Have a car will travel

Friday 8th June saw us both getting on the bus early - not much fun at all after 3 weeks of getting up late. Harry enjoyed his day - he is responsible for getting all the faults in the hospital sorted out - he now knows what an mercerator is (the machine that cleans bed pans) - apparently they break down all the time. The other time he is busy is when it rains and there are floods all over the hospital (eg my building which was built in 1749 is just getting over a major flood). I know who to ring when the airconditioning breaks down in the middle of summer!! My job didn't really get started on Friday but it promises to be busier and a bit more interesting than the last job. There are another load of acronyms to get used too which should be fun.

After work we went to Weston Super Mare in our new car (We haven't yet got a name but I convinced Harry that 'the car' was not appropriate - we are thinking of either daffy (cos it is yellow) or cecil (cos it is a citroen) or kermit (cos it is french). We had a lovely walk along the beach and watched the sun set. It is a pity cos the beach is beautiful sand but where the water is it turns to a mud which apparently is quite dangerous. So, lots of playing in the sand but no swimming except for the man made pool at one end.

Saturday - we drove to South Wales and had a lovely time. We have decided that we like travelling on smaller roads and where possible do not go on the motor ways or A roads. These are busy and tend to take you quickly from one town to another. We like exploring as you come across little gems all day that you aren't expecting. Today, we drove over the Severn River - took both bridges - the north to get there and the south returning. The toll was £5.10 going over and we thought that was expensive but realised coming back you don't need to pay a tool. The first picture is of Caramello sitting at Severn looking over to the south bridge (bridge number 2 it is called). There was a heat haze for most of the day and so we didn't get much of a view from the bridge. However, it gave everything quite a eerie feeling. We then took a little detour to a place called Aust which was quaint and it had an old church which was pretty run down. The gardens were lovely with roses etc.
We came across a little place called Magor - a real find - we had lunch in the church yard. There was a ruin of a procurators house built in the 1700's. He was apparently the tax collector who sent all the taxes back to Rome - I imagine rich but not popular. The house was a ruin but quite picturesque. We wandered around and then drove down towards the direction of the 'sea wall'. What a find!! It was built in the 1400's apparently to stop the sea encroaching on the land and has been built up over time - the land around it is actually below sea level. There were people fishing in the sunshine and a farm house at the end of the beach. The lamb was also on the hill and we took it to show you that spring is near!! The haze was still around and it was very quiet - the sheep were the only noise you could hear.

We then drove to Newport, didn't stop there cos it was busy but drove to Abergavenny. Harry could remember the first line to a song 'making our way to Abergavenny' but no more but unfortunately the tune got stuck in our brains. We will have to go back there. We wandered through the little lanes, around the castle, had afternoon tea in a posh hotel and found lots of leaflets on the national park, walkways and caves. If you take the direct route it isn't too far (about 45 minutes) so we'll go exploring further. The Teddy Bear shop was in the main street - took the photo just for you Mum.

We finished our touring off in a little town called Caergeon - there was a roman amphitheatre built in 90AD. It was breathtaking to think that there were people there 2000 years ago. I was amazed to see that on this archaelogical site people were allowed to play and sit. They have shows there and there is a Romeo and Juliet drama there in a few weeks - unfortunately it is during the week. We took a picture of a typical country lane - the hedges of bracken, fern and a vine a bit like a grape are so high that you can't see over them. We drove down lane after lane like this. We know what a horse with blinkers must feel like.