Trip to Wales in August

Well, I'm back again. Sorry, the pictures are in reverse order. But I'm probably the only one that knew that. So in August we went to North Wales. The kids wanted to see castles. And they had to be big castles and not the pretty little things they had seen so far. So off to Wales we went.



This is Harlech Castle. It was made famous in the song "Men of Harlech". I bet Tom is the only one to know that.







North Wales has some pretty scenery. This is a waterfall we found in the south part of Snowdonia.



On the path up to the waterfall we found some caves and a few mine shafts. Most had flooded but this one wasn't to bad.



This is a World War II crash site. The plane was a P-47 that was on a training mission to RAF Valley in 1943. The pilot was caught in low cloud and flew into the mountain and was killed. The site is rather remote so the wreckage was not recovered.

This is the mountain above the bunkhouse we stayed at. Mid Wales is very different from the north. It has hedges and no stone walls. Apparently they just started getting TV reception in the 1980's.

This is the village of Beddgelert. It is the site of the grave of Gelert the dog. If you don't know then Wikipedia. It is a very pretty village. You can guess what the next stop is...

This is the bridge in Beddgelert. The hotel on the other side has a meteor inside that crashed through the roof in 1949. No one was hurt but I might think twice about staying there.

No one in a castle was ever in a hurry. If they were they would break their necks running down these stairs.

The inside of Caernarfon Castle. Most of the large castles in Wales were built by Edward I(Longshanks) to subdue the Welsh. This is where the Prince of Wales is invested so the castle is in pretty good shape. This is to follow the tradition of Edward I making sure his son was born here so the Welsh would have a prince.

This is outside Caernarfon Castle in the town. See the signs, they are all in Welsh and English. Most people in North Wales speak Welsh as their primary language. You will hear it everywhere you go. This is amazing considering not too long ago it was almost lost like the Cornish language.

Love those bakeries. Unfortunately in Northamptonshire we don't seem to have too many good bakeries. But Wales has some wonderful places to get your sugar fix.

Some of the scenery on the south side of Mount Snowdon.

Stuart hoping he's going to get to drive down this little road.

Some wonderful scenery in North Wales. It's no wonder it has so many legends like
King Arthur and Branwen, Daughter of Llyr.

This is on the Isle of Anglesey at South Stack. These flowers went as far as you could see.

These are flowers that came from South Africa called crocosmia. They grow all over Wales and Cornwall. We tried growing them in Idaho and got blooms one year but that was it. They grow wild on the sides of the roads here.

This is South Stack Lighthouse or in Welsh Ynys Lawd. The light house was completed in 1809. Not far from here was a Roman sentry station and and a iron age settlement.

Us at South Stack.

Lots of pretty flowers.

In Conwy we found this shop selling armour and swords among other things. So if you decide to go on crusade or go viking, after you stop at the "Ole Trip to Jerusalem" pub you need to talk to this guy. He can kit you out in anything you need from early greek to late medieval.

Here we are down at the harbour in Conwy. Lots of boats here. We saw a bunch of kids trying to catch crabs on the side of the dock.

OK, try to figure this out. The average size of a house in England is about the size of your shed back home. (and you think I'm kidding) So what do we have, some morbid competition to be the smallest of the small. I know of at least two other "Smallest House in Britian" houses. Of course the other end of the spectrum is equally as entertaining. Most large houses would be larger than a warehouse. But what the heck are you going to see in the smallest house? "Here is the bedroom, and if you just squeeze past the Loo you will pop out the backdoor".

Don't get me going on the water pressure.

Stuart on the dock on Conwy

No, not a troll or a gremlin. It's Madison at one of the doors to the towers at the city walls around Conwy. Conwy has most of its city wall still in place. The only thing I can figure out is that this part of Wales has enough rocks on the ground that no one felt inclined to pull down the walls to build their house.

Us on the city wall at Conwy. You can see Conwy castle behind us.

London in July

Howdy, so I'm taking over the blog for a bit to get us caught up. It's been a busy summer and Julie is still pretty busy doing some canning. So you're stuck with me ;-)

Back at the end of July Madison and Stuart went away to Young Mens Camp. While they were gone the rest of us traveled to London for the day.

We made it to Buck house (Buckingham Palace) just in time to see the backs of a million Japanese tourists heads. I can never figure out why they all come to England but you see them everywhere in the summer. I wonder if the English people go to Japan? Maybe it is some sort of cultural exchange program.

Anyway, we did manage to see the guard leaving as they went back to the barracks.

