A few blissful days away!

One of the many bonuses of retirement is the ability to make a quick decision to get away for a few days - and that is exactly what we did last week! We'd seen Michael Portillo's programme about his train journey along the South Wales coast and decided to go and explore. Jan had never been that way and I hadn't been there for well over fifty years!

Just a small part of a very large parade!

So last Monday we hitched up the caravan and headed down the M5, M50 and down the A40 to Newport. We had booked into the Caravan Club site at Tredegar House and spent a glorious few days there. Blue skies and sunshine all week and easy access to the M4 to get us swiftly along the coast. We spent two days exploring Cardiff. What a fantastic city! The city centre had so much to see and Cardiff Bay, the new development down by the waterfront was amazing. And we had the good fortune to be in the city on St. David's Day. There was "a bit of parade" to use the words of the lady in the Information Centre! It must have been a mile long and took half an hour to go past us! And then there was a street party for one thousand, - yes, one thousand - schoolchildren sponsored by Sainsbury's! It made Stone's street party look a bit sad! Cardiff was vibrant and exciting in March! I can't wait to see it in the height of summer!

Jan admiring the unspoilt beaches
 of the Gower Peninsula

And then I spent a day wandering down Memory Lane. When I was a young lad we used to make family visits to my great aunt Rose who lived on the Gower Peninsula. Would I be able to find where she lived and were my boyhood memories of the area still accurate? Yes they were! I was able to walk directly to her house! Modernised with an extension but - yes - that was the house we used to stay in for summer holidays. Oh, happy days! And then Jan and I did a tour of the Gower beaches I used to know - Oxwich and Rhossili  - and they're exactly as I remembered them. We finished the day sitting in the beer garden of a pub on top of the cliff at Rhossili watching the sun setting behind the sea. Magic!

We came back on Friday having had a wonderful few days away. We must do it more often!