:50 am London time (which is 8 hrs ahead -or about 1AM our time) A rough itinerary London Edinburgh Inverness Edinburgh York Keswick ( Lake district of England) Shrewsbury Swansea ( Wales) and on to Cardiff Bath Wareham ("Jurassic Coast - south west coast) Oxford Cotswold Oxford London If you only see this page, there should be links somewhere on the page to get you to the other postings

Sunday Sept 8th London

We decided to visit the Churchill War rooms today. We figured out the tube (the underground) and traveled to the Westminster area. Met some folks from Ohio while standing in line waiting for our entry time. One of the gentlemen served at Kodiak in the navy. He and Dennis had a great "military in Alaska" chat. The War rooms and museum were great. The war museum was almost overwhelming with the amount of information displayed Clementine Churchill's room underground Afterwards we walked around the Parliment square garden adding photos of Big Bend, Westminster Cathedral,Westminster Bridge, the Parliment building and ALL the tourists. The clouds had cleared and it was beautiful. (Last nights forecast for today had been up to 75% chance of rain!) We sat at the park and then strolled up Whitehall street up to Trafalgar square...

One more. Coming home

I just had to add a coda. Our last trip on the underground. London underground and transit system is amazing. Dennis looked it up. 5 MILLION a day use the system. This picture really doesn't adequately show the morning commute crowds. Even with all the people you are on your train or tube within 5 minutes. Breakfast at our hotel, the underground and now at Heathrow. I was feeling pretty anxious about getting here and navigating Heathrow. But all went well. Dennis just has to put up with us being here early. 😘

Reilly Britain

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