A Perfect Summer Weekend in Wales

This weekend was one for the books! With clear blue skies and beautiful temperatures in the mid-70's, we packed our bicycles in the car and headed for the west coast of Wales on the Swansea Peninsula.

In just over 2 hours we were beach-front in Swansea, wandering through the harbor in search of lunch. Dean would have loved hanging here with us and watching the sailboats and their occupants come and go. From there we checked into our hotel and hopped on the bikes to ride along the coast. People were out on the beach boardwalk in force and we soon learned that the Beach Rugby Tournament was the main attraction.

We were able to ride to the opposite side of Swansea Bay and beyond. It was an incredible day to be riding along, looking at the ocean and people watching. At one point we passed by a park beside the bay with a huge baby pool just filled with kids; their parents lounging nearby in the grass. When we got to the lighthouse point we took some time to relax on a large patio serving freshly made ice cream. We have gotten very accustomed to afternoon 'snacks' - tea optional!

We capped off a beautiful Saturday with an amazing dinner at a restaurant called La Brasserie on Wind Street. After being seated, you are asked to go to the display and select your meat or fish and then order your sides. From there you head to the wine bar and order your bottle. All is then prepared and brought to your table. It was delicious and, as a bonus, we met a lovely young couple seated next to us that gave us great tips on the area, including where NOT to go which we had already figured out on the walk to the restaurant.

Sunday morning we packed up again and drove to the end of the peninsula to Rhosilli Beach and Worm's Head. The road to get there was crazy - so narrow! I am amazed at the cyclists that dared to ride this road as the cars whipped around the bend with stone walls rising straight up on each side. I was white-knuckled just riding in the passenger seat of the car! The reward is an undeveloped beach area below a high cliff and adjacent to a phenomenal hike to Worm's Head point that can only be reached when the tide is out for a period of about 5 hours.

We hiked around the shoreline up on the cliff until the tide was out far enough to make our way across the rocks to Worm's Head point. It was not easy going but filled with little tide pools containing sea life and lots of little clam shells. Once on the other side you climbed up through tall grass and plants for more spectacular views until reaching another rocky separation to navigate before reaching the actual "head of the worm", as I would call it. My hiking ladies would have loved this - a bit scarier than Camelback along that ridge! If you misstep you just might fall off the cliff and land in the ocean or end up being cut by some pretty jagged rocks. OK, that is probably just my perspective because I am afraid of heights but you get the idea. We did reach the end and were able to lay down in tufted, soft grass that was so thick if felt like a down mattress. I did not want to leave but the thought of the tide coming back in and stranding us there kept me moving!

From here we walked up the hill to one of the few cottages selling refreshments and had our daily dose of ice cream before heading down the steep trail to Rhosilli beach. When the tide was out the beach seemed to be 1/2 mile wide. Hang gliders were sailing overhead, surfers were trying to catch the waves and people were relaxing everywhere but it never felt crowded. The water was quite a bit warmer than a northern California beach at this time of year, which surprised us. After a quick nap in the sand we relunctantly packed up our gear and headed for home.

Let's hope this weather holds for a bit longer....what a treat!

Things You Discover When You Follow Your Nose

Now that I have a month in between visitors and have started exploring on my own, I have noticed that I tend to talk to myself about random things while driving or walking through new territory. Today I found myself wondering out loud about the fact that so many of the homes in England seem to have names. Do they come with names or do the present owners get to name them? Does the postman use the house name or the house number? I have decided that I am a big fan of house names. It seems to interject personality and give you a hint about the kind of place it is, who might live there or what goes on there. For example, today while driving to Marmesbury I passed a house that was named, Cocks Roost Farm House. I guess that could be interpreted different ways but, given the rural location, I am picturing roosters and probably hens - perhaps they sell fresh eggs? Should I be worried that I spend time thinking about things like this? What would you name your home? Many house names appear to contain the family name but I think including Fuetterer in the house name would lose something in translation depending on who was reading the sign. Enough!

I did eventually come across a couple of places worth mentioning today. Mike had meetings at a hotel in the Cotswold Water Park, located about 20 minutes north of here. It is actually an area known for its many lakes, some of which seem to be for specific purposes like sailing, swimming or ski jumping. Footpaths, cycling trails and horse paths lace the area so I dropped him at his meeting and set off to see how to access the trails. It wasn't as easy as I envisioned. The walking trails didn't seem to be well marked from the designated parking areas that I found but I did eventually stop in a VERY small town called Ashton Keynes. This place was a quaint collection of homes made of Cotswold Stone. I was able to find a pub to buy a bottled water and the proprietor pointed me in the direction of the Thames Path that led to the Church Walk. It was a nice shady path to an old church but the whole route only took me about 15 minutes. So, I circled back to wander the streets of town and then jumped in my car and headed on down the road to a town called Marmesbury. Bingo!

