Wales

Yesterday, our entire group traveled to Wales, which was only two hours away (and that was to the destination, although I'm sure we entered the country even earlier). That's basically the equivalent of going from Austin to San Antonio or something. Texas is way too big. Anyway, it was gorgeous. I loved even the bus ride and the ability to sit there quietly reading and taking in the surroundings. We drove through these humongous trees, and that was really beautiful.

Our first stop was Tinturn Abbey, famously Gothic and therefore interesting with respect to one of our novels, Northanger Abbey. The Romantic Legends class found it useful as well because they had studied a poem by Wordsworth in which he describes Tinturn. In fact, we went to the spot from which he wrote it and saw Wales countryside for miles. A winding river broke up the unbelievably green landscape, and it might have been my favorite view so far. Tinturn has, obviously, lost some of it's cohesion. It's been renovated some, but basically everything still standing was standing when it was created. The huge vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses really made you gasp. We ate a lunch of bread, cheese and fruit there before heading out on a three mile trek through the Wales countryside.

Whenever we go on long walks it's always one of my favorite times. There's something about seeing that countryside and knowing I wouldn't be there if I hadn't come with this group that really makes me appreciate the opportunities we're given to see places we never would have thought of on our own. With others to navigate and decipher the trail maps, my only job was to follow and be amazed at everything in front of me. The trek started out exhausting because it was incredibly steep for about a mile in addition to being muddy and wet. I felt like we were in a rainforest. It flattened out some after that and then it was just a matter of watching for tree roots and so on. Once, we got to run through a HUGE meadow. Simultaneously, several of us broke out singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music..."; it was sublime and we these tiny specks on a huge plain.

After the hike, the bus picked us up and we went to Chestow Castle, the oldest known castle in the U.K., so I'm told. It had all sorts of passages and small rooms and stairwells, so we were able to really climb through it and explore more with it than at Tinturn. It sits on the side of a cliff near the sea and the river emptying out near there is the muddiest I've ever seen. It makes sense; after all, this is where the soil deposits, but I was struck because it was hard to tell what was water and what was land. It all just looked like mud. In it, I saw my first real eddy swirling below.

The whole day was well planned and we got back just before dinner. I finished some of my book and saw some amazing things, not to mention went to WALES, somewhere I had never been.