A Tale of Two Cities 2016: Wales, King George and Back Roads..Oh My!

Today we had planned to go to Wales on a scenic drive along the coast and through some villages. We were up and out early and headed to plot new territory. Definitely more traffic this way than we are used to and Kay had pulled over a couple times to let faster cars motor on since they were pressing her to go faster. Kay has named the GPS King George and he has thus far gotten us to where we have needed to be and he speaks with a British accent so hence his name.

Kay had programmed King George with some sights along the way for us to stop and visit. Our first stop was Hereford. Hereford is a type of cow but we will talk about that later as we did find some. It also has a Cathedral with the Map of Mundi which is the first known map of Christianity. It is also the home of the Chained Books Library as well. Kay and King George had a few disagreements before they finally came to an understanding and we found a parking space one space away from the entrance and Kay parallel parked perfectly....very impressive! Debbie is usually the one who gets us the front row spaces. We get out and head toward the church and notice the farther west we go the colder it is getting. This church also has a sizeable school on site from little ones through the high school age all dressed neatly in their uniforms. We went into the church and were totally enthralled with this place. It reminded me of a Russian Orthodox church but absolutely huge! The priests and other clergy were about in their robes greeting visitors..wow! After taking photos in the church we moved on to the gift shop and the map room where there was a charge to view it and go into the Chained Book Library. It really was quite interesting and out guide John was quite adept at the English translation of the map and in explaining the highlights to us. I'm glad he didn't go into depth because it was almost over my head with the parts he explained. The Chained Books were an amazing thing to see however and considering they were almost 1,000 years old, they are in remarkable condition. The pictures will show you the most.

In case you didn't know...

We laughed about this...

Police car hiding although I don't think you can hide that car effectively

Kay's parallel parking gets an "A"

My candle is left from and Kay's is right front

Everyone places a flag to show where they are from

You have to make the photo bigger to see the chains

Map of Mundi

Cute little ones being shuttled across the street by their teacher

Next we stopped at a little village of Kilpeck where the church dated back 900 years...the only thing that has been replaced is the roof. I couldn't stay in there because of the musty smell which didn't bother Kay. I walked around outside while she was inside and noticed that there were an exceptional amount of young people and children buried in this ancient cemetery...life was very hard here. Behind the church was a hill were the ruins of the castle were. Kay wanted to go up but I decided against it since it was steep and the grass was wet and slippery. I got a great video of Kay going up with the sheep following her. The baby lambs are much younger here indicating a later spring in this area. We also found the Hereford cows here in a pasture and they had little ones too. I can't post videos here as they just don't upload correctly so sorry...they were cute. Anyway on to our next stop which was Hay on the Wye in Wales.

A Hereford Cow

A three wheeled car!

Original stone dates back to 1200

Weird for a church...all around the roof line...maybe to ward off evil spirits?

Castle ruins

These sheep are following Kay..she was like the shepherd with her flock!

Kay knew how to do this from watching Pride and Prejudice

It continues to get colder and more windy. Now King George has told us to make these turns which took us to this manor house where there was a guy on a tractor that gave us a strange look as we passed him heading up this one lane road that looked like his driveway. We went on and this just kept getting more narrow and closing in on us the farther we went. Straight up this hill Kay finally stopped and we opened the windows and folded the side mirrors in to keep from hitting things as they call it here...hedgerose not bushes...yikes. If anyone is coming down this hill from the top we are in big trouble. We finally get to the top and it wants us to keep going when the road says "No Motor Vehicles" (oh and by the way the signs now are in English and Welsh) so we decide George has lost his mind and head back down the same road we have just spent a half hour coming up! This story could go on for hours and it did for us. He next took us on another one of these roads where we were to go for 9.2 miles before turning onto another road. Kay could never go over 10 mph because like the other one it was not paved. It was flooded in some spots and had pot holes so deep you could lose a cow in them in others but we kept going. It was extremely slow going and we never saw another car until we were into it about 6 miles and an hour and a half later! Kay then had to back up to let several cars pass and we were so close the brush was scraping the side of the car...but we were encouraged...more people. Finally we actually saw some farms and horses and then headed up this mountain and all of a sudden we were at the top of bluff where there was a lookout called Hay Bluff and OMG...you just couldn't believe the view! We can't even explain it and the pictures don't do it justice but it was magnificent! Windy and freezing cold we got out and took photos and were laughing about how were got here and the wonderful surprise day we have had. It was breathtaking! We saw sheep crossing the road in front of us too and it was just wild. We made our way back down the mountain (no guard rails and one lane remember) and I think Kay can attest that I didn't scream even once! We got back down in thirty minutes and were in Hay on the Wye just before five. We were hungry and needed a WC desperately and met two old Welsh ladies that were in the square where we parked and they were trying to direct us where to go...in the end we found a WC and a Tea Room where we had a hot sandwich and a drink and then headed back home.

Beautiful house before the road we went up and then back down

They had to cut some of the tree down so cars could pass...yikes!

What a great day this was...except for two things. Kay has asked me to take photos of the food trucks that are on the side of the road. They are around our area too but I never see them in time to get a photos and today we passed several we thought were funny...The Breakfast Van and Mr. T's Coffee. The second is the elusive Magpie...we have seen them but never in time for me to get the camera out and take a photo. Kay yelled on the way home and said there's one and I had the lens cover over the lens...ugh! They do not like to get their picture taken apparently.