The Dolphin Hotel Swansea

Well - being in Cardiff was good since it is the closest airport, being on a 2-hr drive to the hotel. But had to wait about an hour for the rental car place to open up.<br><br>At least I got to go through the visitor information brochures and grab a bite at Burger King.<br><br>

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 ...

... exactly helped; how inconvenient! Anyway, everything is now booked; flights, cat into cattery, rental car to airport, Gatwick hotel, car hire in the US, 4 US hotels, 2 US houses, 1 US condo, and rental car from airport. Now I have to think about packing.......<br>

... west wales was what I was expecting!<br>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 ...

... t comfortable signing off on us riding on the beach. But we could go for a hack through the woods. Figured that was better than nothing.<br><br>Man it was a miserable day...raining and cold all day. Pretty much from when we entered Wales, it was raining on us...maybe Scotland will be better? The forecast calls for no rain, but it's still supposed to be cold, so wish us luck<br>

... day and was nice to walk around the little town with a massive castle in the middle (you would think I would have had enough of castles by now but no they are still cool).<br> <br> We the stopped off in Callyan (not sure if that's spelt right) which was nice for a change as it actually was a roman stronghold and thus still has some remains from this era. We went and had a look at the roman baths which had ...

... it. Traditionally the Welsh aren't very happy aboutthis dam as it doesn't supply them any water - instead the water is sent toBirmingham. However, as it flows pretty much as a river to get there it is animpressive engineering feat.<br><br>We then went to our stop for the night which was out in the middle of nowherein a funky hostel with a big welcome to mexico sign out the front. It waspretty funky and the owner cooked us mexican food for dinner which was reallynice.<br><br>

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.<br><br>Our ...

Just thought I'd toss it out there -- anyone have any cooking suggestions? I've been doing pretty well cooking for myself (I've got some pasta and vegtables leftover from dinner ready for lunch today in the fridge!) but I was just wondering if there were any recipies you all might reccomend for me to make here. Something you enjoyed in college, or a recipe from home that I could make. (I'll probably ask this again around Thanksgiving too.) Missyou!Loveyou! =)

... doing a tour of the interior and wandering its grounds. Castles have to be one of my favourite things about Europe. Grand, ornate cathedrals don&#8217;t do it for me, old Roman ruins don&#8217;t usually do it for me, but exploring around grey, crumbling stone turrets and walls set behind a wide moat never feels to arouse my interest. So on leaving Cardiff we very soon stopped at the nearby town of Caerphilly ...