UK Trip: Bath, England and 3 Peaks, Wales

So this post is a bit out of order with the others chronologically. Roger, Summer, Marlene (Roger's Mother) and I took the trip out to Wales, as mentioned before. This post is about a stop that we made in Bath, England on the way to Wales, as well as one of the walking tours we took to Three Peaks in Wales.

Loyal readers will know that I have an obsession with signage:

Plumbing is important

Bath was a nice place to visit. On our trip we spent maybe 3 to 4 hours there, but we could have easily killed a day there. The city is filled with some great classic architecture. Some of the more ancient features date back to the days when the Romans controlled the land. This stuff isn't from then:

Typical Bath street

Everybody take photos

A decent church on the main square

We ended up taking a tour of the ancient Roman baths. That's right, Bath is called that because it actually contains baths. Pretty cool?

A view of one of the ancient baths. The pedestals along the edges used to support a roof in the Roman times.

This one isn't too exciting, I just love that it demands to be touched.

Of course, the tour included two actors portraying ancient Roman workers. Here, the man on the left has a puzzled look. I can't remember specifically, but we probably just mentioned something like a telephone.

"Ipod? Sheep are my entertainment."

A great view of the skyline of Bath from down in a bath

After the tour, we had to jet out of there because we were a little behind schedule. Maybe we shouldn't have stopped for tea so many times, but whatever. It's England.

Roger leads the way

As mentioned before, we made it out to Wales. We stayed in a more rural part of Wales, which offered mostly walking tours. We did probably half a dozen walking tours, but they were all great. One of the best was a tour we took to this place called Three Peaks, which also had a ruined castle on top of a hill. Unfortunately, the only way we saw to get up the hill was to scale up this steep, sandy slope. My shoes were filled with sand by the time I got to the top, but the castle was cool.

A ruined castle

More ruins

A view of the valley from on top of the hill. This is what I imagine England and Wales looked like a few hundred years ago.

Scottish thisle, I believe. Don't ask me what it's doing in Wales.

And finally...Three Peaks

UK Trip: Worm's Head

Hello again, faithful readers. Here is the second part of my posts about the trip I took to the UK this year. This time, it's all about the time we spent in Wales, nearby a little town called Rhossili. It's a beautiful little town, and they are trying to keep it that way because nobody can build anything there anymore.

Roger's mother, who grew up in Rhossili

A wild Welsh horse

This post focuses on a geographical feature called Worm's Head. It is an island off of the coast for most of the day, though for about a 4 hour period, the tide comes in and people are able to walk to it. Here's what it looks like:

Worm's Head, as an island

We made the walk out to Worm's Head, which was open from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at that time. Apparently it's a bit dangerous. I think the danger is only if you try to make it across when the tide it too high and you can get taken out to sea. For us it was just a walk across a bunch of rocks and then scaling up the hill.

Danger!

Rocks, and a view of the island

A seal that was near the island

A pretty cool natural bridge on Worm's head. We didn't make it that far.

This is when the tide was coming back in. The waves would reach higher and higher, filling in the space in the rocks.

Me

The view from higher up the coast as the tide was coming back in

A church in Rhossili

Most of the houses in the area had driveways installed with these cross bars. Apparently cars can traverse across, but animals cannot.

A giant beast dog we met. Its head is bigger than Summer's

Thanks for reading! I'll post again soon.

UK Paintings, pt.8

This was cool. Located in Wales near the city of Swansea is a village called Rhossili. It's a picturesque place, recently featured in the drama Torchwood. My favorite part was the island of Worm's Head. It's actually only an island for 18 to 20 hours a day. The other few hours, it's a peninsula because the tide lowers and allows daring visitors to brave the rocky passage out to the island. I recommend it.

UK Paintings, pt.6

So this paintings isn't my favorite because the colors didn't work out, but it's here. It's a cow. A cow from Wales.

UK Paintings, pt.3

Back with another painting from the UK trip. This is a picture of Marlene, looking upon the area she grew up from a hill in Rhossili, Wales: