On to Wales

The challenge this morning was to sort the luggage. We decided the best course was to purchase an additional suitcase and pack it full of the things we would not really need for the Welsh part of the trip. We knew we would be traveling by car with our guides for the next week, and assumed we would be able to stow our three large suitcases in the trunk, with our backpacks at our feet. This was, of course, a leap of faith, but we figured if it was too much we could stop somewhere and send the extra suitcase home. But first, we needed to buy that suitcase, have breakfast, find the train station and make our way there and head to the Celtic Manor, in Newport, Wales, where we would spend the night and meet our Welsh guides the next day. Bob was feeling a little wiped out, so I had a brief discussion with our hotel bellman, who assured me there was a department store about a mile away on a very good walking path where I could buy a suitcase. The Hilton Olympia is on Kensington High Street in a bustling shopping district, and after all that time on the coach, I was up for a brisk walk.

The day was clear and in the low 70’s, perfect for my stroll, and I made my way to Marks & Spencer pretty quickly. But sadly, they did not carry any luggage. The staff there suggested I walk another few blocks to the TK Maxx, who had a nice selection. I purchased a hard side large suitcase, so in the future I will be able to start my own luggage department store, having a wide selection of bags I seem to accumulate on trips. I tested out the wheels by walking around the store for a while, since I would have to wheel this bag over a mile back to the hotel and it seemed fine. The walk back was nice but the clouds were beginning to accumulate and it looked like rain in the near future. Bob and I managed to identify plenty of items for the new luggage, making each bag less weighty, so we ate our final London breakfast and wheeled/carried our 3 bags, 2 backpacks, and 1 purse down to the lobby. The bellman hailed a black cab for us and we were off to the London Paddington Station for our Rail Europe train to Newport, South Wales.

The station was only about a mile from the hotel and we had a very chatty driver who wanted to discuss the effect of Donald Trump on the United States, “He certainly didn’t do you any favors, did he?” Not wanting to get too involved in a political discussion, we asked him about the 70th celebration for the Queen, which was in full force. Like most people we met, our cab driver loved the Queen and wished her well. Once we arrived at the station, it began to rain, and carrying all that luggage in the rain was a bit of a challenge but we made it. Paddington Station is huge. Maybe not as big as Grand Central in NYC, but big, and filled with people. We were early for our train, and found the correct overhead electronic guide letting us know which track would be ours, so we settled onto a bench and waited. I had booked 1st class seats which gave us a table, reclining seats, charging capabilities for our phones, and free snacks and drinks. The trip would take about 2 hours. We learned that the 1st class car was the furthest from the front of the train, so we huffed and puffed and dragged our stuff, threw it on the car, found our seats and settled in for the ride. One thing we loved about Britain was that everywhere we went had sparkling water, which we find is not the case in the US. And we had been told that ice was not easy to get but we did not find that to be a problem at all. I really loved the train, and wish we had this form of travel more readily in the US.

Once we got to Newport, we found a cab, and headed to the Celtic Manor. This hotel was recommended to us by the couple who would be our guides for the next week, and it was an amazing choice. Easily the nicest hotel we stayed in the entire trip. We were upgraded to a suite overlooking the golf course, and spent the next few hours exploring the hotel. As suite guests, we were able to book dinner near one of the tees, where we quickly learned that the windows were very strong, as an errant golf ball crashed into our window just a few feet away without any damage. Bam! One really nice touch was the Welsh cookies left in the room for us to enjoy with the cappuccino we got from the concierge lounge. My great grandmother and Nana used to make those cookies for us when we were kids and I once ate a whole batch of them myself when I was pregnant. The bed was super comfy and we had a great night sleep, full of anticipation for our next leg of the trip.

In planning our week in Wales, I researched every internet guide and resource I could find. Bob and I did not want to have to rent a car, drive on the wrong side of the road (for us) and depend on maps to figure out how to navigate a whole, if relatively small, country, so we knew we wanted dependable help. We knew that Wales had loads of castles, and centuries of history, and we wanted a guide who could take us through all that while focusing on points of interest to us. So, we picked Welsh Dragon Tours for a few reasons. One, we would be the only guests during our week. Two, we would curate the things we want to see with our guides. Three, we wanted to understand the history of Wales and focus less on shopping, which was one of the few reservations we had on the first part of the tour, since many of our companions were more shopping-enthusiastic than we were. Welsh Dragon Tours were highly rated, although (and I felt this was mostly due to the pandemic) they didn’t have any recent reviews, and were run by a couple who lived in Wales. Rob and Irene Laird had been doing tours for 16 years, and they seemed to be open to working with us on the itinerary.

