Bradford-on-Avon, Chepstow Castle, Caerleon

The Georgian Inn wasn’t too bad, except for the fact they left their front lights on all night and the room, even with the blinds closed, was lit with a dawn-level of light all night. I woke at 3am and was sure it was time to get up.

It was raining, but we still managed to see a nearby 8th century Saxon church that was quite beautiful, some lovely old buildings, and a huge medieval tithe barn on the edge of town. The latter was interesting in that it was a huge empty space that had quite a religious feel, ever though it had always been a barn. Which perhaps goes a way towards explaining why huge cathedrals have such a sense of ‘religious’ awe about them – perhaps it’s more to do with the size of the space than the religion.

Leaving Bradford-on-Avon, we drove north-west for about an hour, over an impressively long bridge and into South Wales. At Chepstow we stopped at Chepstow Castle on the River Wye, a fantastically impressive castle that dates back to the 11th century. It was pouring with rain when we arrived, but later it cleaned up and the sun came out.

Chepstow is absolutely beautiful and clings to cliffs above the river – in one spot there is a little stone ‘balcony’ that used to be a little garden and viewing platform over the river. People would also winch supplies up from boats and directly into the castle. The castle is not only massive but flows up the hill in a series of baileys, towers and chambers, some of which we could climb to enjoy the amazing views.

After thoroughly exploring the site we got back in the car and leaded west to Caerleon, a small town that was once the home of the 2nd Augustan legion of the Roman Empire. In a nondescript field were the foundations of a part of the barracks, and nearby the remains of a 6,500 seat amphitheatre, now largely covered in a blanket of green grass but still impressive. We stood on the edge of a group of students and listened to an informative description of the site given by their teacher.

After checking in at our room for the night, a home B&B with the somewhat grandiose name of Camelot (the father and son both had bellies that spoke of them not doing much in the way of jousting lately), we drove a few streets away (it was wet, windy and cold) and visited the Fortress Baths Museum, with its excellent undercover remnants of the extensive bathing complex that was here in Roman times.

After a Guiness in a nearby pub, we returned to our room. In the evening we did a circuit of the little town, walking into and rejecting first one pub; then another fancier place called The Priory which seemed to be very popular but had mixed ‘posh’ table settings with a strange garish food display and blackboard menus; then finally settled on the Red Lion, another pub. We passed over the ‘Red Lion grill’ – virtually every form of meat every known for £16.95 – and the ‘Jack Daniels sauce’ you could have with your meal, and I had fish and chips with mushy peas, and cheese and cauliflower for Carol. This town does seem a little more ‘small country town’ than anywhere we’ve visited yet however… the people aren’t really very friendly, and there seems to be have been a sudden and noticeable increase in overall personal body weight! I keep expecting someone to ask “are you local?”

More castles tommorrow… what fun!