Rain stops play

Moved to the Gower Peninsular yesterday, and it has rained almost constantly since we arrived.
Checked the BBC weather forecast and it said that the rain would stop between four and five pm today, so we set off in the rain just before four on a trip to Swansea and the Mumbles.
Took the Sustrans off road route and had to climb over two fallen tree trunks on the way.
Just as we saw the sea for the first time, the rain stopped and there was even a ray of sunshine later. It turned into quite a pleasant journey after all.
Sat in a deck chair in the sun with a G and T on our return and hoping for a better weather day tomorrow.
39 kilometres completed.

Y Senedd

On the Cardiff bayfront we found the Welsh National Assembly building - Y Senedd - in Welsh.
I have seen it on the tv but was surprised how small the building was from the outside. I also thought that the timber needed revarnishing as the endless Welsh sunshine has faded bits of it.
We were the only tourists to go inside, but it was well worth the trip. The ceiling inside was dramatic and immaculate and the walls were glass with fantastic views of the bay.
We also went to see where the Parliament sits. The room is hidden underground beneath the mushroom part of the roof structure. Unfortunately, the politicians were not at work so we had the whole place to ourselves.

Bus trip to Cardiff Bay

Invested £3.40 each on bus tickets to Cardiff for the afternoon. The city centre was nice, it reminded me of Nottingham, however, it is the capital of Wales so this must be why there were some brilliant French looking buildings on the Boulevard de Nantes - see pic 3.
We then wandered down to the bay and it was absolutely buzzing. Like Nottingham, they had a man made beach on the main square. We were surprised as Cardiff is by the sea, so I can only assume that their real beaches must be a bit rubbish.
Great bay area though.

Newport transporter bridge

Here we are in Wales today, just over the M4 suspension bridge in Newport. We have been out exploring on a circular bike ride taking in the transporter bridge and town centre this afternoon.
We could see the bridge from miles away and I was a bit panicking because at first I thought we had to climb all of the steps and somehow be 'transported' across the middle bit. Fortunately though, the carriage then came into sight from across the river and it is actually at road level and just dangles on cables from the metal structure. 50 pence each well spent I think.
We then cycled into the centre of Newport which has obviously had loads of money spent on upgrading the riversides. There was new apartment blocks, fancy pedestrian bridges and walkways with lots of seats.
The whole place was strangely deserted with no mothers and children, tourists or ordinary local people about, just a few dodgy looking teenagers who made me a bit nervous.
There was also a fancy gallery with reflective windows so I managed a quick selfie of the two of us.

Bath circular route through the new Two Tunnels

Fantastic day for a bike ride so we set off on a round trip taking in Bradford on Avon, Bath, Saltford and Frome.
We mostly followed a Sustrans route, but for the first 30 kilometres there were hardly any signposts so we kept getting lost, Fortunately, we then got on a canal towpath and it got a lot easier.
Bath was beautiful in the sunshine, and we followed a disused railway line up to our pub lunch stop.
Feeling refreshed, we then got on to the Two Tunnels Greenway which took us through two enormous tunnels.
One was about 400 metres and the other was over a mile long. They were well lit and freezing cold, it was like driving through an endless fridge freezer.  Strangely, the longest tunnel had an audio-visual art installation in it that was made up of different coloured lights and what sounded like classical guitar music. The music only played as you went past the lights, so it was impossible to makeout a tune.  Very eerie.
We ended up cycling just over 100 kilometres,  which was too far really, so Daz had a quick nap around the 80 k mark.

Cute little animals

Longleat has lots of little animals that are close by the stately home.
The enclosures are fantastic and for the meerkats, penguins, lemurs and parakeets their cages were open plan and we went in with them.
The penguins were funny as they were very young and refused to go in the water.
We did all the touristy things -rode the mini train, sailed on the lake, sat in both of the ride simulators even though they made us feel sick, went to the bird of prey show and had an ice cream.
Great day out.