Wales Trip Day 1: Into Wales
Before leaving the UK we intend to do a fair amount of sightseeing. This is an account of a week we recently spent travelling in Wales. Its not a live-blog, but I noted a few observations each day so that the posts read a little as if I had had a computer with me. (And its not as if anyone reading this cares where I actually am sitting when I post this!)The first part of our little trip is not terribly interesting. Having crammed the car full of provisions, turned our son's DVD player to the dulcet tones of Dora the Explorer and navigated our way out of Swindon onto the M4 we headed straight along the motorway. It was wet, and apart from which side of the road we were on could have been anywhere in the West.
The M4Not that its a boring drive. Just outside of Swindon you pass Barbury Camp - site of the battle that allowed the invading Saxons to establish the Kingdom of Wessex in these parts (and drive the Welsh into Wales). Further on you pass close by Bath - one of our favourite cities. And there are some fabulous views. However, because it was raining I didn't get any photos to illustrate this with, so it probably best to skip on promptly.
The Second Severn Crossing
We passed around the outskirts of Bristol and over one of the Severn Bridges and into Wales. There are bigger and more impressive bridges out there, but the two on the Severn are still cool.
The Second Severn Crossing
The motorway services at Newport are too small and have a horrible car park. [US readers: in its wisdom our government does not allow merchants to put big adverts up along the interstate before exits, so if you want a break or something to eat you have to go into one of the designated 'service' stations which are every 50 miles or so on the motorway. Each one is run by a firm that has been granted the monopoly on that particular stretch, and the results are variable].Just after Newport we turned off the motorway, and made our way north past Cwmbran and up into the Brecon Beacons National Park. This was one of the reasons for choosing this route to our destination (Hay on Wye), and the scenery rewarded us spectactularly. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures here - so follow the link to the Park website if you don't know it.
The roads were very good too. A lot of work has clearly been done on the roads over the past few years, and we travelled along quite quickly as a result. Having pushed out of the other side of the Beacons, we arrived at Hay on Wye, which lies on the border with England. It is an odd and wonderful little place - the Town of Books.
To be continued...
posted by j @ 9:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home