Wales

We put one foot in front of another, starting in Southampton and find ourselves in Wales.  The first night in Southampton we stayed at a brand name hotel (ane will be reimbursed), then we stayed in a small local hotel where Ben Franklin had stayed. 

After that we spent a couple of nights with a Servas host.  When we arrived, I complemented him on his fantastic flower-filled yard.  Not a yard. We are learning British English -- a yard is plain gravel or pavement like, perhaps, a school yard.  It is a garden.

The second night, we went along to a pub with a few of his friends.  Will thinks he is living in the middle of every British novel he has read over the last 40 years, and the pub clinched it.  Actually, it was reminiscent of the Laurel Tavern on Monroe Street in Madison.

After that we went to Bradford-on-Avon and stayed in a lovely very old B&B for a couple of nights.  And from there we stayed with a Servas family in Bath -- great bikers and outdoors people.  In order to see a wonderful outdoor living museum in Cardiff, we took the train to Wales and have just spent two nights in a "youth" hostel. 

In Bradford-on-Avon, we went into the library to get out of the rain.  We ended up going through the small town museum that was upstairs.  Downstairs, I picked up a used guidebook (Lonely Planet) that they had de-accessioned, and found that the path we have been taking by following our whims was more or less following a "classical" 2-week tour plan for the UK.