Sunday 20th March

14C

Yesterday we caught the ferry from Rosslare in Ireland to Pembroke in the UK (actually it's in Wales). It was a pretty uneventful 4 hour trip and embarking from the ferry and finding our way was easy enough. About 10 minutes up the road was Carew Castle so we stopped to have a look around. I love castles! Carew's history spans over 2000 years and over that time it has changed from a Celtic fort to Norman stronghold, from feudal castle to Elizabethan mansion, from civil war outpost to icin if romantic art. The ruins that we saw date from around 1100, soon after the Normans arrived in Wales, through to the late 1500's when Queen Elizabeth 1 was on the throne. The castle occupies a 40 acre site. It was really fascinating and l could imagine the little kids who used to live in the castle would have so much fun running in and out of all the passage ways and rooms. I got lost just in the ruins.....heavens knows how l would've coped if l'd lived there. We probably spent about 90 minutes there and then we went on our way again. Mum wanted to go Landkeye to see ken King who is a distant relative. We only got as far as Magor before we stopped at a roadside hotel which was a bit of a dive. We could feel the springs of the mattress as we lay on the beds so l slept on top of the doona on the bed to try to not feel it. I saw a squirrel this morning while we were having breakfast. I took photos but he was so much like the background you couldn't really see him. We got underway around 9am this morning heading for Landkeye. We arrived around 11.30 and after a few stops to ask directions we finally found Ken and his lovely wife Carol. Mum took photos of their kids and grandkids and also got photos of Ken's Grandparents and their offspring. I think Mum had a nice catch up. We started off again around 1pm and headed towards St Austell as Mum wants to see The Garden of Eden. Dunno what that is but it's something to do with gardens. We only made it as far as Camelford which, according to legend is the original Camelot, before l got tired of driving. These small lanes, high hedges, 30 & 40 mile speed signs and roundabouts are really starting to piss me off! I think we have about another hour of travelling to go before we get to these gardens....they better be worth it! we've stopped at a lovely hotel called Bowood Park and it's actually a golf club with the hotel connected to it. We felt the beds and can't feel any springs so we should have a better nights sleep. The weather has been lovely and people keep commenting how lucky we are to have such nice weather. Such a contrast to waking up to snow every day, I like it better this way....snow every day is too depressing and we were only in Iceland for 12 days! Imagine living there. Actually it's no wonder most of the Icelanders didn't seem too friendly....l think they were depressed too.