On Sunday we went for a drive in the arvo to stratford-upon-avon. This is the famed home of Shakespeare. It was interesting but i think the places fame has over-run the town so it is now so busy and popular that it is not that nice. There are lots of cool 4-500 yr old buildings and shakespeares house and his wifes house but mainly 10,000 people and a lot of very big car parks for all the people to park in. We had a beer in the above pub - The rose and crown and corinne bought a christmas decoration. We also finally found ourselves a modern day can opener that hopefully will work. On the drive home we asked jane to take us on a scenic route which was quite pleasant.
This is Warley Wood, our local park that we go walking in during our lunch time break. There was a very sudden change in the last two weeks from bare branches to masses of green leaves and flowers. The park is huge and Corinne sees all her clients here walking their dogs.
On Sunday we went driving around an overcast north Snowdonia. Everything was still beautiful though. We travelled through many small villages, pine forests, slate quarries and valleys, we also went along the coast a few times.
This is a dead snowdonian badger that was playing chicken with cars in a very tight lane.
On Saturday we decided to climb Mount Snowdon. This is the highest peak in Wales and England. It is 1,085m high. We climbed the Llanberis Path which is 14.6 km return and we gained 998m in altitude. We reached the summit in 2.5hours and returned in 2hours. The climb was really difficult and we felt like turning back a few times but we made it in the end. The scenery from the top is fantastic and the temperature seemed to drop dramatically. Luckily we'd packed our new cold weather gear so we were ok.
This is a view from the summit. You can actually walk along this ridgeline
a seagull which of course, can be found on top of Snowdon (it's not near the Sea).
Everybody has heard about it - Poms love drinking Fosters. To anyone in Oz who has ever tried it you would know it tastes like old dishwater from the sink of a student house lived in by boys, however over here it is very popular both in bars and shops. I have tried it and discovered the difference. The fosters here is completely different than the shite we have in the motherland, so they at least have an excuse. Something else I have found here that you can't even find south of coolangatta is fourex (XXXX). This fantastic QLD beer can be bought here both on tap and in cans. The crazy thing, is that it is even more different to Oz XXXX than the fosters. Fourex here tastes like a strange german lager, nice but not Fourex.
This is what a welsh duck looks like after it has been stuffed and slowly, sumptuously roasted and basted with orange marmalade, garlic, peppper, paprika and salt for 2 hours in a birmingham oven. We bought this baby on sale in wales and cooked it sunday night - Damn i should be a duck cook. It was better than - well you know and lasted twice as long, we had some more tonight. We had a fantastic orange juice and herb reduced gravy too. Ducks are really cheap over here and are bloody delicious so we plan to get into a few. The bucther down the road sells 2 for 5 pounds - bargain.
Last week and on the weekend again we went for a walk in the woods near our house. There are a few "Woods" about - these are actaully large parks/forests that are designated as woods. We went walking in Hagley wood and around the area.
This is Hagley monument and is easily reached from a very 'one way' lane.
Over an electric fence and besides a little cottage we found this private castle. No name and very private - definately no visitors allowed.
This is Castell Rhaglan (Raglan Castle) just outside Abergavenny in Wales. It is a very impressive late medieval palace-fortress. The ruins are very impressive and you can still see the many fireplaces and beautiful windows that remain. There is a great moat with a walkway around it where roman god statues sat in little niches in the wall (the statues have long gone). The rich folk of the day would use this little walkway to get 'exercise and air'. 
This is the Hunters Moon in Llangattock Lingoad near Abergavenny, Wales. We went on a detour when taking Liv and Downy to Bridgend and came across this gorgeous little pub in the middle of nowhere. We had ciders and ales but decided not to eat because being easter sunday their roast was all booked out. We have come to love our sunday roast at the pub. These little pubs in the UK are fantastic and we really enjoy going to them. The food and beverages are usually great and the people are lovely.
This is the pub's very friendly cat. You can tell I'm missing my Bobby.
Downy and Liv are here! They have come from Australia via Hong Kong and are going to be working 2 hours away from us in Wales. They stayed with us for a couple of nights in the Brum and we showed them the shopping delights of the big city and the smokey delights of the local pub (smoking will be banned in pubs from July...we can't wait). Then we drove them to Bridgend (Pen-y-bont) in Wales (Cymru) where they will be working. Jane directed us there via White Castle.
This is Jane! She is our new best friend and makes our travels around the UK much nicer. She is a Tomtom Go710 Satellite Navigation Device. Once the company was finally paid, we went straight out and bought one. We had trouble finding our way to just about anything because the roads are so complex. Now we can type in Castle Raglan in Wales and Jane will take us straight there! She is called Jane because the voice that tells us "turn right" is called UK Jane. She warns us about speed cameras, take us to ATM's and tells us how many kilometres and minutes it will take to get somewhere.
Today we went to the West Midlands Safari Park. The park is about 30 minutes away in Kidderminster. You get to drive through the animal enclosures and they come right up to the car and look in your window.
