From England to Wales Day 2

Started of the day with a quick walk then a great breakfast at the B&B in Bourton on the Water

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Bourton on the Water, we heard it called the Venice of England?

Too early for this to be open :(

Hit the road at about 9:30 with our first stop at the Abbey in Hailes.  We visited the old church, but the Abbey you had to pay to visit so we simply took some pictures from the field beside it as we knew we were on a tight time frame again today.  The drive this morning around the Cotswolds was absolutely beautiful, sun is out off and on, hopefully Andre got some great pictures

Our next stop Skanfrith Castle ruins, we just happened on these ruins.  These are my favourites, no admission, you just see it on the side of the road and stop and explore.  Right beside the ruins there is also a little church that had a service earlier this morning.  They still had a baking table set up, with a box to pay, so we've now had Welsh Cakes, and Andre had some banana nut bread as well.  Turns out the day got by us and this turned out to be our lunch.

Skanfrith Castle

There are left in the church with a box that you can make a donation to, our first welsh cakes!

One of our favourites, doors in doors

A quick stop along the way as we saw some sheep near the side of the road.

Now are off to Llanthony Priory, something I had seen pictures of on the internet.  I believe we have now been on the narrowest roads travelled yet.  This was really off the beaten track, but well worth it when we got there.  Again beautiful views, so glad we did it as just passing through the little villages in the Brecon Beacon  National Park was fantastic as well.  Once again a mixture of rain and sun, but thankfully ended with sun.

 Llanthony Priory

Now we are off to see the Red Kite feeding which happens daily at 3PM.  This is very close to where we will be staying for the night tonight.  A man started this 14 years ago trying to get one to feed in his field, he now has a blind built for tourists and dozens of birds show up daily.  It was quite the show, really glad we did this, again hoping Andre got some good pics.

Roads are getting really narrow around here, and you can't see anything over the hedges!

Red Kites

Red Kite feeding time

After the kite feeding we head back the way we had come as we had passed some woodland with lots of bluebells.  This was very pretty, you had to climb a fence to get really close, but I was more than happy to just walk along the road and look.  The whole forest was full of bluebells, beautiful.

Beautiful bluebells in the woods

Next we head off to our B&B.  Arrived at around 4:30 and offered tea and chocolate cake, who can turn that down.  Our hosts are very nice, they suggest a place for dinner, and that we go and visit Dinefwr Castle tonight, which is literally 10 minutes form their home.  After 5PM they no longer charge entrance, and it is a beautiful night so off we go.  This castle sits on top of a hill of course which took us about 20 minutes to walk up, good to work of the chocolate cake we had before dinner.  You are able to climb the walls here, for absolutely beautiful views.  They have lots of sheep around, and fields of deer.  The deer park closes at 5PM so we missed that, but we could see them in the fields. 

Dinefwr Castle

That baby looks might big to still be nursing!

Dinefwr Castle

Now for supper, the pub we were recommended was not open tonight, so we head into town to find somewhere.  This is not easy, everything is closed up, we find one pub but they are not serving food.  Then a local told us if we asked the bartender nicely if we could bring takeout there he would probably let us.  So, we find an Indian take out place, order food and bring it back to the pub for dinner.  What a cute little pub, definitely a local hang out.  Everyone has been very nice to us this entire trip, they all want to know where we are from, and where we are going.

Dinner for 2 could have easily fed 4!

Back to the B&B, Andre brings out his bottle of scotch he bought at the duty free on the way here and we have a drink with our hosts.  They have got some literature together for us for what we should do tomorrow, this is what I love about B&B.  This B&B is a house with 2 rooms that they let out.  They are retired now, but while he was working still she was very bored when they moved to this little town and he was travelling for work so she opened up the B&B and loves it, so they've kept it up for now.  They are just back from the 2nd leg of the camino trail, one leg left to go next spring they think to finish up.  We are also headed to skomer island on Tuesday which is on their bucket list, so we've given them some tips on how to do that as well.  Off to try to sleep through the night, wasn't so successful last night so hope tonight is better.