Rome

Rome was our first stop in Europe after flying from Birmingham. We found the history and old buildings amazing and it's hard to capture it all in photos. Above are some of the classics, the Vatican, the Collosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. The weather was great and evenings were spent wandering the streets to find a restaurant and then gelati after dinner. As our first stop in Italy we were very excited about the food - pizza, pasta, paninis and gelati! The day we arrived in Rome - tired and hungry after a 3am start we were ripped off by a cafe where we paid 30euros ($50) for a sandwich and piece of pizza! Soon learnt our lesson that if there is no menu think twice!

Crazy Welsh Sheep

Last weekend we went for a drive up to the Bwlch - a mountain nearby in the famous Valleys of South Wales. We often drive over the Bwlch on large animal calls but have never stopped there. There is always a Mr Whippy van at the top and people stop to enjoy the view. Sheep wonder the hills here and walk all over the roads and once we bought an ice cream we discovered why they always hang around this spot. The sheep were trying to eat our ice cream! We saw some people buy an ice cream especially for the sheep!
They were very cute!
In the photo below is Kelly (Scottich vet nurse we worked with), Ben and Downy

Ogmore By Sea - our local beach

Summer finally arrived on the weekend so we went to the beach at Ogmore by Sea - about 10km from Bridgend. It was about 22 degrees and the locals were stripped down to their togs and swimming in the ice cold sea!! The coastline nearby is really scenic but windy and cold even on a summer day! We walked along the beach and had ice cream but no sunbaking or swimming for us!

Royal Welsh Show

Last week we went to the Royal Welsh show, it's held in Builth Wells, a rural town about 1.5 hrs north of us. It is considered the largest agricultural show in Europe. There we no rides or showbags, it was very rural and we had a great day. There were thousands of trade stands selling anything rural from clothing to tractors, including RM Williams boots! It was really muddy, wellies had to be worn and the arena looks brown as it was a mud pit. The photo below is of a sheepdog working ducks!

Hunts parading

Murray Grey Cattle! We were suprised to see this breed (developed in Australia)

Show ponies.

Snowdonia

This was our second trip to Snowdonia national park in north wales. We took my brother who was visiting for the weekend. It rained all weekend so most of our time was spent in the car! here are a few photos of the scenery. The waterfalls below are called Swallow falls, you have to pay 1 pound to see them! quite spectacular after all the rain in the previous days.

UK Summer

RAIN, RAIN AND MORE RAIN! This picture was taken last weekend during the floods in England, we were driving back from North Wales and had many road closures to contend with. The water was quite deep in parts on this road. It has rained most days for the past month and we are dying for some sunshine!

Exmoor & Devon