Next morning, we packed up and headed to the lobby at 9:30 to meet the Lairds. Reading the trip reviews, we assumed we would travel with either Rob or Irene, as that seemed to be the way it worked according to the reviews. As we approached the lobby, a woman said, “Karen?” Irene Laird is just a little taller than I, medium length blonde hair, comfortably dressed. Rob was outside with the MiniVan. Looked like we were going to get both of them for our trip. We all introduced ourselves and they struggled just a little to maintain the famous British politeness when they realized how much luggage we had. It took a little while for Bob and I to understand that the reason we had both Rob and Irene was because they had most of their necessary belongings with them as they were currently living out of their car. Or as they cheerfully noted, they were homeless. That meant the MiniVan was pretty full! As it turned out, they had sold their home, were in the market for another, had stored most of their furniture and belongings, and were living on the road as they toured guests like us through Wales.

Meeting new people is always a great example of forming, storming, norming and performing. And we went through each of the stages to the final of adjourning over the next week. Rob and Irene sat in the front and Bob and I in the back, and we traveled all over Wales. Rob has a college-professor vibe and as it was history we wanted, we certainly got that when he was leading us through the many castles we visited. His knowledge was voluminous, and we were constantly struck at how very much history exists in that part of the world. Keeping track of all those kings, queens, princes, princesses, dukes and duchesses and all the various armies and battles must be horrifying for British schoolchildren, but Rob had it down. And on the occasions that I fact checked against internet sources, he was always spot on. He did have a habit of stopping outside of a castle to lecture, and since it rains fairly often and he didn’t mind the rain one bit, that got old, but we found that if we kept slowly moving, he would mostly move with us. Irene was equally well-versed, and seemed to be more the abbey and church expert of the two. She had a good grasp of the Welsh language and tried (and mostly failed) to teach us a word or phrase or two. The language is beautiful, but difficult. Rob was the more laid-back of the two, and Irene was clearly wound tighter. As all four of us were of a certain age, we all had hearing problems, so it was possible for each of the couples to carry on conversations that were not fully understood by the other.

For me, spending the week with Rob and Irene was somewhat like spending the week with an amalgam of all the characters of Alice in Wonderland rolled into two people. Irene was often the White Rabbit, always in a hurry, and always feeling late. At one point, Bob wanted us to make a stop at a market so he could get a drink. When Irene saw all the cars in the parking lot Irene exclaimed, “we can’t stop here! We’ll never be seen again!” A line Bob and I will carry to our graves now. She could occasionally come out with rude comments, Mad Hatter-like, and seemed unaware she was doing this. Rob was often the Caterpillar and Humpty Dumpty, getting lost in deep explanations. As they occasionally argued about the best direction to get somewhere, or where to stop and eat, they had a Tweedledee/Tweedledum thing going. In any case, we definitely had the impression that they would have preferred to have remained in the 19th century and were not big fans of the world as it is today. In short, the perfect guides for this trip!

This first day we visited Cardiff and the Wales Millennium Center, Castle Coch, the Roman town of Caerleon and Chepstow Castle. We had spent a little time in Cardiff on the British tour, but this time we went inside the Millennium Center. The Center is the home for the arts in Cardiff and the Center is gorgeous. The walls are made from Welsh slate mined from the slate quarries which we will visit later on our trip. The multicolored slate comes from different quarries throughout Wales, purple, blue, green, grey and black. Each block is handcut. Castle Coch was built in the 1870’s, on the base of a 13th century structure, by the 3rd marquess of Bute, one of the richest men of Britain. Doctor Who and the show Merlin have been filmed here. The courtyard reminded me House Stark of Winterfell on Game of Thrones. Caerleon is the home of a Roman Fortress and Baths and is still being excavated for Roman artifacts. The museum there has gold, coins and jewels that have been found from the baths as Roman soldiers kept their belongings on them as they bathed. Caerleon was also one of the sites of legendary King Arthur’s Courts, and legend says there is a legion of King Arthur’s soldiers buried nearby awaiting the day when Wales will need them to ride to its defense. We had lunch in Caerleon and visited a carver who displayed numerous old gods. Finally, we went to Chepstow Castle which is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Wales. The foundation was laid in 1067 by William the Conqueror and is today a tourist destination and has also been the setting for Doctor Who.

After a packed day, we ended at the Old Rectory at Llangattock, where we had dinner and went happily off to bed. Nos da cwsg yn dda (goodnight sleep well).