Wales Day Five

[cornerofmadness]

Right, FINALLY getting this out there, two months late (OMG). In theory the fridge people will be here at 10. THis place is as ready as it will ever be.


Wales Day Five

Today it rained and I was wrong about the three tuns. It’s actually older than 1660s. It dates back all the way to the late 1400s. Last night after I got up to go to the loo in the middle of the night, something grabbed the heel of my foot, just to say hello I think. It was like they had simply put their hand on it. When ELD got up and walked to the bathroom something sat on the bed with me briefly.

We went to Chepstow Castle and we lucked into Rodger, a medical historian portraying a barber surgeon. We listened to him for a half hour, forty minutes. It was so very helpful for my research more than anything I did so far. I was so happy to find it . A lot of it I already knew but I didn’t know about how they would induce heavy metal poisoning as an emetic with a little pill of antimony a pill that was reused after being vomited up…but also used for severe constipation and reused after being pooped. Whee. I got his card and plan to email him for more. But that also meant we had to fly through the castle.

Of course, there are such long drive times so by the end of the day we had to skip St. Fagan’s which was okay. That was mostly filler on how they lived. I can get some of that info online if I need it. We went to Tintern Abbey . It was amazing, simply amazing. For one, that this much of the abbey survived the culling and the years since. It was such a big place. Some of the infirmary was still there so I can talk about it and it had a running cistern through it so you could flush things along so I have that theme of water again. We ate the anchor which was also part of an abbey out building. (One of my friends is jealous of this part because she wanted to go there but it’s not often on trips to Wales but it appears a crap ton in poetry and literature and she’s a lit prof).

We crossed back into England (Glouchester) to see St Briavels castle and Mary of the Virgin Church. I believe you can stay here as a hostel. Unfortunately it let go hard, raining miserably (which we really can’t complain about since it was the first time for it) so we gave up on it, just got a few pics. Since St. Fagan’s was out and ELD wanted to see standing stones so Mary took us to maes-y-felin, otherwise known as St Lythan’s which I saw last time too. We could have seen Tinkinswood again (which is more impressive) but it was SO wet and it’s a long walk. St. Lythan’s is in a cow pasture. There was a lot of poo. SO much poo but the stones are still so striking. It’s a cromlech from about 6000 B.C. and it does have some fun legends attached.

We went to the holiday inn next to the airport since we have to be in the airport by 430 AM. Irony of ironies, a) I’ve wanted to see Midsomer Murder the whole time but didn’t run into it until tonight when I can’t finish it and b) 10 days in the UK and the first time I’m in a hotel with a lift, and I’m assigned the ground floor.


Another room in the Three Tuns (someone left it open and I'm nosy)

Chepstow Castle

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

Tintern Abbey

crap selfie Tintern Abbey

St. Briavels

St. Lythan's

Hole thru which light pours at the solstice.

Comments

[ysilme]

I love to look at people's travelling pics at any time! These are lovely, I particularly like the dramatic effect the grey sky gives the Tintern Abbey and Chepstow castle pics!

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks (me too, love seeing new to me places)

Yes, it was actually the only day it rained (not bad for the UK, last time it rained every day) but those skies really added something to the pictures