Wales!

Our entire group had a 3-day trip doing many activities, with two nights in Wales.  Here's my summary:

Day 1: Saturday

Early wake up call, this morning, at 4:45 for me to shower, 5:20 cab to the students' flats, and 6:00 AM coach.  Everybody was on time (mostly) and the bus was moving by just after 6:00.

Stonehenge.  Given this rock formation was built about 3,000 BC, I was excited to see it.  It's not everyday you see a structure where, if Jesus had seen it, he'd say: "man, that's flippen old!"  The requisite photos:

This one has our kids, and Heather, our guide.  Heather is awesome, and has been an amazing asset for Susquehanna for many years (longer than I've been at SU).

Bath: This is the area the ancient Romans settled in about 2,000 years ago.  They had a hot springs area set up (see link here for full description) that was eventually built over - it was rediscovered several hundred years ago.  Some photos:

We explored the area for a while before lunch (at a British chain restaurant - Giraffe).

After lunch, we took a coach to Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle: We briefly checked into our hotel and then went immediately to the Castle.  We've seen so many castles now that you can grow immune and think things like: "OK, so it's another 1,000+ year old castle.  Anything else?"  This castle was small but neat.  They had a shelter where people could hide during WWII bombings (Cardiff was a strategic target).  They also had a neat little center tower we climbed (by we, we mean the men - the lady-folk stayed on the low ground).


The outside tower we were about to overtake by force. 

A picture of the girls from when we were up at the top tower.

Day 2: Sunday

We started with a trip to Big Pit Caving.  This is a formerly working coal mine.  Heather recommended that we go, and said its great to go now as the mine closed in 1980 so the people who give tours now still worked in the mines. 

She was absolutely correct.  Our guide, Martin, was 59.  He had worked in the mines since he was 15 and was hoping to collect his pension soon.  He was the nicest guy but you could hear the strain of working 45 years in the coal mines in his voice - not that it was raspy - just that he seemed like a man who'd been working hard labor for 45 years.  He was brilliant.

My favorite anecdote.  Our guide discussed several depressing issues related to the coal mine.  How sparks could easily cause fires, the dangers of dying with carbon dioxide, horses were used and they had underground stable so the horses never saw the sun, except for a two week vacation, and more.  After this, he said solemnly: "now it's time to be serious".  What?  What were we just talking about - muffins and lollipops? 

After the tour of the coal mine, we went to our manor house where we stayed, and it was stunning.  We took a walk by the river, where the kids (and kids at heart) had fun skipping stones.  

 

In the evening, we had a great dinner, where everybody got dressed up, and heard from a professional storyteller (Dan Morgan).  It was really a fantastic evening.  I'd never seen a professional story teller before, and he was really good. 

Day 3 - Monday:

After a great night, we ate breakfast before going to a small town called Cheddar.  Here, all the students who were willing/able went caving.  21 of the 25 students (and me) decided to do it and it was awesome.  It's so much fun trying to climb through those caves and crawl through those spaces.  Highly recommend doing this - but only if you're not claustrophobic.  There are some spots where you wonder how anybody could get through those spaces.  

This town had mountain goats all over - I took a couple pictures:

After this, we took our coach home.  Very busy few days, but very fun.