to wales and back
On the morning of the 27th my family and I embarked on a 144-mile trip to Swansea to go meet some friends. So here is my small and (probably) boring recap of the journey :)
Note: all images are clickable, but are all around 700-1000px wide when full-size.
After crossing the bridge to Wales, we were pleasantly surprised by all the Welsh signs. There were also numerous illuminated signs that repeatedly warned us not to drink and drive in both Welsh and English, occuring maybe once every 5 miles. Methinks this is a bit of a problem in Wales.
The weather was very nice, slightly cloudy as we entered Wales but getting clearer as we travelled. This is a point worth mentioning since, it being Great Britain in December, having some sun is nothing short of a miracle. The miracle was somewhat dampened by the temperature however, which must have been close to zero centigrade.
Of course, on the way we just *had* to stop at Cardiff. Not because I loved Cardiff as a city -- in fact I know precious little about it, even now -- but because it was home to Doctor Who and Merlin, of course!
The Millenium Centre -- I still do not know what it says, but I'm sure you could just Google it if you cared. It is actually part theatre, hence the Les Miserables poster outside (I approve of Welsh taste in theatre!). We went inside and the whole room was just a large counter, presumably to buy tickets. If you rounded the corner you would see a small shop, some comfy seats, and stairs to go upstairs, where we are told there are conference rooms and things of the like.
The now-famous fountain opposite the Millenium Centre, which we discovered to our dismay was turned off. They probably didn't want the water freezing or something. (Squint and you may just see my little brother!) Torchwood fans probably know far more about this fountain than I do!
We also visited the Doctor Who exhibition, but my mum was in charge of the camera by then and didn't take many good pictures. I might post them later anyway, in a friends-only post. We also visited a little crafts shop where local artisans displayed sopme of their ware: gorgeous glass plates, ceramics and pottery, leather bags, clothes, scarves, jewellery and other pretty things. I bought some lovely silver and black pearl earrings, but everything in that shop cost a fortune!
Next we headed West to Swansea. The city itself is gorgeous: very hilly, so that when you're at a slight altitude at night you can look down and see the lights. It's absolutely gorgeous, and my brother and I played with the camera and produced some pretty cool light effects! I might package them into a texture set one of these days.
A view of a secluded bay off the main one. If you turned around 180 degrees and walked down a bit you would reach a pier and would be able to sea pretty much all of Swansea. This one however, was much more picturesque and from our vantage point (quite high!) I took this little panorama. Apparently Catherine Zeta-Jones owns a mansion not far from here! As you can see to the right of the picture there is a small beach; well, believe it or not, we saw a man in his trunks getting out of the sea when we were there. Now, you may not be able to tell from the sunny picture but it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing a gale; my feet (protected by socks and leather boots) were numb with cold within minutes. The man was red as a lobster as we watched him pull on his shirt, and we were all rather struck dumb by this show of absolute lunacy. Seriously, if he doesn't need therapy after that, then he's the craziest nutter I've ever come across!
Another small beach on our way to the Swansea pier. It is covered in round, smooth rocks about the size of a clenched fist (and upwards) and is apparently an excellent spot for catching crabs (the animals for the filthy-minded!). The tide was rising when we visited though, so we had to prise our dads from the oncoming waves and make a dash for it!
You can sort of see the rocks from this angle. I loved the play of the foam on the shore, what can I say? I love photography ^_^ After this we visited the pier (which looked *much* more dangerous in real life than in films, if only because you can see right through the planks to the sea below! The sign that says "You use this pier at your own risk" doesn't exactly inspire confidence either), where you could see just about the whole of Swansea, but my hands were much too cold to attempt photography. That and we were concentrating hard on walking up and down the pier without looking down!
After this we drived for about 1 hour out of Swansea to arrive at *this* beach. Extremely impressive! The waves especially made a marbled pattern on the sand, but you can't see that very well from the panorama. On the first image, if you can spot the tiny white house, look down a bit and you might see a small patch of black; we *think* that these are cows, but they were too far away to confirm! The second shot is the same beach taken from a different angle; there was a lovely red in the cliffs, but I'm not sure it showed up so well in the photo.
Obligatory sheep photo... if you are disappointed that there are only 4 (admittedly rather suicidal) sheep in this picture, know that by the time we walked to Worm's Head and back, they had been joined by about 30 compatriots!
And this is the Worm's Head: an island that is joined to the "mainland", as it were, at low tide. Obviously when we arrived it was already high tide, so there was no chance of crossing; and the next low tide was scheduled for 6PM! Apparently at low tide you can see seals resting on the beach, but no such luck for us.
And thus our trip was concluded. To be fair, those excursions damn near killed me with cold! We returned to our friends' house for refreshments and a good bout of Wii Resort, before driving back late at night on the 28th. The house was freezing but my hamster, Napoleon, was thankfully still alive and strangely not in hibernation despite the cold! I leave you with this very interesting light effect that we caught as we were nearing Swansea in the dark (2000px wide at full size):
*insert obligatory "The hills are alive" joke*
The texture is obviously up for grabs (do try to credit though!) but the photos remain here, please :)
Hope you are all well! :D
Note: all images are clickable, but are all around 700-1000px wide when full-size.
