Wales trip

Right so here is my summary of the Wales trip. I just got the pics up on the site and will link the others soon.

Day 1
Saw the white horse of Effington out of the bus window along with neolithic farming terraces and some bronze age funeral mounds. Saw the biggest south bank tributary to the Thames which was smaller than Stoney Brook at home. Saw the modern site of an Anglo-Saxon town. We saw silbury hill which was this huge monument kind of like the pyramids and built the same way. I fell asleep while writing in my note book and went from describing Silbury hill to "I had a pint w/Allison, Erica" We looked at some of the building materials and how they relate to the geology of an area. Also went to Avebury henge. That was really cool... the local church is built inside of it- yay irony! Lots of sheep crap there tho. Then we crossed the border into wales. The signs were bilingual and that is just kewl! Went to Tintern abbey. It was absolutely gorgeous in the rain. I have no words for it and my pictures don't do it justice. Went through the forest of Dean. Saw Barday castle. In Chepstowe we stopped for the night at the Bowford Arms Hotel. The food was really good. Soup at last! We took a walk and saw a bunch of extremely drunk Welsh guys singing loudly for Welsh independance.

Day 2

Woke up to more rain. Lost my pen. Jess found it in my hair. Went to the walls of Chepstowe also known as Caerwent. My raincoat lost it's rain repelling abilities. We rode on the bus for a long time on day 2. I got soaked again when we went to look at the sea and this church that is kinda sinking. Back into the bus and some lunch enroute and it was Caerphilly castle. I broke out my poncho and the rain ended. Neat trick. I took lots of pictures and filled up the card that I came with. Back in the bus for the really long ride. We saw lots and lots of sheep, a few terrestrial crab farms and learned that in Wales, if it is flat land it gets turned into a rugby pitch. Ken Addison provided us with a stream of really awful jokes and we had to choose our meals for the rest of the trip. Stopped at the monument to Prince Llywelyn. Saw a really cool hawk and some plants that looked like purple lustrife. Then we stopped at Caban Coch which is a dam on a river in the mountains and was really pretty but still lots of sheep. We rode in the bus some more and ended up at the irish sea just as the sun was setting and the place looked just like a hudson river school painting. Got to the hotel kinda late around 9:15, sat down for dinner around ten. the manager aparently absconded two days ago and the people there had no idea we were coming. People had to share beds and things. To make up for it we got extra wine with dinner( which was really good.) and then hung out with the bartender til pretty late.

Day 3

Went to the barmouth estuary. The gold from the crown jewels came from the mountains around it. Then we went and looked at some dunes and some mud and did fun stuff like that. I was really very interesting. Stopped at a church that was half buried in sand dunes. Saw harlech castle. Drove the bus up snowdonia mountains highest mountains in england and Wales. Lots of sheep still. Hiked halfway up Mt Snowdon to this kewl glacial lake. Still some sheep. Beautiful view and lots of fun to hike tho kinda muddy. On the way back we learned that the Terrestrial Crab stuff was hooey. Stayed in Caernafon at a guest house that had two bathrooms for 22 people. That was fun... uh right. Also walked down to the castle there to get a pic of it lit up at night.

Day 4

Went to Caernafon castle... bought stuff and took lots of pics. Went to this big falling water power plant. Really neat. It is built inside of a mountain. makes lots of energy. Then we went to Great Orme Island which had a prehistoric bronze age copper mine that was just awesome. I bought stuff there and also learned that the purple plant I had been seeing was really purple lustrife. It was awesome! I think I am going to write a paper about bronze age mining. It is just so neat! I got their website but it is sadly out of date. There are lots of new finds and stuff that is going on right now! We saw the first iron bridge which was built using the technology for wood... dovetail joints and post and peg things and stuff. Then we went to dinner and went back to Oxford... by the last half hour, Jess and I were singing showtunes and oldies.