Oyster Hotel Swansea

... very blowy, wet & wild. All the blood kept rushing to my furry head as Martyn had put me in the tank bag sideways & the bike was leaning so far over to keep upright in the wind. I peeked out at the view to see a very big flood at the dip in the road. A big artic. truck was heading towards us on the other side & met us at the bottom. It make such a big splash that everybody disappeared ...

Back at the St. Brides Spa Hotel in Saundersfoot.
Unfortunately, winter doesn't make this the best place to stay. It's dark when you are at the hotel, so you don't get the views. And the spa doesn't stay open late enough in the winter. At least I will get to enjoy it over the weekend.
And the walk along the coast - kind of scary in the dark. But you do get to see a bunch of stars and parts of the Milky Way because there isn't much light pollution out here.

Ok, this is just a quick check that all is running smoothly with the blog, as I've had some problems. Hopefully You're all now getting e mail updates when a new entry is posted. We've also retrieved the log in details for the travelpod account we created last year so that you can log in and make (nice!) comments. Well done ...

OK, here we go again, sat in Lyn's office trying to sort everything out. This year's trip has proved even more complicated to arrange, especially as we're flying out of Gatwick and back into Heathrow. We never like to do things the easy way! Also the dollar hasn ...

... west wales was what I was expecting!
We left the hotel and spent the day tidying, cleaning, dropping furniture off and generally doing stuff we could have done without. Then there was the packing... I hate packing at the best of times, but to be packing for a trip that I have no idea where we are going while totally wiped out is my idea of hell on legs! Simon gave me a few pointers. A jumper and a bikini! Not ...

Booked with Clyne Farms to go horse-back riding on the beach. But first we had to get our skills evaluated because when the horses see the wide open expanse of beach, they want to gallop. I was all for this. But it wasn't meant to be apparently. I've never ridden an English saddle before and it's been years since I've ridden a horse. Same with Jacqui. So the instructor said she ...

So on the last day we headed back to London. We drove past Port Talbot (but didn't stop) but was still interesting to me as you could see the outline of the steelworks and I sat there and guess what was what (yes I am a very sad person)

We stopped at Caerphilly which has the 2nd largest castle in the UK (Winsor is the largest) - it even had a moat. This was pretty cool as it was actually a nice ...

Of course, the ideal way to pass the day after a 100km mountain bike ride is to walk up the highest peak in the Beacons, so after a lovely cooked breakfast at the Canal Bridge Café, we loaded up the car then parked at the bottom of Pen y Fan and set off to walk up. It's not that bad a walk, and the views are great: typically Beacons, with big, rolling, grassy hills.

Our ...

I'm noticing a strange phenomenon among the americans here. We've picked up the lingo. Uni is university - and cheers is thanks. When I got here I felt so phony using "cheers" -- now it just slips out. I pulled my first semi-all nighter last night. I really didnt have to, but my friends were up studying for their final so I stayed with them and did work on my essay. Now I've ...

... to head back so that we would be able to make it to Cardiff Castle in time before it closed. So, we got on a bus to head back to the bus station. While on this bus, there was a wasp! I had seen it at first, but it flew toward the back and away from me. Then, during the bus ride, I heard a little boy scream like a little girl. And I thought that he was just throwing a temper tantrum. But, then I heard him say something about the wasp and I could ...