Off to Wales

We left Wokingham and headed to Chepstow, just over the border from England into South Wales. The drive was easy, straight along the M4 motorway with good weather, which meant no rain.

Chepstow is just over this bridge, one of two that cross the River Severn at this point.

Chepstow is a small, walled market town.  We really liked the feel of it. On its outskirts is a very large castle, the oldest Norman castle in Britain with work starting only one year after the Norman conquest in 1066.

Part of the town's old walls.

Walking along a path toward the castle entrance gives some idea of it's size.

A photo that gives some idea of the castle size, it is really big! It is hard to imagine the scale of the effort to build this structure a thousand years ago.

This large section had several stories when built. You can see the pocket holes in the walls where floor beams must have been.

Another attempt to give some idea of scale.

This was the wine cellar, it would work very well today. Hard to imagine this full of wine flasks.

Views down to the river which also afforded protection from attack in that direction.

Spiral stone stairs up to the battlements, life in a castle such as this is hard to imagine.

I would just love to have seen this place in it's early glory.

This is the base of what must have been a highly decorated arch that can also be seen in the photo of the large room above. Apparently this section of the castle was three stories high.

We stayed in a B&B just outside of town and this was the scene we could see from our room.

All of the grass was chopped up and blown into the trailer pulled by the second tractor. It was quite an operation and the field was cleared in an afternoon. We noticed other farms doing this and wondered how the chopped grass was used, maybe for silage.

We say goodbye to Chepstow and head further west toward Pembrokeshire.
Stay tuned.

England, First Stop

After flying into Heathrow from Lyon, we went to visit our long time friends, Peter and Maureen in Wokingham. The flight from Lyon is quite short, but if you add all of the time taken getting through security and customs etc., I think it would be much less stressful and quicker to take the train.
I have known Peter and Maureen since the early 1970's and had not seen them for at least seven years, so it was a great opportunity to get caught up.

Settling in for a few days with Peter and Maureen.
They live within walking distance of Wokingham, which is a delightful market town and is one of the healthiest and best small towns in Britain. It is easy to walk around, has a market place, good shops, restaurants and coffee shops.

A concert band playing classical music on the square.

A splendid building in the middle of town.

Not to mention a lovely popular bistro.......

We were sitting at the cafe mentioned above and all of a sudden there was a parade. The parade was to recognize a local Army group moving to a new location, so the town gave them a send-off. There was a marching band, parading city Councillors, boy scouts, the Mayor and his entourage, plus the group of soldiers. Here is the Mayor in all his finery inspecting everything and everyone.

Peter and Maureen took us to visit Basildon Park, an English mansion near where they live. It has been beautifully restored and was used in several scenes from the TV series Downton Abbey.
It was a lovely day which allowed us to have tea with the mansion as a backdrop.

Just a glimpse of one of the rooms.

Peter and Maureen enjoying the sunshine.

We also took a stroll in the garden.

It was Diane's birthday when we were in Wokingham, so we all went for a birthday lunch at an Italian restaurant in Henley-on-Thames.

The birthday girl.

There are always a lot of boating opportunities on the river Thames.

Lots of weirs and locks.

And really old pubs.
We had a very special visit with our friends, with a fair amount of reminiscing and catching up on events in our lives.
It also gave me a chance to get comfortable with driving on the left, (or as they say here, the correct) side of the road.
Wales, next stop.

Back to Britain

We left Guardia on June 8 on a slow journey to fly to Heathrow from Lyon on Friday June 12. We first stayed in a wonderful Bed & Breakfast in the countryside near Canali, which is close to Reggio Emilia.

This is the front of the house that we reached by driving along a very narrow road from the hamlet of Canali. Our hostess, Francesca, had spent time in Miami, so her English was very good. She was quite taken with our story and we found out she had shared it with all of her FB friends. It turns out, traveling light and free is a goal of hers.

The house is beautifully decorated with many Asian touches which we, of course, enjoyed.

There was also a pool and the weather was hot, so this was a nice touch. The only downside was a massive amount of star jasmine around the area, the scent so strong that we both had significant allergy attacks.

A really nice location to try and get the blog moving, if ever so slowly.

This was a cute sign on the door to Francesca's kitchen where we had breakfast. We found it through www.booking.com, which has served us well on this trip.

We decided to take a trip into Reggio Emilia and searching for parking on mapquest, this looked like a good choice, good name association, close to the center of the city, and it was. The only thing we did not take into account is the city is over 2,000 years old, is walled, and designed before the invention of the car. The GPS got us there OK, but through a maze of narrow, one way, high walled streets. The good news, it was close to the main piazza's.

We had been eating so much, that eating another dinner was one meal too many, so we opted for gelato. When in doubt, eat ice cream!

This sign was next to the fountains in the piazza and I thought it rather fun, it might have been easier to indicate just what you could do.

We had an invitation to visit a friend, Caroline, in Switzerland, near Geneva, which she told us was only an hour from Lyon, of course, we just had to go. An added bonus was that we had to go through the tunnel that goes under Mont Blanc.

To get to the Mont Blanc tunnel we had to drive through northern Italy, the above photo gives some idea of the scenery.

Castles and churches always dominate the high ground.

We were hoping for a nice coffee shop or restaurant somewhere in the mountains near the motorway, this is all we found. How about that table!

The approach to the tunnel and border check point.

That is not the height of Mont Blanc, but the tunnel length, I think.

In the tunnel, not much of a photo, but gives some idea of what it looks like under Mont Blanc.

It was hard to get any photos as we exited the tunnel, but Diane did a great job of catching a glimpse of this glacier flowing down the mountain.

Don't know the name, but an impressive peak.

Driving along the lakeside in Geneva on our way to Caroline's.

The famous Jet d'Eau in the background.

Caroline has two dogs in her care, this is Charlie.

And this is Maclan, who is a very large and gentle dog.
After a lovely overnight visit with Caroline, we drove to Lyon airport,  just over an hour's drive through beautiful countryside. Spent the night at the airport hotel, and took a BA flight to Heathrow on Friday morning.
Next stop England.