As you can tell by my previous blog of day one and two, I was up writing my blog pretty early (around 3 AM). I did fall back to sleep after a few discourses from Denise (talking in her sleep about who knows what! :-) ). It was around 4:30 AM. But, we both woke up and it was already 8:30 AM. We were shocked. We never sleep that long.
After getting ready, we headed to the pub here by the hotel (Hungry Horse). But on our way there, we ran into Steve...a Welsh buy who now lives in England because of his wife's health. Steve was headed out to take his 'yorky' for a walk and ran into us. Steve became my shadow as we crossed from the hotel to the pub. He was a swell guy but it was obvious the man did not get much chatter in his room and I was his outlet for letting go of everything he knew about Wales and Donald Trump. Denise finally came over and said, hey, we need to eat. So I sat down and Steve took off. But like a nice boomerang, before we had our welsh breakfast in front of us, Steve was back wanting a bit more chatter. Our food came and as we ate, Steve talked. We ate. Steve talked. And when it was time to pay our bill, Steve kept talking. Finally, when all words had been expressed, Steve and his yorky were off...and so were we.
Our first stop of the day was in Blaenafon where the Ironworks and Big Pit coal mine landmarks were. After driving these crazy narrow roads through small villages for 50 minutes, we came upon the Ironworks area. We parked the car and walked over to the relic area that had a variety of old buildings that were once used either in the process of mining ore or housing those who did. But apparently, it was a weekend of docents who were dressed up as World War II folks who lived in this area. They looked pretty authentic. They even had some breads made that showed what they would have eaten during these times. They even dawned makeup to have open wounds and stuff as a result of bombings that occurred in this area. As we departed, there were two ladies singing up a storm. Really good voices they had. Denise also found a friend who shared a lot of good info about Welsh people and places in the area.
After touring the Ironworks area, we got in the car and drove to the Big Pit National Coal museum. This place was pretty cool. In addition to a small exhibition of the life of a coal miner and his family, they offered some really cool tours. One tour took us down 90 meters into the actual mining areas. Our guide was tremendous. He was funny and he was extremely knowledgable because he was a coal miner. I did not realize that they kept herds of horses in the mine for pulling the 'trams' of coal out of the mine. Whole families worked in the mine...down to the age of 6. The 6 years old boys manned the doors and helped direct airflow. It was quite cool inside. However, if you go deeper which all other mines are since this was the shallowest mine in Wales, it becomes hot and most men mined bareback due to the heat. The other fascinating thing was people were valued less than the horses. Horses cost money but people were a dime a dozen. It was no big deal to replace a dead worker. Anyway, it was a fun couple of hours touring this facility.
After the mine, we drove to Caerphilly to see the largest castle in Wales. The motes around this castle were impressive...let alone the castle itself. It was big. You could go up high. And the little town around it was quaint and nice too. We parked our car at a lot nearby. We wanted to pay 1.80 pounds for 2 hours but instead we dropped 3 pounds in and it gave us no change. So we got 3 hours of parking. Well, because we stayed to each dinner at (Casa Mia)...an Italian place, we used every minute of that time. So it worked out. Lots of history with this castle. Really nice walking tour. And the dinner at the conclusion at Casa Mia across the street from our car could not have been better. It turned out very well.
Driving...I'm back in Ireland, I swear. The smallest little road ways with cars going bi-directional. And then they park in your lane and you have to SQUEEEEZZZZEEEE by cars coming at you. It is the darndest thing you'd ever see. But we're still alive with no scratches on the car...yet. Anyway, it is a bit crazy shifting the 6 speed car with my left hand, driving on the different side of the car and road. I just have to keep my guard up. I had to apologize to Denise as she is always reading info on the sites we are seeking but I'm so focused on driving that I'm not hearing much.
Great #3 day...first full day in Wales.
Welsh breakfast...
Ironworks site...
Some of the lady docents getting ready for some type of demonstration of a bomb going off.
Some of the men getting ready....
These ladies had wonderful voices as they sang 'Sera, Sera'...
They have the craziest ways of slowing you down. In this case, they just shut one lane down by putting stuff like this in the road way...
Happy coal miner's daughter with tickets to go into the hole...
The coal miners...
The little village by the mines...Braenforn.
Kicking back while waiting for the souvenir shopper...
The cars just park in the road...and then you get to dodge the cars coming at you as you pass the parked cars...
Caersphilly Castle....pretty neat.
A Lake that joins the motes that surround the castle...
The slings that throw large rocks over the wall...
We hiked numerous towers in this castle...
Imprisonment....
The castle....
Dinner at Mia Casa. They did not open until 6 PM. We did not know that. It was 5:40. They had one table open...the whole restaurant was reserved. They said no problem and sat us and allowed us to get something cold to drink. So kind. We had a yummy dinner here of pasta (Lasagna and Carbonara).
Our garlic chees bread staring at the castle knowing it as going down my hatch in just a few moments....!
Our motel...
A crazy guest....
Our horse and buggy....
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