England, with a side of Wales - June 2007

Cass and I are back and feeling very refreshed after our 5 day trip through southwest England that also included a day in Wales. It was a great trip that provided a lot of beautiful sights and also some shall we say "interesting" sights.

Our journey started at a little airport in Bournemouth, which is on the south coast of England. After waiting an hour or so for the little trailer that rented out cars to open we were on our way to the western coast to stay our first night in Penzance. The drive was beautiful! I had imagined some of England to be rural but not nearly as much as it actually was. It was green fields and roaming cattle, sheep, and goats as far as the eyes could see.
Penzance itself was a really cute little town on the water that had a lot of shops, coffee houses, and cafes. The views were great but Cass and I found a ton of humor in the following sign that was posted in most of the store windows. I think they were serious... I regret not having a hood.There was also this restaurant that seemed to be lacking in confidence, their sign also made us laugh..

The next day we drove past "St. Michael's Mount". It's a little island that houses a castle and a church. We didn't have time to tour it, but we did stop to take pictures from the mainland.

Next stop was "Land's End". This is the most westerly point of England and it really is spectacular to see. The land is all cliffs that drop off into the Atlantic. We were lucky to be there on a nice day and the views were amazing. I've included a couple pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

After a long day of driving and stopping in little towns along the way, we arrived at the farm/B&B we were staying at for the next two nights. That's right - a farm! This was my pick and I was so excited. They had 2 cows out front that I insisted on calling Bessie (both of them), multiple dogs including a 3-legged Jack Terrier named Becky, a kitten, chickens, and horses. I was in heaven. I actually emailed the owner of the B&B before I booked it to be sure that I would actually be able to be somewhat near the animals. She was fine with it, the cows and horses were not. Bessie #1 and #2 came to the fence where I stood patiently for a length of time, but didn't actually want anything to do with me once the realized I had no treats for them. The horses didn't so much as glance at me. The dogs were happy playing with a block of wood that I threw around for them though.
Our farm location was so that we could visit the city of Bath. It was a really interesting little city that actually has Roman baths nearly 2000 years old that you can tour. The natural hot spring waters boil up from the earth and were thought to be sacred.
Romans not only bathed in them, but also threw in curses written on sheets of metal. Some of them have been translated and are on display. The Romans were all about revenge - one guy wanted the person that stole his gloves to "lose his eyes and go mad". At the end of the tour you are allowed to drink some of the water from the springs - tasted a bit like warm saltwater, but Cass and I drank it anyway and lived to tell the tale.
Next stop - Cardiff, Wales. On the way to our hotel we stopped to visit two castles. The first, Castle Coch, was ok. There was nothing too grand about it, but we were happy to have seen it. The second castle, Caerphilly Castle, was really incredible to see. It is in ruins, but walking around it really gives you a good idea of what it was like back in its better days.

It is very surreal because there is this huge old castle and surrounding it is a normal downtown of a city. Look to your left - castle, to your right - CVS. After the castles we decided to head to downtown Cardiff, where we were staying for the night. Upon driving into the city, Cassidy and I were both silent. I had read a lot of great things about the city and things to do, etc. The only thing we could tell from the car is that is seemed deserted and was definitely dirty. Now, we lived in Manhattan which some consider to be dirty... Manhattan was pristine compared to this. To make it worse (and funny) I had a full blown fall while walking to our hotel. So far all wounds have healed nicely, but I'm not sure what diseases I picked up in the process. Our hotel was really nice, but we decided to head out and see what Cardiff had to offer. After wandering, we ended up in a nice local pub where we had some drinks and played some mean games of war and gin rummy. . .
The next morning we did visit the Cardiff castle, which was pretty nice. My favorite part was the group of peacocks just wandering around the grounds! After this, we got out of town to head back to Bournemouth for our last night.
On our last day of travels we stopped at two amazing places - Stonehenge and Salisbury, England. I loved Stonehenge. I read that it was disappointing in person, but I guess I was just excited to see something I had read about for so long. There's not much to say about it since it is a bunch of very large rocks with an unexplained purpose, so I'll just post the pictures.

Salisbury is known for its cathedral which boasts three things: 1) the tallest spire in England, 2) it contains the oldest known working clock in the world (from the 1300's), and 3) it holds one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta. The outside was being restored so it was a bit blocked off, but the inside was gorgeous! The city itself was also very nice with a stream running through it and lots of nice bakeries and coffeshops.

At long last, Cassidy and I arrived to our final stopping point. We decided to stay in Bournemouth since that is where we were flying from early the next morning. Cassidy and I are still confused about this town. We went "downtown" it there were NO PEOPLE ANYWHERE! We walked for quite a while thinking that maybe when we turned the next corner, that would be the street with all the cafes, bars, etc. If there was one, we never found it. It worked out fine since we were both exhausted anyway so we just went to an Indian restaurant outside of town and got a good night of sleep! Also, I've added a picture of a little park area down the road. Please note 3 things - 1) this is advertised to be a children's play area, 2) we actually did not stay in a bad part of town, this place just needed lots of help, 3) Yazz is gay.