Wales, part 4

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The first night in Wales I did not have much trouble sleeping.
In the morning the sun came right in my window off the water.


Friday morning cosmicirony and I had breakfast at the hotel and then set off out of Cardiff.


Rather than follow Google's directions through the city, we followed the signs to the M4. This ended up taking us out the road we had come in on the day before.
"Any road in Cardiff that I recognize and I know it goes where we want to go is a road I'm going to take," I said.


Once we got to the M4, progress was pretty fast.

It is not clear to me how fast. If the speedometer in the car is in miles per hour, we'd all be arrested back at home for excessive speeding. But, it does seem to say it is in MPH...
In the right conditions, I'm willing to go 90. I'm just surprised how many people still pass me.

We knew our destination was on the West side of the river Usk. So, our directions promptly told us to get on the East side.


We went thorugh town, up over the M4 again, down a very steep hill, over the much smaller Usk and into the town we were after.



We found the Caerleon Roman baths in the parking lot of a pub. No, seriously, they have no parking of their own and are at the back of a pub's parking lot. You've got to pay the pub to park there and go in. But, the rate is very reasonable so we paid for two hours.
http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/Caerleon-roman-fortress-baths/?lang=en
It is an excavated site where you walk above the ruins on an indoor balcony. You can look down at the ruins as you walk along. There is all sorts of information along the balcony to help you and they project things into the middle with two very large projectors.
Things like water and people swimming in the baths...








Then, we headed to the other places in town.


We decided to hold off on the museum itself as a long line of children was going in.


So, we walked the very short distance over to the amphitheater. (Where there was free parking. Oh well...)
http://cadw.wales.gov.uk/daysout/caerleonamphitheatre/?lang=en

It is very cool. Out in a field. And, it was a very bright warm sunny day too!






There are the barracks ruins, the museum, the castle and the iron works we went to that day. As well as the drive up to where the class was through some wonderful scenic hills.
But, that will have to wait. I've got to finish getting dressed, pack, eat and go to Stonehenge right now...

Comments

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking me along on your holiday with you - your photos have been wonderful.