Tuesday, 28th May             Taffs Well

Robyn writes: A big day. We woke (early, for a change) to find that the Welsh weather was once again very, very damp. We spent ages looking at various options and finally settled on what we'd originally been planning to do - the Brecon Mountain Railway, and to cross our fingers that it wouldn't actually bucket down the whole time! In the end we were really quite lucky with the weather - although it stayed very overcast all day, there wasn't much actual rain at any time that inconvenienced us, and it got up to around 15 degrees which was quite pleasant really.

 Very small rail gauge!

We left at about 9 to head north to Pant, the little town north of Merthyr Tydfil, where the steam railway station is. With the help of "Portia" our satnav navigator, we easily found our way there in plenty of time to buy our ticket and have a cuppa before our train left at 10.30. The trains run several times every day and they are the Welsh small gauge (it's only about 2 feet). The trip took about 90 minutes in all - we went past the Taf Fechan Reservoir and right up to the top of the line, which is a logging area in the Brecon Mountains, then after a 10 minute break headed back down to a 25 minute stop at Pontsticill, where we were able to look at the steam museum there and have a cuppa etc if we wanted. As there are several trains every day you have the chance to stay and go hiking if you want, but the way the weather was, I think everyone stayed with the train today. It was a lovely trip and very enjoyable. The old carriages have been renovated to include big scenic windows so you can see well without having to suffer the vagaries of the Welsh weather. You could go out onto the end of the carriage which was open, so we did that a few times ( despite my sunnies, I got the obligatory cinder in the eye! )

 the reservoir

Welsh ponies seen from the train

After we got back to Pant at about midday, we decided to head to Abergavenny.
Right, for this part if you are a baby boomer or a bit younger, you need to summon up your memory of the Marty Wilde song "Abergavenny". If you are too young to remember this classic, you may visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzs8mSnSZ2A
to acquaint yourself with it (and see some very pretty pictures of the town). I make no apologies for the fact that this will stay in your brain for the next few days; it's been playing in my head for the past week! Lex is threatening to divorce me if I keep singing it.

Anyway, there we were, taking a trip up to Abergavenny, hoping the weather is fine...Abergavenny is a lovely little town nestled in a Welsh valley on the Gavenny River. (The prefix 'aber' means the "mouth of the river"). A lot of the town centre is still filled with medieval buildings, in fact, the "Hen & Chickens" pub where we had lunch was definitely medieval by the look of the interior rooms. We had a really nice lunch there (we both had Cajun chicken) and then set out to explore.

 The Hen and Chickens, where we had lunch

Part of the Abergavenny Millenium Tapestry, an amazing effort by the seamstresses of Abergavenny



We spent a few hours wandering around, looking at the shops, market, church, an old tithe barn (900 years old!) which houses the Millenium Tapestry, an amazing and huge local production which shows a thousand years of the town's history, and the ruins of the castle. There were lots of shops along the high street ( so many op shops - I counted about 7 just in the main town area!) and at "Edinburgh Woollen Mills" I found myself another long sleeved t-shirt for only 9 pounds (doubtless it will now turn hot...). My favourite place though was St Mary's church - it was actually the church of the Benedictine Priory which was there from the 1100s, but at the time of the Dissolution, Henry VIII gave orders to leave it untouched by Cromwell's vandals, as it was a family church (Tudors had worshipped there). It is filled with wonderful tombs and effigies that you usually don't see in a parish church because of this. Quite fascinating, and I wish I'd had more time to explore it. The castle is fairly much in ruins and a bit hard to tell what was where, but very picturesque!

 The tomb of Margaret Plantagenet, daughter of King Edward III. Poor love was only 13 when she was chasing her pet squirrel which had got away and fell to her death over the ramparts of the castle.

The castle. Very picturesque but not much left of it!

We left Abergavenny at about 5, and thought all was going well, until we realised that "Portia's" idea of the best way home was to take us down to Newport and back along the M4, instead of what would have seemed the most logical; going back through Merthyr Tydfil. This turned into a nightmare trip as of course it was rush hour so we got stuck in lots of traffic at lots of roundabouts and the trip ended up taking sooo much longer than it would have if we'd just retraced our steps. Moral of the story: don't trust the satnav too much! Anyway, we finally got home at about 6.

We went for a walk to try to find the local thermal spring which no doubt helped give the name "Taff's Well" to this area. We walked across the Taff River footbridge and were heading up the forested hill on the other side when luckily we talked to a local bloke walking his dog and discovered that the spring is actually on the other side of the river! Apparently you can walk up the (very steep) path we were on to the top of the hill and a little pub and village up there. Lex looked interested but I bailed! We went back across the river and found the springs, but unfortunately they are covered by a rock building (1800s) and only open at weekends, so we didn't get to see the spring at all.

 Railway bridge over the Taff River

Stone building over the thermal springs. In the 1920s they built a naturally heated public swimming pool in front of it, but there's no sign of it now.

It's now nearly 8 and our tea (sausages) is nearly ready. It's still quite light and will be for an hour or so, I guess. Hoping for some nice weather tomorrow; it would be nice to go down to Cardiff Bay. Will let you know!