English Countryside and A Little Bit of Wales - Amesbury, United Kingdom
Amesbury, United Kingdom
Saturday
12 December
EXPLORING THE COUNTRYSIDE-AND A LITTLE BIT OF WALES TOO.Lou-Lou drank a cup of tea this morning before we left at 8 am armed with a pack of the green cookies for "padkos". We set off in the direction of the bridge crossing the Mouth of the Severn, which takes you to Wales on the other side. It is possible to drive a few extra kilometers and go around the water mass via Gloucester, but we were hard pressed for time! So there was just the bridge and six and a half pounds between us and Wales while driving along the beautiful countryside. I love the green, rolling hills which are all enclosed somewhere by moss-covered walls that are years old made of stones neatly packed and puzzled onto each other.The scenery in Wales is just breathtaking. Even the photographs fail to do justice. There are regions all over the UK designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB's) and the Wye Valley, which is just where we entered Wales, is one of them. We followed winding roads towards a little town called Tintern, a town which William Wordsworth wrote a lengthy poem on. I can imagine why. As we turned the corner into the town we saw a beautiful river lining the green hills and the ruins of a great Abbey came into view.
Tintern Abbey was built in 1131. In the reign of King Henry VIII, his Dissolution of the Monasteries ended monastic life in England, Wales and Ireland. On 3 September 1536 Abbot Wyche surrendered Tintern Abbey and all its estates to the King's visitors and ended a way of life that had lasted 400 years. Valuables from the Abbey were sent to the royal Treasury and Abbot Wyche was pensioned off. The building was granted to the then lord of Chepstow, Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester. Lead from the roof was sold and the decay of the buildings began. (from Wikipedia) I always wonder when there are so many years between me and the time when such a magnificent place was in use what had happened there, what were the people like. I wished they recorded things in more detail for us to know about!
Along the way, we noticed that the road signs are written in both English and the Welsh language. I could only remember one word which was Araf, which means "slow". We turned around and went back along the Wye River towards the town of Caldicot. First we needed to stop for some petrol, however, as you can imagine we weren't used to self-service in this regard at all. It was actually a South African lady who came to help us, I guess there's a first for everything! We drove through Caldicot and passed the Caldicot Castle. (We didn't get out here.) We were getting quite hungry so stopped at a supermarket called ASDA, where in search of a cheap snack we bought mango strips, a bottle of lemonade and Scotch Eggs, which are like crumbed meatballs with mayonnaise in the middle. I liked them more than my mom did! Our meal cost us only two pounds sixty pence.
Next we set off to Castle Combe, another Cotswolds Village which was actually voted the prettiest village in England. Charming as it is pretty, there was even a designated sign with a request to drive slowly because ducks pass the road there! You won't find any of those kind requests in South Africa.
We also passed through Lacock, one of the oldest and most well-known villages in the area. The houses there made me think of a scene out of A Knight's Tale, and the friendly pastor at the church there, who has recorded it's rectors since 1229 (amazing) even invited us for a cup of hot chocolate. We unfortunately had to decline because we only had two hours of daylight left to get to our next stop - STONEHENGE!!
We passed through villages such as Devizes, Potterne and Shrewton in the direction of Amesbury, where the famous stones stand in the middle of a vast stretch of grassy plains. Stonehenge was definitely a highlight for me, being that they are so mysterious and really made me wonder over what the culture must have been like among the people who built and used the structure over 5000 years ago. I really love a good mystery! Even though it was icy cold and windy, and the sun didn't fully do its duty, it was great. After I explored the museum, we got some coffee from the visitor centre and set off back to London to return our rental car.
This evening we had our first experience on the Tube, or Underground, which is London's famous and extensive train system. I almost lost my mom once when she was already in the train and the door started to close, luckily I could stick my bag inside and the door opened again. I mean, I'm a city girl (for the most part, anyway), but the hustle and bustle and unknown public transport systems can be quite daunting! Throughout our trip the Tube was a great way to get around, the trains arrive each one to two minutes to take you where you need to go and wherever you are you'd find a train station nearby. Some of the stations are more than a hundred years old and very impressive with pretty old tiling and wooden beams. We arrived at Chalk Farm with the Northern Line where a very kind lady with red lipstick led us to Prince of Wales Street, where we would be staying with Christophe and Christine, two locals from the area. Christine, who is really one of the kindest people I've met, met us outside and took us to their three storey flat. By that I by no means imply that it is big, as a lot of the houses in London go "high up" but are very small and narrow inside with a staircase just wide enough for one person to go up at a time.
It was quite an experience coming from the countryside to this side of London-Chalk Farm and Camden- with its eerie sort of shops and punk rock bars. It's really more of an artist's suburb. We walked down the street to get some Chinese Take-aways for dinner, and off to bed.