Wales Day Trip

Last weekend (5 August 2006) we hitched a ride with a workmate of mine, Phil Drew (from Canada). Phil's girlfriend was back in Canada for a while, so we kept him company for the day as we checked out what Wales had to offer. Wales is only about 20 mins drive from Bristol, but there is a five pound toll on the bridge (only have to pay one way thankfully). Our fist port of call was at Chepstow, which contains among other things, the Chepstow Castle, which is around 1000 years old and still in very good condition.

Chepstow Castle from the Entrance



One of the many long drops in the Castle. Just sit down on the metal bars and let it drop into the river (that passes along one side of the Castle) to be taken away downstream. Great Sanitation!




These give you an idea of the sheer cliff face the Castle was built on for a great defensive position. The water level rises and falls up to 5m a day! Supplies could also be hoisted up by rope from boats in the river to the Castle above. The river is near the mouth entering the sea (near Wales/England border), hence affected by rising tides.


More impressive stonework within the Castle

Lunch after the Castle visit was at the local bakery enjoying some traditional Cornish Pasties which they make very well over here.


Typical Welsh lane for horses and people only not wide enough for cars!

That afternoon we drove to Tintern Abbey. In this small town, contains an old Cistercian Abbey that dates back to 1131, much of it in ruins. After paying to go into the previous Castle, we were happy just to walk around the outside and save on the entry fee - yes we are tight a*s aussies after all.


And my first pay cheque had not come through still so we were still living off Aussie dollars converted to Pounds.


Tintern Abbey main street (the only street pretty much) lined with cliffs and houses on one side, river on the other side.


There was not too much else we felt like doing that afternoon, so we took some back roads and got lost, partly due to the lack of signage on the roads in Wales, but eventually found our way to a spot I located on the map which was the location of Harolds Stones. These three oblong stones were in a small grassed field accompanied by sheep resting in the shade. The significance of these stones is not known but we checked them out nonetheless.



Its starting to fall over....!!!!!


On the way back we finished the afternoon off with local beer/Guinness back at Chepstow enjoying the views of the Chepstow Castle from our bench in the Pub gardens.

The toll bridge on the way back to Bristol.

Big Thanks to Phil for a great day in our first Country outside of England.





And Here is a photo of Phil. Cheers.

Bristol Festival

Bristol Festival 29.07.06

This Festival is just an excuse we think to have another festival, bring in the tourists, have some hot air balloons in flight, and open up more market like stalls and food tents. Not that we were complaining, the weather was great, and we enjoyed some curries, and browsed through the various market stalls selling hats, food, soaps, clothers, etc.

Hot Air Balloons

Boats and Yachts a plenty in the Avon River

A large number of boats made the trip for the Festival, many were large sailing vessels, and most people used them for accomodation during the Festival which ran for the whole weekend.

Balloons in the backgorund, Food and Market stalls/tents in Queens Square

Brad's walk to Work...

My walk from home to work is only about 10 to 15 minutes, and starts by passing St Mary's Church.

The tip of the St Mary's Church at Redcliff can be seen from our window at home. It makes for a great landmark near home so we can get our bearing easily upon returning home from out of town, etc.

St Marys Church in Redcliff

Next is crossing the Avon River, tidal flows in this region affect the river levels, with fluctuations of 2m typical during the day.

River Avon

Many of the long narrow boats are used as accomodation.

River Avon

Next is the 'Hole in the Wall' Pub, where we have already enjoyed a meal and a number of beers, ciders, and guinnesses in the front bar (no photo yet though!) .

Queens Square

Then Queens Square, which is a very well presented grassed area for picnics, reading during lunch, etc. A top spot to relax in at lunch or after a long days work. And there are laws against grabbing a beer and sitting in hte park and enjoying the day! I can highly recommend this. If only they had Coopers on tap here, or and Coopers at all!

Queens Square

Then over the square, cross Prince Street, and work is again near the River Avon.

Sites of Clifton

The veiws around clifton where we were staying with Dan and Brenna on All Saints Court...

Our Hire Car for the First Week

Clifton is one of top end suburbs in Bristol... sites along the main roads to be seen as follows:

Main Street in Cifton

Bottom of Park Street Views. This Park runs along Park Street and is a great spot for relaxing. First thing in the morning it is deserted, you can have the whole park to yourself! By evening all the kids are practising on their skateboards their tricks in the paved areas. Very entertaining when they crash...

These were the typcial views for Brad on the way to work every day.

Found an Apartment

This is where we live its a newish apartment in the centre of town, a small one bedroom self contained place. This was handy as we don't have to buy knifes and forks, plates, etc. The only things we had to buy was a quilt (or duvee as they say over here) and a TV. Dan and Brenna kindly took us for a drive up north of Bristol to pick up a 2nd hand TV for 30 quid.

Our Apartment

Here are some photos taken of our apartment in Bristol




Main Entrance, the bedroom is straight ahead, Bathroom to the left. Kitchen/Living area to the right








Our bedroom.





Kitchen and Living area



The view from our Living Room window, out onto the Courtyard below.

Heathrow to Bristol

After arriving at Heathrow Airport we made our way to the train station to catch an express train to Paddington. Of course we took the next train that arrived at the station, but it was the normal train, not the Express, so there was some wasted Pounds there! Bugger!



Us on the train...






