Wales - August 22 - Chepstow & Tintern

Picked up a car at our favorite rental agency and headed to Wales this morning. Our first stop was Chepstow Castle, which is a still largely in tact castle in a small village just over the border in Wales. We enjoy exploring places that men built hundreds - sometimes even thousands - of years ago. Chepstow Castle did not disappoint. We had lunch in Chepstow (but no Welsh cakes yet) and then headed to the ruins of Tintern Abbey. The Abbey was not nearly as in tact as Chepstow Castle, but in some ways more magnificent - especially if you could use your imagination to consider what it use to look like. (Still in search of Welshcakes at that point.) Next stop were some roman ruins in a small village called Caeleon. The Roman Bath excavation was very well done, and a short walk brought us to the remains of a small Roman amphitheater - not nearly as impressive as the Colosseum in Rome, but still cool that this thing existed in this small town. (Alas...still hankerin' for Welshcakes.) After the Roman ruins, we headed to our hotel in Cardiff and had a bit of time to explore the port area, where we had the find of the day - a shop called Fabulous Welshcakes...and they were...FABULOUS! (Hello...my name is Bryan, and I'm addicted to Welshcakes.)