Journeys and destinations

Cardiff has a lot of older buildings and the city was not too bad or as dirty -we didn’t spend a lot of time there. We went to Bute Park the biggest park in the City which is next to the Cardiff castle. They have the biggest collection of champion trees in a public park in the UK.- Champion trees are acknowledged as the tallest or broadest of their type in the British isles. It was stunning to see such a huge variety of different trees together one more beautiful than the other. Missing a “real” tree in Perth!

I loved Wales especially the country towns and villages and would love to visit Tintern again.

This is the Cardiff castle and Bute park.

These Welsh cakes were delicious, it is a soft biscuit like scone.

Ryan was hoping that these would be dragon eggs!

The wall of animals was so beautiful, it was next to the castle and part of the wall of the Bute park. Here are just a few of the many animals on the wall. Ryan loved the bear.

We only spend a couple of hours here and I wanted to see the fashion museum. It was very interesting and some lovely pieces. We came into the town via a back road and got this surprise shot. Decided to not go to the Roman baths and will have to return someday in the future. I find it sad to see all the vandalism and graffiti in these old cities.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. I that case, of course, You’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.- Dr Seuss

We crossed the “border” into the UK today and went to Stonehenge! It was on Ryan’s bucket list and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. To us is was worth the time and effort to get there. It was a beautiful day and the sun actually came out for a while as well. Just loving the big smile on Ryan’s face. We did as all blogs advised us- book online and go early- we had no queues and an extra little bonus for the ladies; clean toilets and no waiting. Another travel tip was to wait until you get to the museum toilets they are much cleaner and better kept. Another side note is that the taps are mostly set on warm water in Ireland and Wales- nice

The surrounding countryside are beautiful farmlands and all the cattle reminded me of this verse in the bible in Ps50:10 God says For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

We arranged with Daisuke Miura from Adult Ballet Wales for a few private master classes for Amelia. He is a former professional dancer for Wales Ballet and Serbian Nation ballet. He is amazing and has a very good ballet philosophy. He is training adult ballet dancers and beginners as well as ice skaters and gymnasts prepping for competitions etc. and is promoting ballet for enjoyment-everyone can do ballet- no student left behind. We both enjoyed the private classes tremendously. Amelia also had the option to do the regular group class but was exhausted and the hours travel to and back didn’t work out with sightseeing as well. We hope to be back one day as he is a wonderful teacher and person.

He also did some Pax de Deux work with her and taught her a short piece from Sleeping beauty.

We went to the Puzzlewood in Coleford, Wales which are very close to Tintern. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We tend to use awesome so flippantly in our culture- everything is awesome. We should save the word for places like this. Photos can’t do it justice. They used the area to film a number of movies and TV programmes Merlin, Jack the Giant slayer, Atlantis, Tree fu Tom, Dr Who…Not sure how some of these movies are but the nature is stunning.

We have arrived in Wales and are staying in Tintern. It is a picturesque little village on the river Wye. The big attraction to this village is it’s abbey called Tintern abbey. It is in ruins but still spectacular. The river Wye is the border between Wales and the UK.

We have been very tired and busy so my blog is getting behind. The internet is not always very fast. This type of tour needs mental and physical stamina to keep going on. But we are enjoying all of it.

We loved Wales and are glad we stayed in such a beautiful place. I would not have enjoyed staying in Cardiff city and might not have experienced Wales as the wonderful place it is. We will be back.

The nature in Wales are similar to Ireland and is also just as beautiful. Once again we rented a car and Ernest is enjoying comparing his driving experiences with the cars and roads. We find the roads in Wales very pleasant to drive on. There are still the narrow lanes in the rural areas, but it is very easy to drive to different areas on the free ways and highways. Very good experience with road travelling and signage.

I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky. Poem by John Masefield

So exciting to be on this huge Irish ferry which is more like a mini cruise liner with restaurants, shop and lounges. The sea is calm and life is good! We are on our way to Wales and will stay there for 4 days. It was cold and windy on the outside deck!

Our time in Ireland has come to and end. We had a fantastic time and would love to return someday. It was scary to drive on all those narrow roads once you got off the national routes into the small towns, but also stunning. I loved the hedges of fuchsias, ferns, foxgloves etc. I don’t think I’ll be able to live here with all the rain and cold wind most of the year, but it sure is pretty when the sun comes out. The contrasts in blue sky, white clouds and green land with white rock buildings and walls and hedges are a photographers heaven. Rent a small car, don’t stay long in Dublin, spend more time in the countryside, I think we nailed it. I didn’t mention it but the sun sets at 10pm each night- we went to bed at 9:30 in bright sunlight and woke to sunlight at 6:00am each morning. Lucky we were so tired from our exploring and driving that we just fell asleep each night.

A sculpture of Charlie Chaplin on the Ring of Kerry.

We’re taking the ferry from Rosslare to Pembroke in Wales. We are sleeping in this lovely cottage on a block of land with horses on.

When you visit a lot of tourist attractions you realise that the curio shops sell basically the same things just the picture of the attraction on the merchandise are different and the toys are geared towards the attraction. One thing that caught our attention was some Celtic name cards. It is interesting how it described some personality traits of Ryan and Amelia.

It made me think why people so much want to know what their name means. People want to know who they are, be validated and feel they belong, that they are ok and society recognise them as valuable and part of the group.

In the Bible God takes names seriously and your name reflected who you were and affected your future. Like Abraham’s name meant, Father of a multitude, and were blessed as the father or patriarch of not only the Israelites but also the spiritual father to all who believes in Jesus Christ as saviour. When Jesus came to earth to die for people’s sin, He was called the Name above all names. If you put your faith in Jesus you become part of Gods family you will belong to the creator of heaven and earth.

Phillipians 2:9-11

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor

and gave him the name above all other names,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

One of our bucket list activities was to visit Skellig Michael a world heritage sight. Also a place where scenes from Star Wars- The Last Jedi were shot. It is also a Puffin nesting site! We planned our holiday around this visit and Ryan’s birthday destination later this month. Sadly due to gale-force winds we couldn’t go out to the island.(45min speed boat ride)We knew from the beginning that this could happen but still are feeling disappointed. Portmagee is on the South Western tip of Ireland and is the closest little harbour town to the island and this is where we are currently staying.

So today we visited Kerry cliffs, the look out over the wild Atlantic ocean towards the Skellig Islands. The wind and rain were buffeting us and we were icy cold. We went home to a lovely peat fire and pizza. I’m soo glad we got these amazing rain jackets- very light weight but very effective to keep rain and wind out- our bodies were dry. The brands are The North face, Cederberg, Merrel and Columbia. They are all different, based on our taste in colour, size and style. Amelia wanted a longer cloak-like raincoat that was extra light- that is the Cederberg, but they didn’t have any in my size…

Here are some photos of the cliffs and surrounding area that would look very similar to Skellig Michael. I am sad I missed the puffins, but maybe someday I will be able to return to see it.