In Marmesbury I wandered the high street and found a pretty necklace in a shop called Greene & Grey. While shopping I continued to hear shouting from the local pub so I can only imagine that England was doing well in their third World Cup match. They need a win to move on and keep the fans happy! As I was leaving town, I happened upon a path next to the river Avon (there are several river Avon's in England I have learned). I trekked on down it and could see that there was something interesting along the other side and I was determined to find access. As it turns out, I came to a road that let across the river and into the back of the Abbey to the Abbey Gardens of Marmesbury. The Abbey Gardens are, in fact, an English Heritage site so I was happy that we had become members of the English Heritage organization because this place was a jewel! Beautiful formal gardens with intricate bedded plants and all sorts of flowers led to a lawn that had a big lawn chess game set up surrounded by still more beautiful flowers, shrubs and vines climbing the walls. Everywhere you turned was yet another unique garden in a different shape. Eventually, the formal gardens led you down a fairly steep embankment to the river's edge. Along the way they had steppingstones and an old wooden bridge to get you back and forth while exploring along the river. I was in heaven now. At 25 degrees Celsius, it was a warm day, so the shady path was delightful. I wish I had a book along. This was a perfect spot to sit on the bench and read the day away.

Tonight, we are off to dinner with several of Mike's colleagues. I am looking forward to meeting some of the people here in Swindon that Mike sees every day. More later...

That's Life

After a busy travel week and weekend, we knew it was time to get through all the laundry and who knew it would take two full days given the size of the washing machine and the length of the wash cycles. Don't even get me started on the dryer. It is clearly better to hang everything to dry then mess with that!

But who really wants to discuss laundry anyway? Especially when today was a beautiful sunny day and we had another interesting bike ride. Every trail leads us somewhere new and today was no different. It is light here until 10pm so we went out to run errands on our bicycles at 7 and then followed a new trail on the way home that led us out into fields south of town filled with sheep. Eventually the trail led to another way over the M4 highway. Obviously there is something good over there so we will need more time to investigate. We continued to see runners coming from over the bridge and I am guessing they had been running a very long time given our location. More on that later...time to sleep.

Happy Father's Day!

Today was the day Mike has been waiting for. We finally got out on bicycles and explored the National Cycle Trail network this morning. We found that it is mainly off-road and discovered a nearby park called Coate Water that has a big lake and a bunch of trails surrounding it. Given that there are diving towers in the lake, it seems that you can swim here when the weather is warmer. Today we were bundled up against the wind so swimming was not on our radar!

As you continue riding there is a spiral trail that takes you up and over the M4 highway. I opted to head back and explore the trails in our neck of the woods a bit more today but Mike went over to check it out. Evidently it leads all the way to Salisbury so we will have lots to explore on future outings. After lunch we are heading to Birmingham to see a Cirque de Soleil show with the Intel Social Club. I find it funny that we have never been to one of these shows on our many trips to Las Vegas, yet here we are trooping off to Birmingham, England to do so.

...Back from Birmingham and the show was a lot of fun. I'm not sure I will have much need to return to Birmingham during the remainder of our stay but they do have several theaters and a network of canals running through that area with nice places to eat or just stroll along. On the way to the theater our bus was diverted off the main road because a person had jumped off the bridge into the oncoming traffic. As we passed you could see them lying on the pavement - it was very disturbing.

Today is actually Father's Day, although it doesn't really register when your kids and your father are on the other side of the ocean! Mike is looking forward to our skype calls with everyone later today. We spent the morning taking a run (or slow jog, in my case), doing laundry, running errands and having lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We did not have high hopes for the restaurant given the variety of fabulous Mexican food we are used to in Phoenix but we were pleasantly surprised! They put roasted veggies like squash, corn, aubergine, sweet potatoes, onion and peppers in with the chicken and it was amazing. Good to know that we can get a fix of food that reminds us of home when needed.

Again, Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there....

Windsor Castle - On My Own Today...

This morning I woke up to find Lynette on her hands and knees washing her bathroom floor - who knew she did floors! She is welcome to visit ANYTIME. We had a blast and I will miss her. I shuttled Lynette to Heathrow, about an hours drive from here, and decided to take advantage of the commute to visit Windsor Castle on my way home.

As luck would have it, I happened to be walking up the hill to the castle from the car park just as the changing of the guards paraded by. That was fun to see at such close range! From there I stood in line and purchased a ticket to explore the castle via audio tour.


I found this castle to be beautiful. Everything is very well maintained for use by the royal family and the official events that take place there. The state apartments were open and I enjoyed touring the rooms, seeing the Queen's Doll house, perusing all of the famous artwork on display and looking around St. George's Chapel. I took lots of pictures of the grounds and explored the surrounding shops of Windsor before heading back to the car to drive home.

This weekend we are looking forward to breaking in the new bikes we bought - Mike's Father's Day present! There are lots of bike trails nearby so it should be fun if the weather cooperates. Happy Father's Day to any of you Dad's out there that might be reading this.

Cheers!

Touring Bath

After two days of driving around the countryside, we took the train to Bath for a quick day trip. It was nice to just watch the scenery roll by for 25 minutes instead of concentrating on driving down the correct side of the road and not causing an accident in the roundabouts!