After crossing the bridge to Wales, we were pleasantly surprised by all the Welsh signs. There were also numerous illuminated signs that repeatedly warned us not to drink and drive in both Welsh and English, occuring maybe once every 5 miles. Methinks this is a bit of a problem in Wales.
The weather was very nice, slightly cloudy as we entered Wales but getting clearer as we travelled. This is a point worth mentioning since, it being Great Britain in December, having some sun is nothing short of a miracle. The miracle was somewhat dampened by the temperature however, which must have been close to zero centigrade.
Of course, on the way we just *had* to stop at Cardiff. Not because I loved Cardiff as a city -- in fact I know precious little about it, even now -- but because it was home to Doctor Who and Merlin, of course!
The Millenium Centre -- I still do not know what it says, but I'm sure you could just Google it if you cared. It is actually part theatre, hence the Les Miserables poster outside (I approve of Welsh taste in theatre!). We went inside and the whole room was just a large counter, presumably to buy tickets. If you rounded the corner you would see a small shop, some comfy seats, and stairs to go upstairs, where we are told there are conference rooms and things of the like.
The now-famous fountain opposite the Millenium Centre, which we discovered to our dismay was turned off. They probably didn't want the water freezing or something. (Squint and you may just see my little brother!) Torchwood fans probably know far more about this fountain than I do!
We also visited the Doctor Who exhibition, but my mum was in charge of the camera by then and didn't take many good pictures. I might post them later anyway, in a friends-only post. We also visited a little crafts shop where local artisans displayed sopme of their ware: gorgeous glass plates, ceramics and pottery, leather bags, clothes, scarves, jewellery and other pretty things. I bought some lovely silver and black pearl earrings, but everything in that shop cost a fortune!
Next we headed West to Swansea. The city itself is gorgeous: very hilly, so that when you're at a slight altitude at night you can look down and see the lights. It's absolutely gorgeous, and my brother and I played with the camera and produced some pretty cool light effects! I might package them into a texture set one of these days.
A view of a secluded bay off the main one. If you turned around 180 degrees and walked down a bit you would reach a pier and would be able to sea pretty much all of Swansea. This one however, was much more picturesque and from our vantage point (quite high!) I took this little panorama. Apparently Catherine Zeta-Jones owns a mansion not far from here! As you can see to the right of the picture there is a small beach; well, believe it or not, we saw a man in his trunks getting out of the sea when we were there. Now, you may not be able to tell from the sunny picture but it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing a gale; my feet (protected by socks and leather boots) were numb with cold within minutes. The man was red as a lobster as we watched him pull on his shirt, and we were all rather struck dumb by this show of absolute lunacy. Seriously, if he doesn't need therapy after that, then he's the craziest nutter I've ever come across!
Another small beach on our way to the Swansea pier. It is covered in round, smooth rocks about the size of a clenched fist (and upwards) and is apparently an excellent spot for catching crabs (the animals for the filthy-minded!). The tide was rising when we visited though, so we had to prise our dads from the oncoming waves and make a dash for it!
You can sort of see the rocks from this angle. I loved the play of the foam on the shore, what can I say? I love photography ^_^ After this we visited the pier (which looked *much* more dangerous in real life than in films, if only because you can see right through the planks to the sea below! The sign that says "You use this pier at your own risk" doesn't exactly inspire confidence either), where you could see just about the whole of Swansea, but my hands were much too cold to attempt photography. That and we were concentrating hard on walking up and down the pier without looking down!
After this we drived for about 1 hour out of Swansea to arrive at *this* beach. Extremely impressive! The waves especially made a marbled pattern on the sand, but you can't see that very well from the panorama. On the first image, if you can spot the tiny white house, look down a bit and you might see a small patch of black; we *think* that these are cows, but they were too far away to confirm! The second shot is the same beach taken from a different angle; there was a lovely red in the cliffs, but I'm not sure it showed up so well in the photo.
Obligatory sheep photo... if you are disappointed that there are only 4 (admittedly rather suicidal) sheep in this picture, know that by the time we walked to Worm's Head and back, they had been joined by about 30 compatriots!
And this is the Worm's Head: an island that is joined to the "mainland", as it were, at low tide. Obviously when we arrived it was already high tide, so there was no chance of crossing; and the next low tide was scheduled for 6PM! Apparently at low tide you can see seals resting on the beach, but no such luck for us.
And thus our trip was concluded. To be fair, those excursions damn near killed me with cold! We returned to our friends' house for refreshments and a good bout of Wii Resort, before driving back late at night on the 28th. The house was freezing but my hamster, Napoleon, was thankfully still alive and strangely not in hibernation despite the cold! I leave you with this very interesting light effect that we caught as we were nearing Swansea in the dark (2000px wide at full size):
*insert obligatory "The hills are alive" joke*
The texture is obviously up for grabs (do try to credit though!) but the photos remain here, please :)
Hope you are all well! :D