Sunday Sept 1st Cardiff then to Bath

Spent the morning exploring the Cardiff Castle, which was down the street from our hotel. There was also a 10k run happening, so busy place. We had a wonderful & energetic guide. A young 27 yr old who had his masters in medieval and Welsh history.

Tbe castle had its origins with the Romans (of course) from 55. But they gave up and were gone by 450 AD. It then went through times of languishing and various conquerers as Wales went through various wars and revolts. Then in 1776 Lord John Mountstuart married into the family and later become the first Marquess of Brute. In 1865 the 3rd Marquess of Brute meets the architect William Burges. Over the next 16 years they transformed the castle into a neo Gothic dream palace. This Marquess John Brute was the 3rd wealthiest man in the world from exporting coal out of Wales worldwide. Years later Jack Burges inherited the estate and owed a hefty inheritance tax. So instead of paying the tax, he decided to gift the castle to the city for all to visit and enjoy.

The library

Inside the keep

Dennis atop the keep

Then a 1 hr train ride to Bath. Checked in and out to do some laundry. Got caught in a thunderstorm and down pour. Had some cake ( yum) while waiting out the storm and laundry. After a bit of a rest we started wandering the streets in Bath. So clean and calm compared to downtown Cardiff. Took pictures around town and had a bit of dinner.

The Avon River

The Bath Abbey

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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...

Friday September 6th. The Cotswolds

Today we booked a tour of the Cotswolds. Cot inferring small and wolds connected to the sheep trade. The area is full of rolling green hills with villages and small towns nestled among the hills. The entire area is home to only about 170,000 people. Thats about one person per 2 sheep in the region. The first village we visited, Snowshill, had a population of 184. It had a church, a pub and a telephone. (Joke from our driver Steve). In order not to bore you with little details here is an overview. Several of the other towns would have more like 3000 to 5000 population. We visited Chipping Campden, Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold, Bibury and started at Moreton in Marsh. We drove through Dover's hill, Broadway, Great Barrington, Ablington, Winson Village and Coln St. Dennis. Old original market in Chipping Campden A majority of villages hav...

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