Wales Holiday, 11-18 June 2016.......

All packed and ready Saturday morning, R and O should have gone to their drama class all morning but it was cancelled so we set off a bit earlier than planned. Both Daughter and Hubby were recovering from colds. No traffic problems and we arrived in Wiltshire in good time. This is where Son and his fiancé live and we were en route a bit more than half our total journey to south Wales so a great place to stop and also as R and E were seeing their dad for the weekend it was an easy place for a people swap as their other grandparents were coming up from Dorset to collect them......are you keeping up with all this?

Son and fiancé made us all very welcome of course. Their cottage is very small and they laughed at this being the most people they've had in their home at once. They have a little dog and even invited the other grandparents in for tea along with their dog so she wasn't left in the car. The girls, their grandparents and their dog went off and a bit later Daughter, O, Hubby and I left having been well fed and even came away with food for later  :-)

We reached our holiday cottage in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, Wales about 8pm and was met there by the owner who showed us around. By the time we'd cooked and eaten the pizzas Son gave us, and unpacked the car it was time for O to go to bed and actually we followed up soon after.

Sunday started too early for Hubby still full of cold, and O joined him so they both had breakfast long before Daughter and I came down. Definitely no rush as it was raining quite hard. As soon as it eased up we went out for a walk, found the local shops and onto a wonderful beach just minutes away. Loving the location!

We found the biggest barrel jellyfish any of us had ever seen, and there were lots and lots of them over the sand

Lunch on the beach, we each had something and chips from the kiosk. Back home for a cuppa then Daughter drove off to collect R and E while Hubby, O and I watched tv had some dinner then due to the lack of books here O and I told made-up stories for bedtime. After they got back and a quick snack Daughter and the girls went out for a late night walk to the beach and didn't come back until it was really dark.

Monday and another slow start as another wet grey day. Out by about 10:30am and off to see the caves and dinosaurs

Unfortunately my aches and pains got the better of me, so as I'd done the first major cave before lunch I stayed in the cafe with my book while the others went off to do the rest. Even that had its consolation as I'd noticed a young mum struggling with a baby over her shoulder while trying to undress a toddler, so I offered a helping hand and she immediately thrust the baby on me saying I was a life saver, the toddler had had a major drink spillage incident just as her husband had gone off to the toilets, so I enjoyed bonus baby cuddles! Supermarket stop on the way back and then an evening of games and the Captain America film.

Tuesday and I stayed home in the morning while they did the steep walk up to the castle (still raining this morning too). R didn't go with either deciding that her bed was far more inviting. Here are a few of the photos Daughter took

When they came back we all had lunch and while we were deciding what to do for the afternoon it rained and rained, so decision made we stayed in. Actually Daughter and E went out as E wanted some art materials. Dinner tonight was in the local pub and very nice it was too.

Wednesday was a busy day as we went to The National Botanic Gardens of Wales and it rained and rained and rained so lots of running between buildings. R and O couldn't resist the straw maze solving the puzzle then jumping over 

Plenty to see inside the tropical dome too 

We came back and threw pizzas in the oven for dinner and it suddenly got really sunny and warm so after eating out in the garden we took a walk to the beach and while we went for a walk Daughter and E made shell art

Thursday was a bit of a longer drive to Aberdulais Falls and tin mine museum. It's quite compact but really interesting. 

Then it was into Swansea for a mooch around the shops (guess what, still raining). We came back with large dinner of Chinese and Indian ready meals plus vegetarian oven things and ready to bake tear-n-share garlic bread from Tesco which is just when the microwave decided to stop working. Daughter then did an amazing jiggling around to get it all through the oven and onto the table.

Friday we woke to a lovely sunny dry morning but as we'd had two busy days we decided to stay local and let the girls have a lie in. After a brunch/lunch to use up as much food as we could it was time to go out.  R has now got the head cold Hubby has just got over so she decided to stay in today anyway so without her we all set off for the beach, although I didn't get very far before realising my knees were too painful for me to ignore so I turned back insisting that Hubby, Daughter, E and O go on. Tonight's dinner was a bbq in the garden, still so lovely and warm! 

Saturday and it was all up, packed and ready to leave by 9:30am and as luck would have it a dry day, which actually we were pleased about for Daughter driving all that way home. We made just one comfort break at a motorway services and bought food to eat in the car. Home about 3pm!

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Brecon, Powys, Wales holiday - days 14,15 and nearly home.....

21 August
Hay-on-Wye a very pretty village to wander round on market day, I tried chuckleberry jam for the first time and bought a jar, also bought some chuckleberry muffins for us later, and a stop for tea and cake in a very small side street cafe here too.

This evening was a meal to use up the leftovers....hahaha venison seems very posh leftovers to enjoy with bubble-n-squeak, it was yummy :-)

22 August 

All packed up and on the road home in good time.

