It's a reasonable two hour drive if the traffic and weather is good (both were bad!
) but we had left plenty of time to have an explore beforehand. I found somewhere interesting called The Long Mynd, which is a steep sided hill surrounded by little villages and quaint market towns. This gave us chance to stretch our legs, mine were a little bit wobbly when I got out:
The view was worth it though - the heavy rain had passed and visibility was a lot better:
The drive back down was most interesting - the roads are very narrow with plenty of suicidal sheep(!) and sheer drops down the side to the valley below. Needless to say we didn't take pictures as we had to concentrate! We made it to the venue safely and in plenty of time. Sadly, as I wasn't invited (bleh!) I had to stay in the car, and I hid under one of M's big coats. Don't tell him, but I did get out and have a wander about when nobody was looking
Saturday was the wedding which was at a huge old castle (photo sort of cropped to hide the innocent 
):
M had a really good time - we missed each other a lot, and he said I would have loved the bed! However Sunday came, and being a bloody good person, M decided to help out his ex-Wife, her son and the mother-in-law - they were going to take a taxi to the nearest train station, but he offered them a ride instead - this was great fun as I gave up the front seat to her mother (who would struggle to get in the back) and sat with the other two - I think they liked me a lot - and his ex was very complimentary about my hair!
We dropped them off at the station, and once I jumped back into the front seat we continued our trip together. We were now heading west and into Wales. I've been to Wales before - I've seen a few places after the UK doll meets, but this was a bit further north. I had recently learned that the Welsh word for lake is "Llyn", which is curiously similar to my name(!) so our first stop was at Llyn Efyrnwy, aka Lake Vyrnwy. It's a manmade lake, built to supply drinking water to Liverpool in the 1800s. It has a high dam that you can drive across, and an interesting straining tower that looks like a gothic castle! (not our picture btw):
- 960px-Vyrnwy_tower.jpg (198.1 KiB) Viewed 787 times
We agreed that the view was very pleasing!
A lot of the shoreline was planted with trees back in the 1890s - mainly Douglas Fir, but some deciduous trees have been planted more recently. One of the older conifers holds the title of the tallest tree in the country. We don't think it was any of these ones, but they're pretty tall compared to me!
After a while, I tired slightly of M taking photos, and became interested in the wildlife and the various groups of cyclists and walkers passing by:
So eventually, we packed up and travelled further west - as suggested by M (I'd find out why later!). This meant driving over some very challenging mountain roads - lots of hills and bends - but the sun was finally starting to come out, which made our last destination even better!
we got as far west as we possibly could. M had remembered that I've never been to the seaside with him, and as we stopped at the top of a hill, I realised that was where we were!
Photoshoot Links for Lady Zev--EASY Reference--AF160K
