Windy and raining this morning so stayed at the cottage waiting for Deirdre to arrive at around 12 Had a ploughmans type lunch at home then headed off to drive through Abergavenny to Monmouth and along the Wye valley to Tintern Abbey The drive was very scenic following Wye rive with mountains either side covered in a dense variety of lush green trees - lots of photo stops Tintern Abbey is a 12th century ruin which has large tall parts still standing - very int...

Drove to Abergavenny this morning and caught the train to Cardiff (about 45 minutes trip) arriving around 10.30am Our friends picked us up the station and took us a driving tour of Cardiff city and the redeveloped docks area. We had assumed Cardiff would be a dull, grey, old looking place but how wrong we were. It is spacious, clean and historical with lots of green spaces and very well redeveloped dock area around the old shipyards. They then drove us to an ol...

Had planned to do some countryside walks today but steady rain in the morning so not sure what to do. A very timely visit by the owner to collect her money led to some suggestions re places to drive to. So we ended up doing a round trip to Abergavenny then on single lane back roads through lush green woods to a monastery ruin which was amazing. Then up over a mountain plateau where the misty cloud created a unique drive, then down into Hay on Wye an old town wit...

Few household chores like the washing this morning then out about 11am driving to Brecon an old market town in the Brecon Beacons National Park (about 15 miles) Well how many times can you pull over for photos in 15 miles because we might have set the record - stunning natural beauty of rolling green paddocks dotted with mainly slate grey or white houses for as far as the eye could see. Crops, grazing animals and some forests. In Brecon we took ourselves on a t...

Off at 9am from Venice, water boat to airport, flight to London Heathrow, arranged hire car, did quite well getting out of Heathrow onto the M4 and arrived in Llangatock Wales at 6.30pm. Green countryside, peace, quiet and cooler weather much enjoyed. We are staying in a barn conversion on a property in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. Magnificent green rolling hill countryside views and the only sound is the birds (until Mamama turned the bloody tv on!) The ...