Brighton Pier

Boat on the Foreshore

The Promenade

Our snowperson!

Step 1:  Start snowball and roll it around until it’s huge!!

Step 2:  Pile the snowballs on top of each other making a messy body.

Step 3:  Cover mess with pristine white snow.

Step 4:  Put a little shoulder into it…

Step 5:  Sculpt and decorate.  Quick!  It’s getting dark!

Step 6: Strike a pose.

Tintern Abbey,  Wales

Castle Combe, England

So Castle Combe clearly isn’t in Wales, but we did visit it on the way home, so I’m including a picture anyway.  It is a very pretty town (once voted ‘the prettiest village in England’) and probably one of the highlights of the trip, a big surprise as we only decided to go there because it was close to the motorway.

As for our intended itinerary…

We stayed in St Brides for three days, in a remote castle (converted into holiday apartments) surrounded by nothing but dramatic coastline and (on most days) a thick layer of fog.  Our arrival at the castle was like something out of a bad 80′’s horror movie, VERY creepy: dark, foggy and with a Kate Bush soundtrack.

Highlights of the trip included a visit to Tintern Abbey, (a 12th century Cistercian abbey which now lays in ruin in southeast Wales), the food (who knew?! I certainly expected less from a country that is famous for cheese on toast) and a  steep coastal drive during which I thought the car would either cut-out or flip over backwards and kill us all.

In a turn of the bizarre, we found the local pub serving roo burgers and pavlova for Australia day (we later learned that the publican is Australian).  The locals were really getting into it- drinking fosters (which has a strange status as Australia’s favorite beer in the UK) and wearing straw sun hats whilst surrounded by Australian flags.  They seemed to be taking it significantly more seriously than we do at home- it was extremely cringe-worthy.  I was glad to get out of there!

Back in London and expecting a cold week ahead with snow forecasted!  I’m still hanging out to build that snowman!