Roman ruins

 The picture above is of the amhpitheatre which the Romans built when they invaded Wales.  It was huge and the walls were actually about 10 feet taller than the mounds shown.

And below are the Roman barracks where ten soldiers stayed in each room (marked by the squares of stones).  There were rows and rows of these.

Our Bed and Breakfast--The Granary

 This is the front view of the place we stayed at in Caerleon (pronounced Ka-LEE-on).  We stayed here for 8 nights and had breakfast made for us every morning by Brian, our host.  He gave us great advice on what to see in the area and gave us a road atlas as a parting gift which we couldn't have done without.  We were planning on buying one but he said it was a parting gift.  Below are the pictures of our little "Den".

Cardiff

 After St. Fagan's, we decided to see part of Cardiff.  It's a port city.  We randomly picked an exit and drove along and ended up at the Cardiff Stadium.  Dad was so pleased!  He couldn't believe that he was next to a premier league stadium!

 Here's a peek of the inside.

And it was across the street from our favorite store!

St. Fagan's

 

 Our first Saturday we drove down near Cardiff Wales and visited a historic village.  The first building we saw was this beautiful farmhouse with a thatched roof..  If you ever wanted to see what the inside of a thatched roof is look at the picture below.

 

As we walked around the farm we looked inside a barn door and saw this. 

 So cute!   The little runts were so tiny!

S

The next few pictures are especially for Aaron.  The first two pictures were in the garden of a tenant's garden.  The last one is at the castle garden.  Trained fruit trees!

 Here is St. Fagan's Castle. It is a gorgeous place!  We got to go inside a few rooms which were very elegant.

 Here is one of the garden doors.  It reminds me of the secret garden.

And here is our little friend at the rear of the castle.

 It was a fun time and the weather was perfect!

Driving around Wales

After we left the Big Pit, we decided to drive north a bit and see some more of Wales.  We were told of a lovely drive by our B&B host, Brian, and which roads to take.  We headed up over a few hills and had to watch for sheep which were grazing at the road edge.  You can see the road we were driving on in the left of the picture.  There were many sheep along the road.

This was the view from the road.  We love the stone fences here!

We headed to Abergavenny, a small town, and saw the castle ruins.  We love Wales!

Wales and the Big Pit

We made it to Wales!  After a long flight and a four hour layover in Paris we made it to Bristol England.  We got into our hired car and started the journey to Caerleon Wales.  It was raining and cold, but beautiful!
Here's the Charles de Gaulle airport terminal.

Friday we headed to the Big Pit and went down into a coal mine.  We had to put on mining equipment (hard hat, belt with battery, light, and air purifier) and squeezed into a tiny elevator to go down the mine shaft (80 meters).  The tour guide was a retired miner who had actually worked in that mine.  At one point he had us turn off the lights and it was so dark we couldn't see anything at all.  It was a great tour!

After the mine tour we saw a few more outbuildings and ate lunch in the canteen.
Marc ate a vegie burger and Gayle had lamb cawl -a brothy soup with a bit of lamb and lots of veg.

We then continued on our journey to see the countryside.

Manatees

We went to Blue Springs State Park and had a great opportunities to see Manatees. Check it out: