Beautiful Wales

Today Kahless and I set off for the mountains of Wales. The idea was that we would head for the Menai Bridge (my idea) and that was as far as the plan went. As we drove, we saw signs for Caernarfon Castle and Kahless suggested we go there after the bridge. Of course, I agreed. I'm easy. I just like visiting places so as long as everyone is happy, I'm happy.

Along the motorway we went and we started getting closer and closer to the mountains – Snowdonia. The motorway has been built through the mountain in places so instead of going up and over, you drive through. When you get to Llandudno Junction, the road goes under what I think is Conway Bay. There was no place to stop so this photo is taken through the filthy car window looking towards the tunnel.

Getting a bit closer

And then we are in the tunnel and going under the water.

This is a lousy photo, but it gives the idea. I love tunnels.

Heading, a bit blindly, towards the Menai Bridge, we finally saw signs for the bridge and lo and behold, we are on a bridge. But not the right one. I discovered later this one was called the Britannia Bridge, built a bit later than the Menai Bridge and originally mainly for rail traffic. It has an interesting history. I've written a bit about the history below.

I've decided I love Wales. This was the Britannia Bridge as we were driving across. Again through the grotty windscreen but a rather imposing look.

Rather neat looking bridge. Something I didn't know at the time, but found out later is that there is a rail bridge under this one. This bridge was opened in 1850 to help take travellers from the mainland of Wales to the Island of Anglesey over the Menai Straits. The Menai Bridge we had originally set out to see is further down the strait from here.

There are apparently 2 lions guarding the entrance to the bridge, but these days can only be seen from the train. The original bridge was ruined by fire in 1970 and had to be totally rebuilt. If you want to read the whole article, you will find it here.

We crossed the bridge and a bit further down the road we spotted the Menai Bridge. Of course we stopped to take photos. Not only was the bridge a sight to see, so was the scenery.

This was our first sight of the bridge.

And the view around us.

You can see Snowdonia in the background in this next one.

Absolutely stunning spot. We were looking down on the Strait from Holyhead Road  or in Welsh Ffordd Caergybi (pronounced Forth Kyre Gubby) and in a later photo I picked up this little island quite unintentionally.

That little island is apparently quite famous. People live there and at times can't go home because the tides are too high. It is called Ynys Gored (or Gorad) Goch.

Ynys means island and is pronounced Unniss

Gored means fish-trap

Goch means red and is pronounced gauk

This is the only island between the bridges inhabited by the living. The Welsh name of island means 'island of the red fish trap'. A 'gorad' is a trap which is flooded by the rising tide allowing fish to swim in but empties with the ebb trapping the fish. In the past the inhabitants of the house depended on the trap for their livelyhood. The rocks in the foreground are the Cribiniau (the rakes) http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/386168

The last photo was looking from the Menai Bridge back on the Britannia Bridge.

This next photograph, I just liked the way the sun was shining on the gold lettering on the pub.

This next photo was looking down from the bridge. It was rather scary looking down. As you guys know I'm not real happy with heights and this was rather a long way down and not all that safe feeling. It didn't feel near as scary as the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct though.

In fact, this one was Kahless's photo. I asked her to take it for me so I didn't have to lean over the edge!! This was my shot looking down.

It was a loooong way down. This next photo was the bridge itself. Kahless and I both had to stand in the middle of the road to take photos. Dodging the traffic wasn't as hard as you might think. Although as quick as you thought you had a shot, another car would come through or behind you.

I actually like the looks of the Britannia Bridge better.

I had looked on the map before we left and discovered that Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was close by and I needed to be the total tourist and get some photos of this name. When I was in the UK in the late 1960's I remember seeing a photo of one of my friends under this name and had to finally see it for myself.

If you want to hear how to say it, go here - remember to turn your sound on.

"It's both the longest place name and railway station name in Europe. According to the Guiness Book of Records, it's also the longest valid web domain name in the world, though www.llanfair.wales.com is a more memorable alternative."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/culture/sites/aboutwales/pages/geography.shtml

Here is a quick history of the town

“This Welsh town on the island of Anglesey is only known due to the fact that it has a very long name, and is the longest railway station name in Britain, and probably the longest domain name in the world.

The name translates as 'St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave'.

Originally called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which means 'The Mary church by the pool near the white hazels' the village was renamed in the 19th Century.

This was around the time when the railway was built between Chester and Holyhead at the beginning of the 1850s. A local committee was put together to try and encourage trains, travellers and 19th Century tourists to stop at the village in order to help develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre. It is believed that the name

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was invented by a cobbler from Menai Bridge; little did he know that he had implemented one of the most successful tourist marketing plans of all time. Today the village is signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is known to locals as Llanfairpwll or Llanfair.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A403642

And here is one of my photos.

Kahless bought me a neat little present, didn't cost much, but really lovely. In the shop in

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (I do the like copy and paste function on computers – imagine having to write that name out every time!!) they had a machine, you put in a penny and a 50p, and the machine squashed the penny and imprinted Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch on it for you. It's a really cool reminder of the town.

I am going to take a photo of it at some stage, but I'm very aware of the fact that I'm off again tomorrow and will have another 4 days of tourist information on top of this last lot and if I don't write it now, it will get lost in amongst Norwich and that trip.

From there, we headed to Caernarfon Castle and that will be another blog. This one's too long already.

Cheers guys.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

TRAVELLING

I have become a seasoned traveller here in the UK. I realised that this had happened when I didn't bother to book my return train from Wales, looked online the day before I was leaving and just grabbed a suitable train rather than booking a seat in advance.

I did, however, get a bit too smart for my own good. I was supposed to change trains at Birmingham International Train Station and the station before was Birmingham New Street. Now I've been to Birmingham New Street on several occasions and knew that there were regular trains from there to Oxford. So smart Madeleine decided to hop off the train at Birmingham New Street instead of Birmingham International. Problem was, I then had to find out which was the next train to Oxford and I've still not worked out the destinations!! Like does the train to Wolverhampton go through Oxford? What about the train to Southampton? Does that go via Oxford??

I wandered around like a bit of a lost soul for a while and then decided I needed a pee. I'm assuming everyone has heard the expression “Spend a penny”. That used to be the cost of having a pee in a public place. Prices have gone up since that expression. Now it's “spend 30p to have a pee”. I'm not quite sure how you would translate that into cents for Australians, but it has a rather nice ring to it for the UK. I met another little dog travelling with his owner. The owner was going to have a pee as well so we had a bit of a chat while we were working out how to get in. If I'd thought of it sooner, I could have done a series of blogs on “Dogs I met while travelling”. Some of them have been rather gorgeous.

Anyway, after having a pee, I found a customer service place, checked out when the next train was to Oxford and realised that I had to move to catch it. Off I hopped, down the stairs, and onto my train. Which, to my disgust, stopped first at Birmingham International. I could have stayed on my first train and ended up in the same spot !!

This train was totally full. I  mean people in the aisles and all. So this journey was spent in the entrance, chatting with a young lass and her man and Ralph the dog. Now Ralph was pretty special. Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Brown. With the soft brown eyes of the staffie and the same soft nature. The four of us spent the next hour chatting and keeping out of people's way as they wandered through the carriages. An hour later I was in Oxford. If I had booked my seat, I couldn't have got to it anyway. The couple I was chatting with had reserved seats and someone was sitting in their seats.

The trip itself was fine, no major dramas.

The trip to Chester was rather interesting. I had 2 changes to make. One in Birmingham (again), and the second one in Crewe. I arrived in Birmingham safely and found which platform I needed. Arrived at the platform. The train was there so I got on. Then the fun began. After a little while, an announcement said that the train would be delayed as they couldn't find a driver. Okay!! I wonder what happens now ! Why would you schedule a train and not schedule a driver? Oh, maybe the driver is sick. Anyway, after a number of different announcements, and about 30 minutes, we got our driver. I'm not sure how happy he was though. When he made the announcements of where we were and where the next stop was, his voice was incredibly bright and cheerful, but almost had a sarcastic tone to it.

Then, then, just before my stop (Crewe), he made an announcement to say that this train was not going as far as Liverpool, but would stop short and that people would have to get off and find alternative routes. Didn't affect me at all. In fact, the 30 minutes I waited in Birmingham just meant that I didn't have to wait in Crewe for the next leg. The train still went to Crewe and that was all I cared. However it is pretty standard for British Rail that they chop and change, trains break down and are cancelled, staff don't turn up for work so they lack drivers etc. I wonder what the German's think of this British system. Theirs would run on time always. I wonder if Australians could do any better or whether it is simply a product of a very well used, extensive train network.

I still enjoy travelling on British trains.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly Farm

I'm not sure if I've been to a butterfly farm before or not. I have a sense that somewhere in my travels I have, but for the life of me I can't remember where or when. This was a fabulous experience. M&K waited outside for me, they didn't want to go in.

Of course, Madeleine started going mad with the camera and much to my disappointment, they were all fuzzy. I turned the camera off and on again; tried different settings, and generally fiddled with my camera. All the photos were fuzzy. Damn!! I sat down on a bench and looked at my camera in frustration and realised that coming from the cold outside into the warm, muggy butterfly atmosphere the lens was fogged up!! Once I sorted that out and my lens became the same temperature as the enclosure, all was well.

Here's one of the photos with the foggy lens. I had just wiped the lens down and by the time I took the photo, it had partially fogged up again.

Blue Morpho butterfly with wings open

Blue Morpho butterfly with wings closed

When they sleep at night, they fold their wings so that only the underside is seen. The underside of their wings is a dull brown color. This makes them invisible to other creatures who may want to eat them. When a bird comes too close to a blue morpho butterfly, they flash the blue on their wings to startle the bird and make it fly away.

http://mle.matsuk12.us/rainforest/emergent_layer_animals.html

In various spots they had little tables with obviously butterfly treats as the little critters kept landing on them. This was one of the yellow ones enjoying it's treat.

I have no idea what this butterfly is, but she/he is rather beautiful.

There were heaps of these guys. Very slow moving and seemed to hang off the leaves.

Now what a stunning fellow!!

This is a very poor photo of the “Emerging Cage” where the butterflies “emerge” !! I didn't see any butterflies emerge.

And here's a bit of information about the “Emerging Cage”

This guy was on the ground near the Emerging Cage and I almost stepped on him/her.

If anyone knows the names of these butterflies, please let me know because I have absolutely no idea. I don't even know if they are British or not. I just know that they are gorgeous.

There were a few birds in the Farm as well. I noticed this little guy when I first came in and when I got near the end, he was still sitting there watching the world go by. I think he needs a name. Any ideas??

There was a spider enclosure (which I stayed well away from) and a caterpillar enclosure that I figured I would go back to if I had time. I knew my time in there was limited.

A pond with fish.

This butterfly was just sort of sitting on the mesh around the enclosure. Not a great photo, but I felt it was an interesting shape.

My camera had a bit of problem deciding what to focus on. He moved before I got a chance to try again. Problem with butterflies is that they won't just sit still while I take their pictures. A bit like the Ally dawg. As soon as she sees the camera, she has to move towards me to check out what I'm doing.

One more bird

Now it was time to leave. I spotted an M coming inside and figured he had snuck in to let me know it was time to move on. Problem was, we had a limit on our parking and didn't want a parking ticket. As it turned out, we were 1 minute late and the parking guy was wandering around checking tickets, so we were lucky.

I will be offline for the next little while. Tomorrow is Christmas. Boxing Day we are off to Southampton to visit the family that has adopted me and M (K's extended family). On Saturday the 27^th I'm off to Wales again to visit Kahless and Mrs. K. I'm not sure when I will come back from there. The following Thursday, the 1^st January, K and I are off to Norwich for a few days. M will join us on the night of the 2^nd and then we all come back on the Sunday.

So a pretty busy next couple of weeks. I will be writing as I go, but not sure when I will be posting. So, until the next time.

Cheers you lot

Madeleine

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

Stratford-Upon-Avon via Chipping Norton

We all went for a drive yesterday afternoon. Needed a bit of a Madeleine adventure. We decided to go to Stratford-Upon-Avon and when M was organising the GPS, he told it to take us via Chipping Norton. Don't ask me why, he just did. It's slightly longer, but we passed through some delightful villages.

The first part of the trip followed the same route as when I took the bus to Blenheim Palace. So we passed the lovely little towns of Yarnton and Begbroke. I've still not taken any photos of either of these towns, but noticed how pretty they both were on each time I've been through them.

The houses in the towns in this area appear to be mainly made from stone. So as you drive along, there is stone houses all along the side of the road.

The hedgerows have mainly lost all their leaves so as you are driving you can see into the fields behind. Whereas during the earlier part of the year, the fields behind the hedgerows are a mystery.

We arrived at Chipping Norton to discover that there was a farmer's market happening.

However, after a very brief time in the market, I realised that M&K had disappeared. In the distance, I spotted:

Books and coffee in the one spot. Well I figured I'd better go and check to see if they'd found this place. And, yes, they had. M had ordered some coffee to keep him going until lunch. I ordered some blueberry and pear cake and told them not to bother too much with wrapping it up as it wasn't going to last very long. Here's the last little bit. I started eating before I remembered to take a photo.

Lovely !!

A quick browse around the town. This was the market. When I said “small” I mean “small”. It just filled in that corner and that was it. More of a food market, than a craft market, meat, cheese, bread, vegetables. And people meeting up and catching up on a Sunday.

And the local pub:

And then we hopped in the car and headed for Stratford-Upon-Avon. Like many places, when we first arrived, finding a place to park the car was the first priority. Luckily, most people were out Christmas shopping and not touristing. One of the reasons we decided to tourist today and not go anywhere near the shops.

After M&K grabbing a quick something food wise to keep them going (they hadn't eaten at the Jaffe & Neil Bookshop like smart Madeleine had), we started to wander and the first thing we saw was this:

Would you believe, a shop selling nothing but Christmas items. Everything from tinsel to miniatures (well, things small enough to use as miniatures). It was enchanting. Music in the background to dance to, and lots of pretty things to look at and buy. Apparently they have four shops. I didn't ask what happens after Christmas, so either their business is very, very slow at other times of the year, or they sell other things. I have no idea. However, it was a gorgeous shop.

I must admit, although I enjoyed our day out, I was disappointed with Stratford-Upon-Avon. Other than Shakespeare's birth place the main area consisted of shops, shops and more shops. Some with very interesting names. “The Little Sweet Shop”, “As you like it”, “Presents in Mind” and similar sorts of names. I can't remember them all. Tacky is the word that comes to mind, but it didn't feel tacky. Very much aimed at the tourists and money making.

However, Stratford-Upon-Avon had lots of charm in other areas. At one stage, the sky clouded over and with the sun shining on the buildings and the dark, overcast sky, this is what it looked like.

As we were wandering around looking for a place to have lunch, we could hear some singing and a dog howling. Of course, Madeleine had to check it out. A man, singing, with his best friend, and making some money. Not a bad source of income. People felt that if they took a photo, they should put some money in his hat. He would sing away, the dog quite happy on his blanket with his human close by.

Then the man would lean towards the dog, obviously the dog's signal and in this photo, you can see the dog getting ready.

And then he would take off with the funniest howl in time to the man's music. Truly entertaining for everyone, including me, M&K.

Lunch was here at Mistress Quickley (a character in one of Shakespeare's plays). The food was pretty good. A bit too much cheese on my omelette, but the chips were much nicer than most I've had here.

Across the road Shakespeare's birthplace.

Then, Madeleine wanted to have a look at the Avon river and wander across the bridges.

This photo is a bit dark. The sky looks much more threatening than it really was. But I rather like the photo. This was looking from one bridge to another along the Avon River.

On the right of this picture is a bit of an island. I haven't been able to find out it's name, but apparently this is a bird sanctuary and is the home of the “mute swan”. This is a photo of a young one. From my research it appears as if the young cygnets have these brown feathers and when they are fully grown, become the snowy white I have seen before. I don't know what happens to the black cygnets. He/she was arguing with the duck about something in the water. I just caught the duck's bottom.

As we were walking across the bridge, with me taking photos, we discovered we were making some rather neat shadows, so M&K started playing with the shadows and of course, Madeleine photographed their shadows. This is my favourite.

On the other side of the river was the Butterfly Farm. That's another post for later today.

When I had finished with the butterflies, it was getting close to the time when we had to head back to the car before our parking pounds ran out. On the way back across the bridge I'd been photographing, K spotted these little guys hiding and playing in the grass.

I even managed to get the cotton tail bottom of one of them !!

The final sight before getting to the car and heading back to Oxford was Santa.

This really made my day.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 24 December 2008

Cold Hand

Went for another walk this morning. I followed one of the paths I had wandered down shortly after I arrived here and blogged at the time. This time I walked further as I was more confident in where I was going and how to get home again. That was almost 2 months ago so I've learned my way around Oxford quite well in the last couple of months.

I guess I'm amazed at how many people use these paths. This morning, Friday, I must have met 10 people wandering along the path. A number of people had their dogs out for a stroll. As usual, I took heaps of photos.

Here's my friend the swan:

I do like the shadow on the water.

This was the path wandering through two bits of water with the path going down the middle.

Stark trees having lost all their leaves in the last couple of months.

The next photo was in a similar spot, but looking the other direction, taken in October.

As I got past the little island walk, three creatures came to meet me.

They didn't run away; they didn't bother me for food; they just wandered around my feet while I took a number of photographs and then moved on.

A little further on, someone had prepared a spot for me to rest.

They'd even left a drink for me,I thought that was very kind of people to leave a chair for me to rest on, and a drink to revitalise myself.

A bit further on, I met up with some horses. This guy was wanting a drink of water from the river.

And he's got what he wants. Isn't he stunning. He lives in a place called Port Meadow.

At 440 acres, Port Meadow is the largest area of common land in Oxford. Freemen and the Commoners of Wolvercote have grazing rights that are still exercised today.

Port Meadow is bordered on the western edge by the Thames and for a large part of the year parts of the Meadow are flooded, bringing flocks of migratory birds. A burial ground can be found in the centre of the meadow and for these reasons the Meadow is both a SSSI and a scheduled monument.

A classic Oxford activity is to walk up the west side of the Meadow, have a pint at the Perch, and then continue up north for another pint and some roasted chestnuts and mulled wine at the Trout Inn in Wolvercote. It's approximately a 50 minute stroll to the Trout from the southern edge of the Meadow.

http://oxford.openguides.org/wiki/?Port_Meadow

Now that sounds like an interesting way to spend an afternoon.

At the end of my walk is this bridge

Straight ahead was nothing but water and turning left over the bridge, who knows. So I decided to turn around and retrace my steps home. I was getting hungry and I figured it had to be getting close to lunch time.

As I was walking, I was fascinated by the way the water flowed around the branches of the trees in the water and took quite a number of photos trying to capture the sense of the water flowing. This was the best photo I got

I took many more, but this was the only one I felt gave the impression I was aiming for.

I also liked these reflections. I took heaps and now I have to decide which ones I like the best.

Back across the bridge checking out the train bridge. A number of trains went past while I was fiddling around, but didn't manage to photograph one.

One last look at the bridge I had just walked across

And in the water below me, a sleeping swan

Oh, yes, and why the title “Cold Hand”? Well it is very difficult to take photographs wearing gloves so almost the whole trip, I had one warm hand and one cold hand.

Madeleine

Friday, 19 December 2008