Actually not quite home for Hubby and I but back to sisterS and bilK's as we are staying here for two nights as Saturday evening is bilK's dad's 90th birthday party and Sunday morning after a family brunch we'll drive from Twickenham (she told me it's no longer Middlesex but London) to Suffolk and home. Everyone agreed it was a really good holiday. 

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Brecon, Powys, Wales holiday - days 12&13.....

19 August
It's Tuesday and we discovered last week that Tuesday is rubbish day so that was the first job and SisterS has become recycle queen as she's worked out the colour coding of their collection boxes, so we left that to her.

Into Brecon for a mooch round and bit of shopping. No photos as it was raining so we were occupied holding up our hoods!

Next stop was the local riding and climbing centre that boasts the longest zip line in the UK. We of course were there for no such active pursuits, we had gone for the cafe and the view over the lake. The owners of our holiday cottage live in the big house next door, Cora and Graham, and Graham told us about the centre as it's Cora's brother that owns it.

And a really yummy pub meal at The Star pub in Talybont tonight :-)

20 August 

Another place with a difficult to pronounce name...think I need Welsh language lessons! 

This is a great place for young and old (although quite steep in places for those in pushchairs or wheelchairs).

Dinosaurs everywhere and lots of information about them all too. Three caves to explore, with lots of handrails when needed, audio or visual automatic information guides and very clever lighting to highlight the most beautiful of the natural mineral deposits. 

I loved listening to the squeals of excitement of passing children and some very interesting questions they raised too. I heard one very young girl say to her granddad "yes I know about the ups and downs of stalagmites and stalactites but what does the stalag bit mean?" she was sort of fobbed off with no real answer, so I had to look it up when we got back...and couldn't find anything specific, 'define stalag' just refers to German concentration camps :-( 

There were also horses and ponies, lamas, alpacas, goats, children's play barn and cafe of course. 

On our way back we stopped at the farm shop, it's quite local but we've only just discovered it now we are here the last couple of days, typical eh? We bought a venison joint and everything to go with it and bilK cooked up a feast yet again. We gave the men permission to walk down to the pub to play pool and we spent some time reading through what everyone else had put in the visitor's book then added our compliments.

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Brecon, Powys, Wales holiday - days 10&11.....

17 August
Highlight today was definitely a full Sunday roast dinner at The Bear Hotel at Crickhowell.

18 August 

A busy day today, first the Brecon Mountain Steam Railway, chugging along past great views...

There was a short stop at the terminus then a longer stop halfway back at Ponsticill where we enjoyed refreshments in the static carriage cafe and a look round the small steam museum (we gave the children's play area a miss, well it was raining a bit).

Then we headed off to the Big Pit coal mine at Blaenafon. Phones, cameras, watches and anything else that you can get a spark from was confiscated and locked away so no photos from mine just these from uptop...

Back to our holiday home and bilK cooked dinner and we had an evening in because he had to be there for the Chelsea match, and Chelsea won so a great day all round. 

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Brecon, Powys, Wales holiday - days 7,8&9.....

14 August
Weather was not good and we'd done a lot of walking yesterday so today was another lazy day again. We did need some fuel for both the car and its passengers so we popped out to the garage and then the supermarket at Brecon. After we'd shopped the sun came out so we took advantage of that and meandered through the small streets up to the cathedral. I'm surprised that Brecon is a town not a city and a small town at that, yet has a cathedral!

We heard from a parishoner who was on duty there, that the original cross had been stolen and a local artist had made this one from driftwood!

15 August 

We actually set alarms and got up and out early as we knew our destination was a long drive away. We had to stop the car en route for this beautiful view...

Then to Rossili Bay. The walk down the hill from the carpark to the beach was long and a bit steep and ending with a clamber over rocks (which I chose not to do) but the view was so worth it. A really beautiful beach, and SisterS told me it was voted as top UK beach and 3rd best in Europe and 9th best in the world.

And this is the long long walk back up...

Then onto Aberdulais, as it had been recommended by a friend of bilK.

So a busy wonderful day.

16 August 

So as to alternate our days Hubby said today was going to be a day of not doing much just a walk to the nearby lake here at Llangorse. He had a map and said we should do the shorter round the lake walk and we were all amazed at how much of the walk was the wrong side of trees so the lake was completely out of sight. So glad we did the short walk as we were out for three hours! Ok there was a stop at the bird hide and a sit on a bench and I was walking very slowly because my knee hurt a bit and we couldn't take one of the shortcuts as the field had cows in and SisterS said "I'm not going in there". Thank goodness he didn't want to do the longer walk.

And we spotted this little field mouse, so cute :-)

Back to the car then straight into the cafe as I for one was seriously tea depleted, so we had some lunch there too at about 3pm. Tonight was another yummy pub meal in the very local Castle Inn which specialises in pies and I had the mariners pie mmmmm. I'm gonna sleep well again tonight.

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