Last Weekend of Summer

A few weekends ago, my friend Helen was able to borrow her sister's car so we could explore the countryside. We decided to visit some National Trust sites. The Trust acts as a guardian for coastline, properties, and land across Britain. We drove about an hour outside London and visited Clandon Park.

We took a tour of the house, which is suppose to be the most complete example of a Palladian Mansion (whatever that means) in England! They are very protective about their sites and I was able to illegally get this photo shot in before I was yelled at. Other then this, I don't have any other photos of the inside!

Here is a picture from the outside with it's pretty gardens.

The place also had its own chapel.

After spending some time at the house, we drove down the road to another National Trust site, Hatchlands Park.
It houses the world's largest collection of composer-related keyboard instruments. Of course, I could not take any photos! Don't these people know I have a blog! :)

Afterwards, we walked around the beautiful parkland surrounding the house. They also had cattle!

I really liked this dead tree on the property that looked like it had been struck by lighting.

A garden shot around the house.

A view of the house before heading on our way.

Of course the beautiful summer day would not be complete without a pint....so we ended the day at a local pub. The joys of Britain!

Conwy - Wales (Part 2)

The second full day of our trip landed us in Conwy. We took a 15 minute bus ride to explore the world heritage site. This small medieval walled town has a 700 year old castle built by Edward I. We spent the morning exploring the castle.

Here is Rebecca walking up to the entrance. The castle sits right on the water (and roads)!

We were surprised that it was a ruin. Nothing like the castles I have been in so far.

We were allowed to wonder through the place. There were levels upon levels to explore.

Here is a shot of the wall that extends from the castle around the town.

Two nice women asked if they could take our photo for us. They said every time they travel, they forget to take photos of themselves together. Thus, here is a photo of Rebecca and me.

The great thing about the castle was climbing up all the towers. The steps were small (half your foot would fit on a step). And at the top, the wind was pretty bad and you felt like you might fly off! Here is a picture of Rebecca below one of the towers I am in.
A picture of the castle looking over the bay.

Me taking a photo of myself with the castle.

Rebecca doing the same. We looked rather funny to the other tourists!

The whole time, Rebecca and I were shocked by the access we had to the place. We thought a major lawsuit waiting to happen. This is the only warning sign we saw.

Looking up one of the towers.

Afterwards, we walked the town and headed down to the water.

The other claim to fame for this tiny town is it owns the smallest house in Great Britain! It measures 3 meters in height and 1.8 meters in width. It is also in the Guinness Book of Records. We found it funny that there was a woman dressed in weird clothes charging a pound to go inside.

After we walked around the town, we ended our afternoon sitting in a beer garden eating a Sunday roast.

It was a great trip. The next day, we spent the last few hours shopping and then headed back to London.