Once in Paddington we only had a short walk to our Hotel but it ended up being longer then we expected. A 10 minute walk turned into a 45minute walk. We didn't have a clearly detailed map of the area but had a fair idea of what direction to go, with a backpack each, lap top and heavy suitcases we were not happy by this time. In the end a black cab was the best solution. And wouldn't you know, the hotel was only 2 streets away from where we were standing. But at 9pm at night (still very much daylight here at that time) and being on a plane for 13hrs we didn't care how much it cost us to not walk around anymore............Oh the joys of traveling. It was a very cozy room - to put in nicely, but we were glad to leave London after just one night!!!!!



The next day we went back to Paddington station and got on a train for Bristol. We stayed in a Hotel for 3 days (the Novatel) and now we are staying with another Aussie couple we met, Dan and Brenna.

Our room at the Novatel.


Dan and Brenna are in the process of finishing their UK trip and are heading back to Queensland soon, but before heading back they have around 5 weeks driving through Europe, Canada and the States. We are greatly appreciative of them letting us stay with them until we find a place of our own!



Dan and Brenna are on the right hand side of the couch we fixed, after it collapsed one night. Martin is in the middle (A mate of Dan's, who was born and bred in Bristol)

We are in a suburb called Clifton (a nice area of Bristol) which is 25 minute walk from the centre of town. We will be here for another week. This week we have been looking at apartments and this weekend we still have a few more to look at and hopefully one of these suits and then Monday we can finalise the details and move by next weekend.

Just down the road about 5 minutes from where we are staying.......there is a pub called 'The Roo Bar'....no aussie beer though, or Aussie bar staff. So its not really Aussie at all, and Brad keep telling everyone Fosters aint an Aussie beer - it makes VB taste good almost!

First stop Singapore

We first flew to Singapore. We spent 2 nights there and only had one day to see the sights. We did a tour around the city and a Night Safari tour at the zoological park. It was a long day and the next day we had to be early to the airport for a 13 hour flight.

Singapore Stopover (04.07.06 to 06.07.06)

We decided on a two night stay in Singapore to break up the 20 odd hour flight to London.

Our first night in Singapore was low key, we just went for a walk at night through around the streets near the hotel. Singapore is very safe to just walk around so we ended up having a beer at a Café near the Hotel, but I ‘accidentally’ ordered a jug instead of a pint, so we stayed there for a little longer.


Singapore was humid generally all the time, but really easy to get around. Shorts, T-shirt and thongs are all that is required for any day of the year it seems.

After a good nights sleep in what was to be the biggest bed we would sleep in for a long time (UK only seems to have little double beds, no kings or queen sizes anywhere!), we had a bite of breakfast at a bali style eatery. The rest of the morning was spent browsing through some local shopping malls, having all these shopowners trying to get us to buy everything from tailored suits to head massages. Shopping Touts is what they are called, and all hotel stayers are warned about them, as they essentially just bug you to buy their stuff!

After lunch we went on a city tour organised through the hotel, and we saw a local mosque and gardens.

We visited a small market where you could buy clothes, jewellery, even ancient weapons!

Market with mosque in background

The tour also stopped by Chinatown, which used to be on the coast of Singapore, but due to land reclamation done by dredging the sea floor and dumping it near the coast to make more land), Chinatown is now no longer beachfront property, it is now a good 5 or 6 city blocks from the waters edge! Chinatown’s main attraction is the Thian Hock Keng Temple built in 1821. Really impressive stone carvings, artwork etc on the walls, and it is a very tranquil place in the heart of a busy city.



The next part of the tour was to a local Gem Stone Factory where they cut and polish gems and make them into various jewellery, and other forms of artwork. Very expensive, and anything we bought would’ve probably broke during the flight. So we looked but did not touch. I dare say the Tour company gets a good cut of the profits for this part of the tour if any sales are made…

'Gem Paintings' made with 1000's of gems


Carved figurines


Globes

The final leg of the City tour was on a traditional Junket along the Singapore River (I think?). the tour comprised of up to 6 people per boat and a pre-recorded voice describing the buildings and bridges along the river. It was a nice relaxing boat ride, and the main attraction was the Mer-Lion, the symbol for the main ‘entrance’ to Singapore.
Merlion with Junket in foreground













Merlion


For tea that night we had McDonalds (terrible I know) and the Big Mac came with a chilli/garlic sauce sachet– which I used of course, and the fried come with ketchup or mayo if you want. Its all about the little differences!

That night we went on the Night Safari, which is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike with a large range of animals mainly from tropical countries near the equator. We could not take any photos of the animals at night as we did not want to be charged at by a rhino, hippo, tiger, etc.





The first part of the Night Safari comprised of a guided tour on an electric car with a number of large trailers for tourists to sit on (like big golf buggy carts). This tour winded through the park and stopped at regular intervals so we could all see the various animals feeding as most were nocturnal. Animals included native tigers, rhinos, giraffe, elephants, zebra, jackals, ostrich, lions, boars, and many other smaller animals and birds.

The second part of the night was located in an amphitheatre with some animal handlers showing trained otters sorting rubbish into different recycling bins, possums hanging from overhead wires, carpet pythons scaring little kids, tigers feeding from a large rock within close viewing distance etcs. Overall very entertaining for a night trip.


The next morning it rained while we were heading from the Hotel to the airport, and we had a few hours to waiting the Airport before taking off to Heathrow London with Singapore Airlines.


Waiting to Leave Singapore Airport.