Wednesday June 29

The Bell, the inn we slept in last night, was orginally a cottage built in the 1600s and was really lovely however it wasn't wifi friendly - the walls are far too thick. :) After moving into every one of the cute little rooms on the ground floor, I finally stood right beside the router to write the blog. I got a few strange looks but what can you do?

 Since this trip was very last minute, we didn't plan anything other than our first night's stay. This means that we spend about an hour every day deciding where to go, booking  a place to stay for that night, and then deciding what we want to see. Add to this the hour it takes me to write the blog and it feels like a good chunk of time is taken out of our day. But it's all fine.  The days are very long here. It's still quite light at 10 pm. We're not sure when the sun comes up, however I've been awake at 4:30 am a couple of times and it's like the middle of the day.

As we left The Bell (in Charbury, England), it was raining and did pretty much the rest of the day. It was cold (high 50s) and windy so a less than ideal day for sightseeing, but we spent a lot of time in the car so it worked out just fine. We wanted to get to Llangurig, Wales where we were to spend the night at a B&B called The Old Vicarage. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive but it took us most of the day.

Some interesting things we saw along the way. Road crews, garbage collectors, etc. (those who work "on the road") all wear neon yellow pants and coats with reflective tape on them. You can't miss them - which is the idea. Rarely do you see a stop sign. There are stop lights in larger towns. Rather than a stop sign you'll see a "give way" (which we translate as"yield"). Many of these signs are covered by trees/vines so it's as if they aren't there. Once Dave had to hit the brakes quickly due to a hidden sign, the road curving and a car coming around the bend.

We stopped for a snack and an 80 year old lady (she told us how old she was) started talking to us. Her family was to board a boat to go to Canada (ON) near the end of the war but her dad got sick so they'd didn't get on the boat. They heard later it had blown up. They didn't try again. She was quite passionate about the recent vote to leave the EU. She's in favor and has a strong dislike for the Germans (who are a big part of the problem - apparently). She says "England will be fine", but then she said she's worried how her granddaughter will get on.

Once in Wales we found ourselves in an adorable place called Rhayader. We snuck into the tourist info place just as they were closing and we're really glad that we did! We discovered that there was the 9 mile Elan Valley Trail just on the other side of town. It's a very winding road that goes through the Welsh mountains.

Words can't begin to describe the majesty and beauty of this region. Stunning, breathtaking, unbelievable, etc. etc. The mountains are very old so they're more like really high hills. The "hills" are covered with "lumps and bumps", some trees, miles of pasture, outcroppings of rock, 1,000s of sheep, every shade of green you can think of, and a few homes scattered here and there. You could see the sun shining on the mountains in the distance as we stood in the rain. I took a lot of pictures but I know they won't capture what we saw. There were lots of places where we could pull off the road to enjoy the view. We're constantly saying "wow" and "amazing". At times we were on the road and completely surrounded by the mountains. We could see the winding road cutting through all the green. There were also what I called enchanted forests along the trail. They seemed magical.

Dave found a farm and stopped to talk to the young guy working there. His dad has 2,000 sheep which only come to the farm 3 times a year. The sheep mix with the neighbors sheep but it all works out somehow. They were all over the place - even on the sides of the road.  They don't even bat an eye when a car goes by.

We stopped at the Nantgwyllt Church (love the spelling here!). We had to cross a very old and narrow stone bridge to reach it. Very musty inside but still used during the summer.

We found a pub, built in 1600 called The Triangle, for supper. It was beside a rushing river. (There's so much rain here that the water moves very quickly. All the foliage/trees etc. are very lush. We wonder how the farmers are ever able to make hay.) Supper was lovely. We headed to our B&B and were most disappointed to find out that it didn't have wifi. The listing said it did. Not having wifi is a huge inconvenience and will take up more of our day tomorrow as a result.

One thing I learned today: The castles that we plan to see tomorrow are one of the "World's Wonders" - as is the Great Wall of China. Excited to see them!

One new thing I experienced today: Stepping out of a bathroom (literally one step) and I was on the road. If a car had of been coming by, I'm sure I would have had a heart attack.

Most powerful moment of the day: The beauty of the trail/mountains. I couldn't help but think of the song "How Great is Our God".

One pleasureable experience: Driving on the trail and coming upon a sheep who was laying on the road. We had to go around him because he wasn't moving. :)