With this installment, I will wrap up this series of Posts describing our vacation to the United Kingdom and Ireland. As I have often said, there is only so much that people want to hear about other people's vacations.
On Friday, October 11, our Irish Ferries boat landed in Wales and we headed in towards Cardiff. After being serenaded with a song from, you guessed it, Tom Jones, a three hour ride took us to this location:
The Glyndwr Vineyard was the location of the final planned dinner of our tour, the "Be Our Guest" meal wherein a local family invites you into their home and prepares a meal comprised of local foods and dishes. Glyndwr Vineyard is a family owned and operated vineyard. It is located in an absolutely gorgeous setting, the meal was delicious, the wines were great, and it might have been the best experience that we had on the entire Tour. Some photos from the night.....
The gent in the center is Jack, the owner of Glyndwr.
He was like a character right out of an Agatha Christie novel.
Livestock on the vineyard. The llamas are there to
herd the sheep and protect them from predators
such as foxes and badgers. Who knew llamas could do that?
The table settings
The meal
Checking out the merchandise
The product!
The vineyard, or a portion of it
Marilyn and Susan with our new friend Susan Cope from Michigan
Dan took a picture of me taking the above picture
After settling into our Cardiff hotel, we explored downtown Cardiff for a bit, and then headed off to bed to prepare for a busy day on Saturday.
The next morning we went to Cardiff Castle. Yep, one more castle to see. What was interesting about this one was that it was located at street level right in the heart of a bustling neighborhood.
When you walk through this gate, the place opens up into an amazing castle courtyard.
Cardiff Castle was for many years privately owned, by the Earl of Something-Or-Other until the family could no longer afford to run and maintain the place. Sometime in the mid twentieth century the Sixth or Seventh Earl of Something-Or-Other gave up the ghost and turned it over to a government trust which now maintains and runs the place. It was used as strategic military outpost during WW II.
After leaving Cardiff, we crossed back into Jolly Old England and a stop in the beautiful city of Bath and visit to the ancient Roman Baths.
Some Bath street scenes...
This guy was singing "The Sounds of Silence"
And while in Bath, we ran into this guy...
This is Marilyn's nephew George Moellenbrock III, or G3 as he is known in the family. How it came to pass that George, who lives and works in New Mexico, was in Europe at the same time that we were, and how this encounter was planned and executed is a story that deserves its own separate Grandstander post, and I will save it for another time. Suffice to say that it was it was great to see George on this trip. We figured that it had been at least two years since we had last seen him, and that he made the effort to be in the same place on the same specific date as us meant a lot to both of us.
After saying good-bye to George, the tour left Bath and headed towards the last stop on the Tour.
Yes, our final destination was Stonehenge.
Stonehenge is exactly what you expected to see. A bunch of giant stones that were arranged in some strange patterns over 5,000 years ago. The most amazing thing about it is that to this day learned men and women still have no idea as to WHY the stones were arranged as they are, or HOW they were put in place. There still are mysteries in life that will never be solved, and that is kind of cool to realize.
After Stonehenge, it was back on the bus and getting taken to the place where our adventure began - the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London. Our Trafalgar coach traveled 1,556 miles, plus two ferry boat crossings of the Irish Sea in eight days. It was time for one more night in England and then journey home.
That evening we found a terrific Italian restaurant called Locale within walking distance of our hotel, and the four of us had a terrific meal on our final night. On the walk back while walking in a London drizzle, I took this final photo of our trip:
One last breakfast on Sunday morning, a ride to Heathrow and a fascinating conversation with our driver, and gentleman from Zimbabwe now living in London, and before you knew it, after an on time and smooth flight, we were back in Pittsburgh.
It has now been almost a month since our return home, and the memories of our trip keep getting better and better. On the Monday morning after our return, I made this final entry in a journal that I had been keeping on our iPad, and I can think of no better way to end this series of Grandstander posts:
It was a great trip. Riding a bus for eight days and changing hotels throughout was a new experience for us. We had more great times with Susan and Dan, experienced many terrific sites in five different countries, made many new friends, and made many, many new memories. This trip will no doubt be our #1 experience of 2019.
