The Lakes District - Backbarrow We have arrived safely in our next accommodation - a 200 year old cottage on the banks of the River Leven at Backbarrow (2 miles from Lake Windemere). Our young hosts and their boisterous Labrador Basil welcomed us warmly. The water in the river is rather high and fast flowing due to the heavy rain that they have had over the last days. Just outside our window is an old bridge and the water cascades through it at great velocity an...

Llandudno And off we went to our next Servas host in Llandudno (pronounced Hlandidnu) - a beautiful royal Victorian beach resort town in northern Wales. We were warmly welcomed by Peter and Leslie (with their 2 welcoming and lovable dogs) in their gorgeous home and garden - and spoilt with a magnificent dinner. Peter was a sailing instructor and him and Leslie had also been sailing in Turkey earlier in the year - so there was lots to chat about - which we manag...

Rachub, near Bethesda - Snowdonia The drive up to Snowdonia was absolutely beautiful - through wooded valleys, mountainous heavily wooded areas, with large lush green meadows with lots of little white spots everywhere (sheep with long fluffy tails). There are many walking trails, cycle and mountain bike trails in the area. There are many traditional old natural stone houses with slate roofs and stone bridges. Some of the houses are slightly plastered and painted ...

Central Wales Our first Servas hosting in the UK was in central Wales - in a very remote area. We decided to take a slow drive, stopping along the way to see the sights of southern Wales. Crossing the long toll-bridge just north of Bristol, we headed to Cardiff. Although a Scotsman told us to totally avoid Cardiff, we decided, that we needed to go to see it after all and were not disappointed. Cardiff Castle is huge and right in the middle of the city centre - s...

Bristol Our drive up to Bristol took us through beautiful Devon. We really liked the countryside and the coastal areas we went through on our way to Bristol. On the advice of an arbitrary traveller in a carpark, we took a detour to Ilfracombe on the North Devon coast. What an interesting place ! The medieval lighthouse, huge modern statue in the harbour (naked pregnant warrior with sword skyward and half of her body bisected and standing on several overturned bo...