Into Wales

Wednesday 7 August. We rented a car for a couple of Days to take Marty around England. We stopped at Tintern Abbey first, which was lovely and serene as always. We were lucky with the weather and I was able to sit and sketch in the sun while Ian and his mother wandered around. After visiting the abbey we stopped at the Tintern Abbey Train stop which is no longer on the railway route but which has been converted into an activity center complete with tea house, shop, and walking trails. We had sweets at the cafe and then meandered around one of the walking trails. There were some lovely views of the river and the surrounding countryside. From Tintern we made our way to Crickhellow, a lovely little town renowned for its 13 arch bridge. Crickhellow also has the remnants of a castle and a number of lovely buildings decked out in summer flowers. We stopped for a while to pick blackberries from some brambles near the castle which I later made into a crumble. We journeyed on through a few more towns before making our way back to Bristol.