Our Great Wales Adventure

This past weekend we ventured up to Wales for four days where we rented a cottage and breathed in the great outdoors. It was the perfect getaway. The picture above shows the incredible view from our cottage in Llandridod Wells, located in mid-Wales.



Here is a picture of the cottage we rented. Abby called it our "Wales house." It was located next to the owner's home where we could have a full English breakfast every morning if we wished to. It also had two bedrooms, a full kitchen and lounge area. We loved being able to put the girls to bed and enjoy time to ourselves. The highlight for Abby and Sam was the stairs.

We could also see this tiny church and cemetary from our cottage. Between Charles and I, we ended up taking what seems like thousands of pictures of it. I think Charles won for best picture (minus telephone wire).



This was the first castle that we stopped at in Llawhaden. At every castle we stopped to see, Abby would always be looking for and talking about the princess who lived there. She was so excited about all the castles. She would tell me that she needed her princess dress and pretty shoes to wear for the castle.




Piggyback ride for Abby to see the castle




spectacular view







St. David's monastic settlement dating back to 550. It is located on the western tip of Wales right near the coast.

St. David's cemetary


These are the bluffs of Pembrokeshire along the west coast of Wales




Here is a funny picture of Abby posing on the beach


Abby and Sam were great in the car especially since they were in it a lot. They figured out every single way they could possibly move and dance to their favorite music (i.e. Johnny Cash, Funky Town and other disco songs) while still strapped into a carseat. But don't be fooled, they were not jolly the entire time in the car...



Abby and I went on a special hiking adventure. As we hiked, I would say, "just me and my Abby," and then Abby would repeat, "just me and my mama." She was dressed appropriately in wellies and had no problem through the swampy bits, whereas my feet were soaking and soggy. Oh, if only I had my own pair of wellies....



On one particular day, I was driving and had no idea where we were going. I was just simply taking directions from Charles. All of a sudden, we were off the main roads on these back, narrow roads with very high hedges on both sides. It was pretty nerve-racking driving through this area at high speeds especially when we met an oncoming car. I call this part "Wild Wales."



The crazy back roads paid off though. We ended up at Llanthony Priory (shown in the above two pictures) which was very well hidden out in the middle of nowhere on those long, narrow, winding roads. I was quite pleased that Charles knew where he was going after all.



Llanthony Priory




This is Abby and the sheep behind Llanthony Priory. There were sheep all over this part of Wales and I became obsessed with getting a picture of them with Abby. It was difficult because most of them were fenced in behind those high hedges. I imagine Wales is similar to New Zealand in regards to all the sheep.


After our adventure on the narrow back roads and at Llanthony Priory, we drove up over the high hills of Wales or the Brecon Beacons National Park. There are four mountain ranges in this area consisting of high open country with smooth, grassy slopes on a bedrock of red sandstone. It was breath-taking!



The view of Brecon Beacons National Park


Two little princesses peeking out the window



This is Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley. The abbey was set against an amazing backdrop of hills covered with colorful trees. The Abbey was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks. It was the richest abbey in Wales by the 14th century but then King Henry VIII shut it down (along with all the other monasteries) in 1536.



Charles got this great picture of a couple of arches in the abbey hit by different amounts of light.


Inside the abbey