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| Chelsea and I at Tintern Abbey |
So our second trip has begun! This one is different from
Canterbury because now we are actually staying places over night. So I will not
be returning to the center until Saturday. When I get to do laundry! Lol. So
our first stop was supposed to be Stonehenge however, our driver was a bit late
so we have moved Stonehenge until tomorrow. So our actually first stop was
Tintern Abbey. When we arrived at the Abbey there was a huge wave of the group
that just ran to the bathroom and we were never so happy to see one.
This Abbey reminds me a lot of the Rock of Cashel but I like
it better. This Abbey with all of its fallen grandeur was surrounded on three
sides by hills covered in trees. It was beautiful. I loved it. We just wandered
and enjoyed the tranquility for about an hour. It was fantastic.
Next we went to Ragland Castle. This was not a planned part
of our iternary so we did not pay to go inside. However, we did take pictures
and explore the gift shop! Outside on the grounds there is an old oak tree.
Hanover’s buried their pets beneath this ancient tree! Also it was a castle so
I totally enjoyed just looking at it.
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| Ragland Castle |
Our second stop was called Ironworks. Basically it was an
old smelting plant complete with on site housing. We were able to climb to the
very top of the what I think was the smelting tower? Thing? It was a great view
of the whole area. The houses that these people lived in were tiny! It was
literally the smallest amount of space a person needs to live in. The front
room was the kitchen. You walked down a hallway that was maybe two feet long
and you were in the bedroom. That was it. I found a slightly bigger one that
had three bedrooms in it but it was still very tiny by our standards.
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| Ironworks, I climbed to the top of that thing! |
After that we went to the Big Pit. This was one of the most
successful coal mines in the UK. We got to go down into the coal mine like the
miners did. We put on hard hats and lights with the battery pack and oxygen
mask around your belt. You then took the lift all squished together to go down
300 feet. You were not allowed to bring cameras, cellphones or even watches.
Anything with a battery had to be left at the surface because of the different
gases that rise through the mines. It was surreal walking through these
different tunnels. There were work horses that never saw the light of day.
There were picks and axes, carts and coal. This mine was still full of it! Our
tour guide even gave us a small piece to keep! Everyone hit their head,
including me, but most of them did it multiple times. People weren’t use to how
much taller the helmet made your head. It was really cool. So I was underground
for 45 minutes in a mine. I had no idea that this was part of going to London.
It was a really cool experience and I’m glad I had it!
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| Miner Valerie, what do you think? |
So this was our only venture to Wales. We spent the entire
day there and sometimes I really felt like we were in Ireland. Skinny roads
that kept turning with sheep on the sides of the road and it kept raining. It
was very pretty and the accents were fun to hear the similarities.
So now we are headed to Salisbury for the night. We are
going to be split between 3 different hotels. So the only thing left is dinner,
showers and bed! Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July! From the
country who didn’t need those colonies anyway.
Salisbury was really really fun. We had delicious pub food.
I had a chicken and chorizo risotto. It was delicious. I ate with Michael, Ali,
Emilee, and Kaitlyn. We then wandered over to the Salisbury Cathedral. It was
gorgeous and we could hear someone practicing the organ inside. Also we sang
(very off key) the Star Spangled Banner. We then headed back toward the bar to
go stop at McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds. Emilee and Michael decided that as it was
the 4th that we needed some apple pie. So they got apple pie and
McDonalds and I made the facebook status. After McDonalds we headed over to
Tesco (a grocery store) to get some food for lunch. We then danced to “Party in
the USA” while going to Tesco. Then on the way back to our fabulous hotel (with
no wifi) we walked by a church graveyard. It was a really fun day.
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| Emilee, Michael, Kaitlyn and Ali at Salisbury Cathedral |
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