Tintern Abbey - May 25 - Day 10

Heather got new boots (mostly for work) before heading off to Britain, so she brought them along so she could test them out before going wandering around the bush looking for shinies.  It was therefore decided that we would go on a hike.

It was decided that Tintern Abbey would be a good place for said hike to begin.  It was a very nice, old abbey that, like so many old things in Britain, has a serious lack of roof.  It was built about 900 years ago by a bunch of monks who didn't like fancy things.  This distaste of fancy things was later abandoned, so some of the walls are really quite impressive.

After visiting the abbey, we headed over the bridge (into England) and up the hill to the Devil's Pulpit, which was apparently placed there by the devil to tempt monks away from the abbey.  I fail to see why, since it's a lot of effort to climb up a hill.  You do get quite  lovely view from the top, though.

After lunch, we climbed back down the hill again via a meadow, Daleks, an old railway station, and  a funny looking circle of wooden stations of crazy dead guys (and also a mermaid).

Eventually we ended up back at the abbey.  And then we went home.

Caerphilly Castle - May 24 - Day 9

Helen and Heather headed over to Caerphilly in the morning to visit the castle.  The end result of the visit being that Helen decided she wanted to live in a castle.  It was a pretty great castle, and it features a tower that leans about 10 degrees away from vertical (which, according to the signs in the castle, is more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa and is therefore impressive).  Helen decided she was going to push it back up again (it didn't work).

In the afternoon, we went to visit Cardiff Bay.  It turns out that the Millennium Centre is actually kind of ugly (which is not the impression you get from watching Doctor Who OR Torchwood).

The fountain across from the Millennium Centre was devoid of water when we visited, and as a result was ridiculously reflective.  Heather still felt the need to stand in front of it on Torchwood's "invisible lift," though.

Apparently huge fans of Torchwood REALLY miss Ianto.  A wall has been put up in the Bay to allow people to show how much they wish Ianto would come back to the show, despite the fact he DIED at the end of the last season.

Cardiff Bay is also full of interesting statues and weird art.

There's a mysterious circle that Heather thinks might be dedicated to Roald Dahl...

A bizarrely reshaped boat that is most likely no longer seaworthy...

A statue that definitely represents Scott leaving Cardiff on a doomed mission to Antarctica from which he would never return...

And two funny looking men in a bathtub for reasons I cannot begin to understand...

Cardiff - May 22 & 23 - Days 7 & 8

In the morning, we checked out the hotel in Manchester and took a somewhat roundabout way to the train station and an equally roundabout way to Cardiff.  This was exciting, because Heather got to see Helen for the first time in about 2 years.  The first afternoon in Cardiff was spent at Helen's friend Matt's house, where she, Matt, and Jammo were studying for their ridiculously exciting exam the next morning.  Heather watched Doctor Who while they studied (which was much more interesting).  Helen introduced Heather to Black Books, a sit com from around 2000 or so that, naturally, never aired in Canada and is absolutely HILARIOUS.  After a delicious supper (prepared by Matt and Jammo), Helen and Heather headed home so Helen could get plenty of sleep before her exam the next morning.

The next day was Heather's first full day in Cardiff.  We went and visited central Cardiff, starting with Cardiff City Hall.

After deciding it was far too expensive to go INSIDE Cardiff Castle, we circumnavigated it instead (well... almost).

Next to Cardiff Castle, there's a very lovely wall known as the Animal Wall.  It has a lot of animals (but sadly, none of them are penguins).

We visited Bute Park.  It was a very lovely park, full of flowers and rivers and things.

There was a stone circle which isn't nearly as old or mysterious as Stonehenge OR the Nine Ladies of Stanton Moor, but still looks pretty cool.

For some mysterious reason, some of the trees had the COOLEST branches.  They grew straight up, and I was quite impressed.

There was also an old abbey that was excavated by the Victorians.  Apparently, Victorians were not very good at excavating things, since they covered it up again with some weird red stones.

We found a really hilarious souvenir shop, full of very Welsh things (such as rugby, dragons, and sheep) and with the best sign you will EVER see on a shop.

In the afternoon, we went to meet Helen and her engineering friends in the Student Union pub, where we spent quite a long time playing ridiculous quiz games trying to gain money (between the 8 people or so in the group, they won 4 pounds.  People, unlike penguins, are not so bright).

Post pub, we went to another pub for supper (2 for 1 burgers!  Cheap and delicious!)

Then we went home to bed.

Manchester - May 21 - Day 6

After visiting Oxford, Heather said goodbye to Helen's granny and headed to Manchester.  Manchester is a loud and dirty city that Heather did not particularly enjoy.  But... we headed over to the O2 Apollo, so we could watch Ed Byrne, a Very Funny Man who was DEFINITELY worth seeing.  He had many very memorable stories about his cat...

"We treat animals better than humans.  If you want proof of this, just look at my cat.  We found a cat by the bins by our house, and it looked hungry, so now it lives with us."  

Eynsham and Oxford - May 19 & 20 - Days 4 and 5

After London, it was decided that we needed to spend less time in big cities, so we spent a couple of days exploring near where Helen's granny lives.  She lives in a little village called Eynsham, and the first day we got there, we went on a tour of the village which was narrated by Helen's granny and went something like this:

"This is a neat little bakery.  This is the Co-op, you can buy groceries here if you need anything.  This is where Helen's family lives, but they're moving soon.  This is the church, and this is the square where we hold our country market.  And that's it really.  All the rest is pubs."

In case you're interested, there are 8 pubs in Eynsham and about 300 people.  Maybe less, I didn't count.  But it's a neat village with lots of neat walks and history, since it's built on the site of a former abbey.

Heather went on a walk to the Thames to a lock, through a field of cows.  Cows are very large and very stupid.

Heather also went and followed the Eynsham historical trail, which revisited some of the former sites of the abbey.  None of them are there anymore, but they know a lot about where things USED to be...

The parish church.

The former fish ponds for the abbey.

A body of water.  

The next day, Heather decided to take a tour of Oxford.  Rather than pay to visit the inside of any of the colleges (there are about 37 of them), she went and looked at the outsides of many, many buildings.

There was Christ Church College, where Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland...

There was The University Church of Saint Mary, which has a cool tower with a great view at the top of it...

not to mention some pretty cool gargoyles and things. 

There was the Bodleian Library, which is host to over 8 million books...

The Museum of the History of Science (FREE TO VISIT! Woohoo!)...

The Oxford Natural History Museum, home of the Oxford Dodo (the Oxford Dodo has been in a museum since about 1650 or so, and was improperly stored in the 1800's, so all that's left now is a leg and its beak, but it's been reconstructed so it looks like a whole bird)...

The Pitt Rivers Museum, which was attached to the Natural History Museum and is CRAMMED full of things about everything.  It's very chaotic and overwhelming, but kind of fun.