Jan
03
If you missed last week’s post, or if this is your first week of ever reading this blog then do yourself a favour and at least go back to last week’s story before reading on with this one, as this new entry begins with a continuation of our road-trip to Wales.
Monday morning started with a visit to the Roman Baths in the beautiful city of Bath. These baths are 2000 years old. The water bubbles up from beneath the earth at 46°C and pours out at a staggering 1 170 000 litres per day. The wonder of this ancient place for me was not so much in the baths themselves, which resemble a sort of modern day swimming pool, but the marvel was more in the “indoor” displays. Places where you got a real sense of the place from 2000 years ago, where you could almost imagine and see in your mind’s eye, the people meeting in the courtyards, standing and sharing news and walking up to the baths. It was truly one of the most impressive and most amazing things I have ever seen. Bath is indeed a beautiful city. 
If you believe like I do, that the presence of water has an impact on the human soul then you will know why there is such a beautiful vibe here. Water runs everywhere in Bath (sic). There are little rivers and streams which flow under ancient bridges, there are roaring rapids in the heart of the city where the water flows under arched bridges. There are old parts of the city which house modern stores, there are quaint little pedestrian walkways which were strung with Christmas lights.
We left Bath at around lunchtime and continued our journey towards Wales, crossing the impressive Severn Bridge. 
We headed straight up into the Brecon Beacon Mountains, as we suspected that the weather might turn on us and we wanted to see the mountains in case we were not able to access them the following day. We drove up towards Brecon stopping along the most picturesque lakes and snow-covered mountain-tops. I stood for a moment on the side of one of the lakes and wondered to myself “…If it looks this beautiful in the stark face of winter, then just how beautiful would it be in the midst of summertime?” (I can’t wait to go back and see). Thick fog started to roll in down the mountain slopes blanketing everything in its path. We headed back down the mountains to Methyr Tydfil where we stayed for the evening. On Tuesday we were planning to travel to Abergavenny which is further towards the east and a little higher up in the mountains.
On Tuesday morning we woke to falling snow. It was coming down heavily and the forecast was not promising. We were advised that if we continued up into the mountains, there was a strong possibility that we might be stuck there in the snow for a few days, so we altered our plans a little and decided to head down from the mountains. I am not altogether sorry that we did it, as this slight adjustment in our travel plans opened up a whole new feast of things to see. 
We drove down to Caerphilly and visited the Castle which is situated in the centre of the town. It is one of the most beautiful castles that I have seen in the UK so far. It is ancient and parts of it are falling apart (like most of us), but it still retains most of its structure so you can walk through it and see where people met and played, where feasts were enjoyed in the great hall, where guards stood and took aim to defend the castle. It still has perfectly preserved rooms with fireplaces, old windows, rickety staircases and most of all, a spectacular view of the snow-covered hills surrounding the town. I think the snow that fell during our visit added to the marvel that was this phenomenal castle (and for those who are interested in Dr Who, here is something else we got to see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/southeastwales/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8405000/8405833.stm
We drove from Caerphilly towards Cardiff and stopped at Coch Castle. 
This castle is completely different to others that I have seen in the UK. It was rebuilt and decorated during the late 1800’s, so it is far more modern and opulent than other ancient castle ruins. The beauty of this castle was just that! It is different. Set in acres of forest, it has the most impressive entrance, with great story-book towers. The kind where princesses were kept locked up until a knight arrived to save them. When we visited Castell Coch the snow was really falling heavily and set against the backdrop of the winter forest and the great towers, it was truly a beautiful scene.
The drive towards Cardiff was sometimes in the most incredible driving conditions. There were moments of almost complete white-out. The snow was packing heavily on the sides of the roads. We decided to cross back over the Severn Bridge into England and to rather spend the night where we knew the snow would not trap us.
On Wednesday morning we got a really early start so that we could make the most of the short daylight hours. We drove down to Southampton and Portsmouth. I was surprised to see how much more modern these port city are. They still have the charm and character of an old English town, but they have grown a little with the times and have a far more modern city feel to them.
Portsmouth harbour with its historic dockyards was an absolute delight for Mitchell. He was lucky enough to see two aircraft carriers in port, the HMS Ark Royal and the HMS Illustrious, but the absolutely beauty was the HMS Victory. If you don’t know the story of this ship, then please read up about it and if you are ever in Portsmouth, don’t miss out on this one. 
The tour of the ship was worth everything and more, and I was thankful that the snow in the Brecon Mountains had played with our plans, and given us the chance to stop over here. The Mary Rose is currently under refurbishment in the port, so visitors are not allowed to visit her at the moment (just another excuse to take a trip back and see it all again).
Thursday was New Years Eve, and our first new year in our new country. We celebrated the start of 2010 at the Hare and the Hound in Bidborough. The theme was “Best of British” and I soon realised that I had better get up to speed on some of the characters of British music and film, as most of those costumes were not familiar to me at all. Mike mentioned, perhaps a little too loudly, that he thought the one lady was dressed as Amy Winehouse, but with a swift retort she came back at him to mention that she “WAS NOT!” We therefore assumed that perhaps this was just her usual look.
The New Year rang in with some new faces, some old ones, and some South African champagne.
On New Year’s Day we took a leisurely trip on the Spa Valley Railway which travels from Tunbridge Wells to Groombridge station and back. It passes through some stunning farmlands and past the village of High Rocks, so aptly named for the huge rocks which jut out from the side of a hill. The train is an old stream train and the best parts of it are that rhythmic sound of the wheels on the tracks and the smell of the burning coal. The train passed through a very wintery landscape with patches of snow along the tracks and sprinkled like icing sugar on the farmlands.
On Saturday we took Jon to Canterbury, Herne Bay and Broadstairs. This would be our first trip to the sea in about 6 months and despite the fact that the temperature hovered around 3°C, it was just wonderful to be back at the coast. Canterbury Cathedral is just as amazing as I imagined it would be, set amongst the narrow cobbled streets of the old part of the city. 
Old passageways where the feet of devoted monks once walked, old buildings with skew walls looking like they come straight out of a children’s story book and shops that you just can’t help but peek inside, old music shops with a romantic saxophone in the window, quaint little candy stores with colourful jars stacked high and inviting altogether make Canterbury a city which just sort of gets under your skin. It is the stuff of storybooks and one visit will make you realise why Charles Dickens spent so much time here.
Jon had his first unimpressive walk on a pebble beach in Herne Bay, but then we found some real sea sand on Broadstairs beach. Many English seaside villages have those very 1960’s little ice-cream shacks on the beaches and it doesn’t matter that the mercury just can’t get up passed 3°C, there will surely be a little shop selling ice-creams and brightly coloured plastic buckets and spades. It has to make you want to be a kid again. [superemotions file="icon_cool.gif" title="Cool"]
Today ended off the week on a restful note. Mike, Jon, Mitchell, and Jenna went to watch Alvin and Chipmunks and we ended off the evening with a few board games. It sure has been another wonderful week.
As I write this blog tonight I look out the window, and the snowflakes are falling past the light on the corner of our street. It is not a heavy snowfall, just light flurries but they are beautifully illuminated by the orange glow. The days have started to get longer now and since Jon arrived in the middle of December we have already won back almost 30 minutes of daylight. Mitchell and Jenna go back to school this week, the Christmas decorations will go back in the boxes and our first Christmas and New Year in the UK will become yet another point on our scorecard and a time of happy memories spent with good friends.
