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

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