My first impression of Bath is that it is clean and white. The white limestone used to build this town gives it a very bright and cheerful feel. We had yet to do a double-decker bus tour so we thought this would be a good place to start. It was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky so we climbed to the top of the bus, put on our shades and lovely red headphones and began the tour. Points of interest that we later visited included the Jane Austen house, the Roman Baths and the Abbey where the first King of England was coronated.

The Jane Austen house was a bit of a bust. Our fee included an interesting 20 minute talk on the life of Jane Austen and then a walk around a small house containing information about her life in Bath. It did pique my curiousity to read more of her work but, as it turns out, I don't even think the house we toured is the one she lived in but instead one that would be similar.

The Roman Baths were fascinating and definitely worth the visit. It is amazing to me that archeologists are able to piece together so much from the ruins that remain. The naturally heated water was a big draw for visitors starting in Roman times and we were thinking we should have brought a swim suit, or bathing costume as they called them, to give the waters a try at one of the local spas.

After shopping we headed to the oldest house in Bath, Sally Lunn's, for our afternoon tea. The thing to order here is Sally Lunn's buns topped with one of a variety of flavored butters or fruit spreads. It was interesting but we are still a fan of scones.

Last stop in Bath was a walk by the river. We felt they were gouging tourists here, as you had to pay to walk down the steps to the park by the river. On the other hand, it was free for locals and it did keep the park from being overcrowded. Given the sunshine, lots of folks were laying around on the ground or in canvas chairs enjoying the afternoon so we went down and did the same for a few minutes before catching the train home for Lynette's farewell dinner.

Mike selected the restaurant and what a GREAT choice! It is called Three Crowns and it is about 10 minutes outside of Swindon in a small village. The menu was extensive, the setting was lovely and the place was crowded. They put our name on a waiting list to be seated and advised us to order before being seated to ensure that we didn't have to wait too long for our food. We did that and headed for the bar for a beer - this was a pub of sorts afterall. A couple of hours later we were so full from big meals and decadent desserts that I had to swear off this lifestyle of afternoon cream tea and restaurant meals for awhile - at least until the next visitor arrives. Any takers?!!

Girl's Hit the Road!

Mike is heading to Munich for the day tomorrow so we figured this would be a good opportunity to take a road trip for a couple of days. We tossed around a bunch of ideas but settled on Cambridge and Oxford.

The drive to Cambridge was longer than expected so, after turning North as we approached London, Lynette started looking for an interesting town to explore along the way. We ended up in St. Albens - perfect for wandering around and getting the legs working again but definitely not a destination (at least not today). Soon after hitting the road again our oil light came on. Now, Lynette is a woman of many skills I am discovering. She advised me to pull over right away because you don't mess around with oil problems so we found a gas station and pulled in. To my delight, they were also offering hand car washes on the spot so we had the car washed, bought a liter of oil and were on our way again.

We arrived in Cambridge around 4 pm and it was hopping! It was tight navigating through the center of town on the very narrow roads but we managed to find a car park and began to look around. It did occur to us at that point that we had not yet booked a room to stay. Of course, we walked straight to the best hotel in the center of town only to find out that they were fully booked as were the next 15 (give or take) hotels that we tried. Just as we were about to head for the surrounding countryside to seek shelter we discovered a Best Western that was well located and actually had ONE room left - we were living right and the folks at ICMC will be happy to know that we are supporting the client whenever possible.

Now that our lodging was secure, we could focus on getting our bearings and taking in this beautiful University town. We found that all of the colleges were closed to visitors due to special events and exam schedules but we were able to view the architecture from the streets as we wandered around. Soon we began to spot young people dressed in formal attire everywhere we went. Most appeared to be high school aged and we later discovered that the colleges, equivalent to our high school juniors and seniors, were having graduation celebrations. We found a lovely spot for dinner, overlooking a plaza by the river, that appeared to be a meeting place for at least some of these events, so it was perfect for people watching and the food was delicious too.

The next morning we decided that our main mission in Cambridge was to buy a sweatshirt before leaving town - mission accomplished! Next stop was a town nearby called Saffron Walden, known for a splendid country house called Audley End House. This Jacobean House was once the largest house in England with gardens designed by Capability Brown. It was an interesting tour and the grounds were beautiful, complete with immaculately restored Jacobean stables and an organic working kitchen garden.

On the way back towards home we made a stop in Oxford. I had been there with Megan a year and a half earlier during the winter break but it looks completely different in the summer when it is full of people. We enjoyed looking at the beautiful University buildings, walking on the grounds near Christ Church and poking in the shops but the very best thing of this day was the perfect English cream tea and delicious scones with raspberry jam we enjoyed at the Vaults and Garden Coffee Shop on the lawn outside St. Mary the Virgin Church. Lynette is determined to find the best scones in England and so far this is the leader.

Tomorrow is Lynette's last full day in England and we are headed to Bath...stay tuned!