Monday 28th May - Wales Part 2

Cardiff Bay

The old national assembly building - Wales is governed by Westminster but does make some of it's owns law - about education and transport etc

Baked potatoe and baked beans - you get them everywhere here - i love them - could eat them all day long! German Festival in Cardiff Bay -

Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay

In the afternoon we went down to Cardiff Bay and looked at the Millenium Centre - the performing arts centre and saw a live brass band. We walked around the Bay - notice the gray clouds comming it - it started raining again just as we were leaving. We had lunch and a beer in the tent sent up for a german festival - it was a good day and believe it or not - Josh got a little sunburnt! At 5pm we departed Cardiff and bussed back to London. A great holiday in Wales.

Monday 28th May - Wales

Other weapons being fired, all have slingshots at the end that the weapon is fired from

The firing of the crossbow

View of the country from the castle

Josh is standing of the wall that surrounds the castle

The Great Hall - they hire this out for events

Medieval tents set up to "set the scene" people were even in costume! The castle has it's own leaning tower - 10 degrees out, thought to have occured due to warfare or erosion. The castle is actually ruins that have been excavated

Today we went to Caerphilly Castle and it was not raining - Yeah! It was nice and sunny, although still cold. The castle is supposed to be the largest in Wales! It was really beautiful with the moat around it. They have reconstructed some of weapons that were used in Medieval times and they fired them off for us into the moat!!!!

The hotel

We stayed in the Lincoln House Hotel, it was a lovely bed and breakfast, all old fashioned, we even had a four poster bed. We had a lovely big four poster bed and each morning we had cooked Welsh breakfast - that was actually a lot like an English breakfast with - eggs, baked beans, sausage, bacon, toast and of course tea!

Sunday 27th May - Wales

Llanelli train station

The hotel Josh's Great Grandfather owned

The front of the hotel

Restaurant area

Backgarden

Private restaurant area - they do weddings here

Buffet area

Reception area

The Links golf course the Hotel over looks

Rugby Stadium at Llanelli

Swansea train station Marina at Swansea - view from the maratime museum

Today was pouring with rain but none the less we embarked on a journey to explore some of Josh's history. Unfortunatly we were not able to hire a car so we did all our exploring by train - which meant it took quite some time taking rail and taxi everywhere! Josh spent most of the time on the train catching up on sleep! Our first stop was Llanelli. Josh's Dad spent some time here as a boy as Josh's Greatgrandfather and mother owned the Hotel that you see in the pictures. The hotel overlooks a Links golf course. We drove to Llanelli via the cost - which was very beatuiful and would have been even more enjoyable had we been able to get out of the car - but it was raining very heavily! After Llanelli we went to Swansea - also a place Josh's Dad spent time as a boy! Unfortnualty we were limited in what we could explore in Swansea due to the rain but we went to the maratime museam and learn't some history! We returned to Cardiff again just in time to have a nice warm meal in the pub!

Saturday 26th May Wales

Welsh Flag

Millenium Sports Stadium

Cardiff Castle and its gardens

W e made it to Wales! We caught the bus and it took us just over 3 hours. When we arrived we had a look around Cardiff city - where we were staying, visited the Millenium rugby grounds and went around Cardiff castle. The castle was beautiful in the inside but we weren't allowed to take any photos. Each room was done with a different theme. The nursary had rhymes and stories drawn around the wall, the bedroom themed on Revelations and the smoking room on time - very beautiful. We ended the day with a nice warm pub meal, as despite it not raining it was very cold.

Family

Jo on the left and Nic on the right

Last night we went out for dinner with my cousins - Dad's sisters daughters. It was really good to see them, I have only met then when I was really little (apparently) I can't remember.

Update Tuesday 22nd May

Josh and I at Lords

The media centre

Members Stand

Lords Cricket Ground

The taxi bike we got a ride home one

My Criminal Check has finally come back and I have done 3 days temping working - 2 last week and one last monday. In addition I have gone to 2 job interviews this week so my employment has began - how exciting - Sarah. Josh worked last weekend so Louise and I went shopping from 9am until 7.30pm on Oxford Street! It is absoultly mad at the shops. There is this one cheap shop called Primark and we had to get there at 9am otherwise it would have been more of a circus that it already was. We waited for the changing rooms for about 5minutes but if we went later in peak time we could have stood their for an hour or more! Never mind early bird catches the worm - it's early girl catches the frock!! It is very cheap - i brought some jumpers at 6 pounds each, a shirt for 5 and singlets for 2 each! So good! Josh's highlight for the weekend was on Sunday we went to Lords Cricket Ground to watch the 4th day of a test match between England and West Indies. Josh's work gave us tickets and we sat in their box at the top of the grounds and had lovely french champagne and a yummy lunch. There are some photos to come. I will put them on ASAP - as no internet. On the way home we caught a bicycle taxi back to the tube station - so much fun - wait till you see the funny photo.