Walking day today to catch up on the walking we couldn't do because of the weather in Wales. So started with a walk to the Downton Abbey filming sites in Bampton (photo is of building used as hospital) then off from Bampton across fields, bridges, stiles and along paths, through paddocks with cattle and to the Thames. Then along the Thames path to locks and watching longboats on the Thames and using the locks. Eventually got to a pub too late for lunch! So headed...

Checked out this morning and drove to Brecon. On the day boat for 3 hours of zig zagging along the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal but piked out on the lock so instead moored the boat and walked to watch people operate it and the walked across the aqueduct. Stunning scenery along the canal and a peaceful ride at a very slow pace. Would love to come back and hire a long canal boat to stay on for a few days. Excellent lunch at a cafe next to the canal then parted w...

Raining steadily this morning and forecast for most of the day. So we cancelled the canal boat and rebooked for a half day Monday instead. Decided to drive to Merthyr Tydfil to go on a steam train ride on the Brecon Mountain Railroad.Was a short but very scenic trip and we then had our picnic lunch in the car because of the rain. Alan prepared the ploughmans plates in the back seat and we all ate well while the car fogged up like the old days at the drive in the...

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...