Monday, 24 October 2022

Exploring :: The Wye Valley #4 ... Tintern

Hi there everyone 😀

We spent the last day of our week's break in The Wye Valley exploring Tintern, which was just lovely. We had more blue sky and sunshine ... we had been so lucky with the weather all week ... it had been glorious.

Whilst we didn't actually pay to visit the abbey you can get some really good views from the roadside ...
We decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch in Tintern, at The Anchor Inn, which looked lovely ...
It didn't disappoint ... this was the view from our table ...
... and the lunch was a real treat too ...
After lunch we just had a short walk along the river into the village ...

It was such a glorious day that we decided to call in at the outdoor lido at Lydney on the way back ... something we had been hoping to do all week. It was so nice ... even though not heated, the pool was a lovely temperature and it was so lovely to be able to just jump in and cool off ...
In spite of our initial disappointment with our 'quirky' holiday cottage we had actually had a lovely week exploring the river and the forest. When I look back over my photos and my blog posts all I seem to see are vibrant shades of blue and green ... It's certainly another beautiful part of the country and I think we definitely got to see it at it's best 😀

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Monday, 17 October 2022

Exploring :: The Wye Valley #3 ... The Forest of Dean

Hi there everyone 😀

Having managed to avoid the dreaded Covid for two and a half years Martin and I finally succumbed this week. We have felt pretty wiped out for the last 10 days, but are now slowly starting to get back to normal, though it doesn't seem to take much before we are feeling the need to rest. 

Our aim is to get back on top of everything that needs doing in the house and garden as soon as we can ... so that we can reward ourselves with a trip over to North Wales for some real chill out time at the lodge.

The blogging world is feeling a bit strange at the moment too, with lots of people who I have followed religiously for years either deciding to take a bit of a break or seeming to be posting more infrequently. I must admit that sometimes it does feel like a bit of an effort to put a post together, when there seems to be so many other priorities.  Hopefully I won't totally lose my blogging mojo, though I do feel a bit behind at the moment.

Today's post takes us back to July and our trip to the Wye Valley, where we'd spent our first weekend catching up with old work friends. They all headed for home on the Sunday and we decided that we'd have a day just mooching around locally, maybe have Sunday lunch, and just see how we went.

We started out at Lower Lydbrook, which wasn't far from where we were staying in Ruardean, and was a very popular spot for paddle boarding and picnicking by the river. It was a really lovely spot and though we didn't indulge in a paddle, there were plenty of people in the river ...
We pretty much followed the river to The Inn on The Wye, where we stopped for Sunday lunch ...
... before having a walk across Kerne Bridge, another good spot on the river, with some lovely views looking across to Goodrich Castle ...

We took a circuitous route back to the cottage deciding that we would have a bigger day out exploring further afield in The Forest of Dean the following day.

Our first stop on our next day's travels was The Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail. Martin wasn't really up for walking far and to be fair it was so hot that neither of us was really up for much of a walk, but we both really wanted to see some sculpture.

We managed a short loop and got to see a few of the sculptures before deciding it was just too hot ...
We did manage an ice cream before deciding to head off. There was one sculpture that I really wanted to see but was just too far to walk. Looking on the map it seemed there may be the possibility of parking up fairly close so we decided to give it a go. We weren't disappointed ...
From here our next stop was the New Fancy View Point, which is on the site of the former New Fancy coal mine ...
The three elements of the sculpture depict stone, iron and coal. The coal being represented by the blackened Dean oak, the iron by pre-rusted fabricated steel and the stone by Forest of Dean bedrock.

It was a bit of a slog up to the viewpoint, but the view was worth it ... 
We were both starting to feel a bit peckish by now so decided to make our next stop Mallards' Pike, where we stopped for lunch in the sunshine ...
It was another really pretty spot, with plenty of walks and nice places to just sit and enjoy the sunshine.

As time was getting on we decided to call it a day and to head for home, with plans to head for Tintern Abbey, and maybe an outdoor lido, the following day 😀

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Monday, 10 October 2022

Exploring :: The Wye Valley #2 ... Ross-on-Wye & Symonds Yat

Hi there everyone 😀

We are back in The Wye Valley for today's post for the first couple of days of our week long break, which were spent meeting up with old work friends for our annual catch up.

We all met up in Ross-on-Wye, with plans for a wander along the river, probably a spot of lunch and maybe a bit of a mooch round the town centre.

It was an absolutely glorious day and the river and Ross were looking lovely ...
It was pretty warm so, after a quick dip for Charlie ...
... it was a slow amble that was the order of the day ... with the odd stop now and then for photos and the obligatory group selfie ...

It really was the loveliest walk along the river ...
.. and before we knew it we were at the bridge by The White Lion, where we were eating that evening ...
The pub was just opening and we were all ready for a spot of light refreshment so decided to check it out for later ...
We all decided it would do very nicely indeed and picked ourselves a nice table overlooking the river for dinner.

It was then time to retrace our steps back across the bridge ...
... and along the river ...
... to the town centre ...
... where we all decided it was far too warm for mooching round the town centre so, after another pitstop at another riverside pub, we headed back to our cottage for a lazy couple of hours before meeting up again later to eat ...
We had a lovely meal at The White Lion that evening sat in the sunshine, overlooking the river and we agreed to meet up at Symonds Yat the following morning.

It's been a while since we've been to Symonds Yat and the last time we went was in the autumn so it was so lovely to take in the views on another glorious day ...
There were plenty of selfies and photos ...
... before heading back to the kiosk for views from another perspective and ice creams in the shade ...
From here we headed into the village for a quick drink before parting company for a couple of hours before meeting up again at Jude & Rob's caravan site for our annual BBQ, which was a real treat ... and so lovely to be able to sit outside and eat with no fear of rain.

We really were blessed this time with the weather. It had been glorious all weekend and it really does make a difference. We were able to spend so much time outside, it was just lovely.

Next year you will find us in Thornton-le-Dale 😀

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