Day 28 - St Fagan's and Newport

This would have to be one of our best days for a while, weather-wise. The day broke sunny and cloudless and the four of us decided to go to St Fagan's in Cardiff. Although the cloud did come up it was still sunny and almost hot at times.

First though we were taken to Newport's best known landmark, the Transporter Bridge. Wiki will tell you all about it and scroll down to the images. Transporter Bridge 

The Transporter Bridge taken from the car park.

The gondola

Lovely old piccie of the gondola

The four of us on the gondola

St Fagan's is an open-air museum about Welsh life in the far and near past. It is a much grander version of our Jondaryan Woolshed. We spent all day here. 

Checking out one of the farm houses

Lesley & Pete discussing the broad beans

Pete pointing out some of the large stones used in early cottages

St Telios exterior

St Telios interior

A Roman soldier at the crucifixion

If you want to know more about these amazing murals, click here St Telios murals

1950s terrace house

A cupboard bed beside the fire

Outside the Iron Age round house

St Fagan's Castle

The back gardens of St Fagan's Castle

From St Fagan's castle

In the garden

Also in the garden

Day 27 - Newport and the Wye Valley, Sth Wales

Now it was off to Wales to visit Lesley's cousins, Jen & Pete. Newport is close to the border of Wales and England. 

Crossing over the Bristol Channel to Wales

Entering Wales which is a bilingual country

Motorway sign

After lunch Jen & Pete took us for a drive up the Wye Valley, a very beautiful part of the country. 

The Wye valley at Tintern

Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley

An imposing pile of rubble

Photo of an aerial photo of Tintern, Wye Valley

We had afternoon tea at the Old Railway Station.

Lesley, Jen & Pete at the Old Tintern Station

Us beside the signal box

On the way back to Newport we went via Chepstow, an ancient town right on the border with England and Wales.

Chepstow Castle from the Welsh bank. 
It stretches the full width of this piccie.

It's impressive, and this is only a little bit.

This gives you an idea of the depth of tide in this area. It was already coming in and would rise to the grass on the lower, Welsh bank.

Some little cottages in the old part of town

More of the town

The gate for entry into the original town. 

You can see the spread beyond the walls.

Dry stone walls (or any stone wall for that matter)

We love the stone walls that are used for fences in many parts of the UK. We have several dozens of pictures featuring them.

An old wall

Repairing a stone wall

Clearing the old wall

The crumbling section of wall

The stone is recycled

Lake District wall

Some samples of Welsh walls

This shows two types of wall, stone and brick, that would've been
covered with stucco (render) to look like one wall. You can see patches of stucco at the top

A hillside of walls

Day 25 & 26 - Cheddar

Day 25 was a total veg out day. We got up late, did a couple of loads of laundry, watched rubbish tv and eventually went out for a coffee. The weather was so-so, wispy showers in between gusty winds. We had to keep an eye on the washing although most of it was hanging under the carport.

Day 26 was going to be fine and sunny. So we donned our shorts (or at least Lesley did), and set off for Cheddar Gorge. Lesley froze. It was not fine and sunny. It was grey and cold, though we had a good time.  Cheddar Gorge

Cheddar Gorge, that's the top of a double-decker bus
 at the bottom of the photo

The Rising, Cheddar Gorge. This is where the underground River Yeo
comes to the surface about halfway down the gorge.

Denise photographing the River Yeo

Cheddar, although being famous internationally for its cheese, is also known for Cheddar Man found in 1903. Cheddar Man Here is a cast of his skeleton where he was found in Gough's Cave at the gorge.

Cheddar Man

Some limestone formations in Gough's Cave.

The frozen river

Stalactites

The frozen waterfall

Reflections

The dimples in the cave ceiling caused by underground water

However the area is known for its cheese. We bought some cave-matured cheese and it IS  different and very tasty. It's excellent grilled on toast! Sorry, there isn't any left.  Making cave-matured cheese

Cheese maturing in the caves