A WEEK OF WALES, part 1!

Hello hello!
Got back from Wales Thursday night. We've been driving around this beautiful little country for a week. In Cymric (the Welsh language) Wales is called Cymru, and they have a population of 3,063 millions (London city has about 8,4 million inhabitants).

We flew to Gatwick, and got the shuttle to a car rental place, where my husband had booked a car for a week. 
Took off and drove for a few hours until we reached Chepstow. Had booked our first night there, at charming B&B Three Tuns. Check out the bathroom at this vintage place, how cool is this!

They've kept the original features, loooove the beams!

Was really tired when we arrived (at 11.10 pm), so I forgot to photograph the room. Was also oldfashioned with a wooden floor that was anything else than flat, haha ha! The place is from the 1600s (från 1500-talet)!

The heat we've been having in Sweden since May, was also present in Wales. Was so hot that it took ages before I fell asleep that first night.
Next morning we had a big breakfast (certainly NOT English breakfast for me, since I'm a vegetarian!).

 Chepstowe Castle, just outside The Three Tuns

We were told in one of the Tourist Info places that there were 600 castles in Wales!!! Holy smokes! No wonder this counry is called Castle capital of the World!

Then Friday morning (the 13th, wooooooh!) we took off for our tour around the country. We soon discovered that it's certainly not an advantage to have a big car; many roads in the countryside are VERY narrow. Actually some of them so tiny that you have to stop somewhere convenient if you meet a car on the opposite road. I was amazed how much traffic there is in Wales, even on small contry roads.

We stopped for a few hours in the cute town of Monmouth, in southeast Wales. Visited a café that oozed charm, to have a cappucino and banana cake.

Very important!!

We had not planned where to stay at all during this week, but later we found ourselves in the small market town Talgarth, and decided to stop there (2000 invånare). 
Got a lovely room at the wonderful Tower hotel. This small family run hotel was my favourite place to stay during our week. A lovely friendly couple owns it.

On our way to the pub!

We fancied having dinner at a pub, and the Bridge End was very close to Tower hotel. Had a delicious vegetarian curry, and cider!

This beautiful painting was hanging in the pub

After a very good night's sleep, and a delicious breakfast, we continued our journey.
Drove for quite a while (thank god my husband did all the driving, on the "wrong side" of the road!), also inside England. 

This Saturday we ended up in the small town of Llangollen, situated on River Dee. Enjoyed cappucino and scones in Dee Side. 

Then we sat in a pub for about an hour, having a cider and watching the football semi final of World Championship; Belgium - England.

As you probably all know France won the whole shebang in the end

The Welsh language.......

Skylt i Llangollen på kymriska (som är ett keltiskt språk)!

Llangollen (3.412 invånare)

Sat outside having our dinner at Cottage Bistro

Loved their pretty sign!

Stadsbild

Stayed at the Royal hotel (not as posh as it sounds!!). 

We didn't know if it was possible to find somewhere in Llangollen to stay, since there're lots of tourists. We were lucky!

Not a good backlight photo - but the scenery is absolutely beautiful. 

The bridge I'm standing on was (re)built in the 1600th century!

Berwyn mountains in the back

So this was from our first days in beautiful Wales. I'll continue with part 2 in a few days. Still lots of very interesting spots coming up, like the famous aqueduct in north east Wales, wow! Stunning! 
I'll give you a sneak peak:

In Wrexham county borough

The heat in Sweden is still very tough, especially on the poor animals. The most vulnerable (värst utsatta) are hedgehogs, hares, foxes, deers. As I've mentioned earlier in my blog, I have several bowls of water in our garden, and now I refill them two-three times a day. 
I also put out food for hedgehogs, like catfood, bananas, sunflower- & pumkin seeds, raisins and fruits.

When we were in Wales a neighbour took care of "my" dear animals. Actually the very day we left for Wales, the hedgehog (igelkotten) came out of the hedge to say hello! I'd only heard it before. So very cute!
Yesterday a friend of mine who was on her way to the shops, saw a hedgehog that was dying. It was still breathing, and she run to the shop & back to the animal, and managed to give it water. 
She brought the poor creature home, and fed it with cat food. It recovered after more water and food, thank god. 

Breaks my heart that all sorts of animals has such a hard time in the scorching heat, and we must do all we can to help out. It's so easy to help, just put out lots of bowls with fresh water. Even better is water with honey in it. 

Hedgehogs are known to have fleas, but those fleas just live on the hedgehogs - they don't jump over to other animals    
(igelkottar är kända för att ha loppor, men dessa loppor lever just på igelkottarna och går inte över på andra djur).   

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

Drink lots of water!