Wales Vacation - Day 2

This was our first full day of castle touring.

Our first stop was Chepstow Castle about 30 minutes was of Cardiff. Chepstow Castle lies on a cliff overlooking the river Wye. Construction of the castle begin in 1067. The first part of the castle to be built was the Middle Bailey. Later inhabitants of the castle added the Lower and Upper Baileys along with the Upper Barbican for defenses.

It took a few wrong turns but we made it out of the town of Chepstow and headed up the A468 to Tintern Abbey. It was a two lane road that winded up the valley on the side of the mountain. Tintern Abbey was in a secluded valley about 15 minutes from Chepstow. The abbey is in ruins now but the main church building is still amazing with the gigantic arched windows. Inside the main church are a few unmarked graves stones. King Henry VIII brought an end to the monastic way of life and the church fell into ruins over the following years.

We picked up a few sandwiches at a shop across the street and ate right by the abbey,

We left Tintern Abbey and head towards Raglan Castle on the way to the town of Abergavenny.

Raglan was perhaps the most non-militaristic of the castles that we saw the entire vacation. It was first build in the 15th century and a battle during the English Civil War was fought at the castle. The Great Tower of the castle was surrounded by a large moat and could only be reached by a bridge from the rest of the castle.

Our last castle of the day were the ruins of Abergavenny Castle. Nothing really remains of the castle except for a few walls but that in itself was fun. You could climb over walls and the kids could roll down hills.

After this tour of the castles we drove to Swansea where we stayed for the night. After checking into the hotel we drove to the Maritime district of the town for dinner at a restaurant called the Pump House. Right before dinner we walked to the very small beach. While driving in Swansea a drunk Welshman came up to our car at a red light and talked with us asking where we were from. It was pretty funny…

We called it a night to prepare for the day of driving ahead of us….