Catch up Blog

Sorry to fall so far behind in our blog, we were unable to get Internet in Cardiff and on the Saturday we did not reach Christine's & Michael's until 9.00 pm. The story so far.
Friday we set of to catch the Ferry to Rosslare which was about an 1 hour drive but we still had to get up early and be on the bus by 7.00 a.m. We sat on the ferry for about 4 hours and it was a very smooth ride then we were back on the bus again and we drove to a quaint little woodcarvers place who made the Welsh Love Spoons this stop was only supposed to be for 40 minutes but everyone bought a love spoon so we ended up there for at least 2 hours. So then we did not arrive in Cardiff until 5.30 then we had a tour dinner which was great. This meant everyone got to have one last meal together and exchange email addresses.

Saturday we set of from Cardiff first stop Cardiff Castle, we had an interesting tour around this castle which was originally built by the Romans in 55 AD then rebuilt in 1091 by the Normans the Castle was refashioned in the 18Th Century by the richest man in Britain the Marquess of Bute.Together with William Burgess the Architect they fashioned some of the most ornate decorations and rooms we have seen. The castle was handed over to the Cardiff council by the family in 1947. The current Marquess of Bute retired formula one racing driver Johnny Dumfries, is down to his last 60 million, poor man.

After Cardiff we headed of to the city of Bath, we took a tour through the Roman baths which was quite congested with other tourists, we then had some lunch, strolled through the city streets, then got on the bus and headed to Salisbury.

Salisbury Cathedral is a 13th Century Cathedral which houses one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta it is also the town were it was decided to adopt the Gregorian Calender which resulted in the population losing 11 days of the year 1752. Think of the mayhem that would of caused ( recall the Millennium Bug ).

We then took of to Stonehenge, which was also quite busy as we arrived two days out from the Summer Solstice so all the hippies and wacko's were gathering to converse with the ancient spirits. We did the obligatory lap around the monument, took the required amount of photos and re boarded the bus for the last stage of our journey to London.

It was a bit sad arriving back at the Hilton Olympia were our trip started as we had met some wonderful people on this tour as well.

But all good things come to an end, we said our last goodbye's and caught a cab to Waterloo station and caught the train to Petersfield to meet up with Christine & Michael.

Arrived at Petersfield train station were Christine & Michael where waiting to take us back to their place. Upon arrival there at 9.00 pm, we met the mothers Barbara & Sue then Christine prepared a wonderful meal, we sat up chatting till midnight then rolled into bed for a good nights sleep.

Will get the Blog up to date tomorrow as it is quite late and some sleep is required,


JJJI