These are soldiers from the Grenedier Guards. Notice the white plume in the bear skin hat and the evenly spaced buttons. From what I understand ceremonial guard duty is horrible duty. So I assume these guys are looking forward to going back to Afghanistan in October.

These guys might look the same but, surprise surprise, they are not. These are Irish Guardsmen. They have blue plumes and their buttons are in groups of 4.















Look Tom, no bagpipes. Not a Scotsman in sight.




Here are the girls with Ben who is very big indeed.




This fellow is from the Life Guards and is at Horse Guards. Like all the ceremonial guards they are here 24 hours a day. I used to have a little fun with these guys on previous trips. They are in a passageway at night and it is not too difficult to sneak up on them. And since all the Japanese tourists have gone home for the night it is also the best time to get pictures of them. So you sneak up on them and take a picture before they know you are there. I startled a Blues and Royals trooper doing this one night. I thought he was going to tip over when the flash went off.
This is down on the strand next to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment. Across the Thames you can see the National Aquarium and the London Eye. Just to the left and behind the Aquarium is the Hospital that Florence Nightingale, The Lady of the Lamp, worked at.






This is Horse Guards Parade. The fellow above is on the other side of the passage way that goes through the building in the center. The Parade is where Henry VIII used to come for some jousting when he was bored of cutting off his wive's heads. Which really is not entirely a fair assesment of Henry since he only did that twice.



The train trip back home. Trains are really nice. When you totally wiped out you just hop on the train and in a hour your back home. Or at least close.

Trip down south

No not to Dixie, the south of England. Portsmouth and East Sussex to be exact. Lots of fun things to see down there. We visited Fishbourne Roman Palace the first day out. Sorry, I still have to find the pictures of that one. We also went to Portsmouth, the home of the Royal Navy.

While in Portsmouth we visited the HMS Victory which is the oldest commissioned warship in the world. Victory was launched in 1765 and served in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary War, and the Napoleonic Wars. Here we are going on the tour.

Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy. This is HMS Illustrious one of the three Invincible class aircraft carriers.

Here we are at Eastbourne. We are down on the beach where the fishing boats launch. It was very cold and windy.

Stuart on the cliffs above Eastbourne.

This is us on Beachy Head. You can see some of the cliffs behind us. They had to move the old lighthouse on top of the cliffs back so it didn't fall off.

This is the new Beachy Head light house at the bottom of the cliffs. It is so pretty here. To think of the history that happened here. Try to imagine yourself as a pilot flying home after a mission over Germany. When you saw these cliffs you knew you were safe again.

Two pretty girls at Beach Head.

This is Eastbourne from Beachy Head during the day.

I had to go see Pooh Corner. The rest of the family was not as excited as I was.

This is Hever Castle the childhood home of Anne Boleyn and where Anne of Cleves died. William Walforf Astor lived here and restored it.

We watched some jousting at Hever Castle. Henry was there directing the tournament. You know, Henry VIII. He had a wife with him but I'm not sure which one. Maybe Anne. She was looking pretty good for having her head replaced.

Mortal Combat

This guy got hammered. I don't know what he was getting paid but it wasn't enough. Good thing he has NHS.

Hever has some very beautiful gardens.

Jeffrey and Madison at the gate of Hever.

HMS Victory again. How did that get down here? Check out all that rigging.

Madingley American Cemetery

On the way to Cambridge we stopped by the American Cemetery at Madingley. Visiting here causes you to reflect on how dearly past generations paid for the freedom we enjoy.

The picture to the left is the reflecting pool. The wall in the left has the names of over 8000 American service men who lost their lives but their bodies have not been found. Many are of Airmen who flew from bases in the UK. Others had been injured in places like Normandy or North Africa and then died after being evacuated to the UK. One of the names on the wall is Glenn Miller who was a Captain in the Army Air Force and disappeared on a flight to Europe from England

This is a cross of an Unknown.

Madingley was setup as a temporary cemetery in 1943. The land was donated by University of Cambridge. Many other temporary cemeteries existed across the United Kingdom. In 1956 it was decided to move all remaining graves of American service members in the UK to Madingley. There are 3909 U.S. Service Members buried here.

On the ceiling in the chapel is the following inscription:

IN PROUD AND GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THOSE MEN OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCE WHO FROM THESE FRIENDLY ISLSES FLEW THEIR FINAL FLIGHT AND MET THEIR GOD. THEY KNEW NOT THE HOUR THE DAY NOR THE MANNER OF THEIR PASSING. WHEN FAR FROM HOME THEY WERE CALLED TO JOIN THAT HEROIC BAND OF AIRMEN WHO HAD GONE BEFORE. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.