Caerphilly, Cardiff, Bristol, & Bath! (Day 1)

Jon & I had been wanting to check out Bath and make a trip to somewhere in Wales. So it was a happy meeting of interests when Sat told us that Ganga wanted to visit Bath and Cardiff :)

Since we were heading that direction, we decided to throw in Caerphilly and Bristol as well!

We left late on a Friday night on 30 Nov, and had an unintended tour around London, heh :) Traffic was heavy, and we missed a few turns, so it took a while to get out of town :) Still it was fun, cos in the midst of the jam we were entertained by an impatient driver of a Smart Car who, instead of waiting for the traffic to move to make his turn, tried to cut the corner by driving up the curb and across the pavement. We initially thought he wouldn't make it up the curb because on his first try, his car ended up balancing precariously on two wheels. But a final rev and he was up the curb and speeding away!

Anyway once out of Central London, Sathia, who was driving that weekend, made really good progress! We were in Wales in no time! Finding the B&B was another funny adventure, as we went round and round some circles to get our bearings, and to find the B&B itself. It was a bit difficult to see the signs in the night! We were all laughing at how the other drivers must be thinking, "these crazy people".. :)

Speaking of signs, Welsh is sooo difficult to pronounce. All the road signs in Wales have both English and Welsh on them, and we were amazed by some of the Welsh names. Try saying "Dinbych Y Pysgod", or "Hwlffordd" :) Don't ask me how to pronounce them, cos I don't know!!

Our first night was spent at The Cottage Guesthouse in Caerphilly, and it was even more cosy and lovely than expected! It was made all the more cosy because of the Christmas decorations :) We actually had to "sneak" into the cottage on our own cos the owners were at dinner somewhere. They had left the keys in an envelope and stuck that to the wall. Makes you wonder about security, but guess Wales, or at least the small towns in Wales, are relatively safe and communal. Cos a similar thing happened on our second night (more on that later).





















The rooms were cosy, and it was clear to us we were in Wales by just looking at the toiletries - Welsh dragons! And in fact, we really had a dragon in the toilet. There was this roaring sound that came out from the toilet every now and then. It was funniest when I'd be talking to Jon about something, and the 'dragon' would agree with me at the right time :) So, anyway, we named the invisible dragon Caerphilly!










So that's it for day 1! Basically just travelling :)