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We stopped for lunch in Chepstow. Hey, I just
realized there was an enormous castle behind us (just kidding).
Who knew that Mustard contains: Mustard.
That’s good advice.
Zeddle ordered faggots. What. Stop giggling, you Americans
who did not know that faggots are those meaty balls on the plate. What? You
people are so immature.
Chepstow castle.
Next stop was Caerphilly, another source of endless
puns.
No eating, Zeddle.
The picturesque castle
of Caerphilly.
Yes, the tower on the right is falling over so walk around caerphilly.
We took a hot air balloon ride over the castle, which is how I took this
shot. If you think it looks like a badly taken shot of a postcard, you would,
uh, be mistaken.
The broken tower up close. Supposedly its balance defies physics so no one
knows how it stays up.
Here, I keep it from falling over.
Oops, my bad.
Stairway to nowhere.
Carmel watches
for invaders.
Alex and I watch for Carmel
watching for invaders.
Another angle.
Carmel told me
to climb the rock caerphilly.
Carmel got into
this acro-yoga goddess pose very caerphilly.
To cross this bridge, one must breakdance-battle
with the guard.
The moats kept invaders out by being full of dangerous creatures.
Like these cute duckies in a row!
And these slightly odd fish flipping around in mating season.
Group shot with my camera balancing caerphilly on a
fence.
Organic paper.
Ice cream for all the hapus out there. I got mixed
flavors.
They had a statue of a bunny!
We moved on to our hotel in Brecon, which was
adjoining this castle. Our room had that balcony above the sign.
The floors were a bit crooked.
But, we had a lovely view from our room!
At dinner we drank Brains, which was useful because we had to use our brains
to find a table. At first there were no tables, so the wait staff told us to
grab a table if we could find one. We found a table attached to someone
else’s table, so we grabbed it and moved it into a new space. But, it
was in the middle of a fire exit, so we moved it again, but it blocked
another table. Finally, a real table opened up that we grabbed. Meanwhile,
the Brits in our group were hiding in a corner embarrassed about all our
breaking of the status quo. Hey, the wait staff told us to grab a table if we
could find one! Of course, the next evening at dinner the wait staff told us
to “jump on a table” if we could find one, to which I replied,
“Yes. We will jump on a table if we find one.” The Brits in our
group nearly jumped out the window to avoid further embarrassment.
The next day we set out on a 10-mile hike through the Welsh hills.
We caught an amazingly sunny and beautiful day, where we all got rather sunburnt.
The initial climb was the hardest.
Alex, shown wheezing in the back, had puked up the previous night’s
whiskey party just minutes before embarking on the trek. He was good for the
rest of the day some 20 minutes later.
Happy to have finished the initial climb.
The gentle hills of the Welsh countryside.
Exposing my skin to sun not seen since moving to England.
A little to your right…
I totally wanted to snowboard this bowl.
 
Neat stacked rock formation on this waterfall.
Well-sorted rocks. Bob’s your uncle, and Fanny is your aunt! (That
phrase means “sorted”).
Zeddle, Jesus-like, walks on water (and freaks out
when she gets her new shoes wet).
I also just wanted to roll down the hill like a kid.
Carmel, being
the extreme-adventure type who everyone knows her as, went paragliding.
Jacuzzi.
More on the trail.
Group shot.
We eventually made it to the top of Fan-y Big. Yes, that’s it’s name.
Venturing out on to the “diving board”.
I found this spot quite comfortable.
After we reached the peak, we weren’t really sure where to go next.
We went down to this reservoir.
Nearly done with our hike, Zeddle decided to take
us off the planned route to go find some supposedly amazing train tracks. We
went downhill for about 25 minutes without a sign of them before giving up,
and hiking back to the path (uphill >25 minutes of course). We continued
back on our regular path for 45 seconds before Zeddle
noticed the amazing train tracks just off the path. As you can see, [begin
sarcasm] the train tracks are amazing [end sarcasm],
Our group at the end of the hike.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped for a small boat crossing. When they opened
the gate again, a car behind us zipped around to the front of the queue to
sneak by early, but instead found himself stuck in there as the opposing
traffic had already begun crossing the bridge. This breaking of the queue
cause much dissatisfied mumbling from the Brits.
On our way out from Wales,
we stopped by Hay for the Hay Festival. It was a beautiful day, neither
hay-zee nor hay-ling. The Brits in our group were not amused with our puns.
In fact, one could say that they hay-ted it.
 
Some festive Morris dancing by the Hay castle.
I pondered what caused the tree to the left to turn red, but not the tree to
the right.
Continuing on our journey out of Wales, we stopped by an ancient
priory called Llanthony.
Strong supporting arches.
It must have been quite an impressive structure.
Barely standing.
And finally, we couldn’t help but check out White Castle.
No burgers, but still a cool castle.
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