Tuesday 4/6

All righty: on to day two of the Wales trip.

We got up in time to meet the bus at 8:45, and then drove to our first site, Elwoe Castle. Before leaving, Kelly and I made PBJ pitas for lunch, which ended up being a blessing. Anyway, Elwoe Castle is a native Welsh masonry castle (a hall keep to be exact), built on top of a hill in the middle of what is today a forest. It was a hike to get there, but the weather was beautiful and it was completely worth it. Since I was the only one who could keep up with Kieran and Russell, I got nicknamed the American Frontierswoman. Think I'd just prefer Jess...it's a little easier to remember.

Here's some shots.





After a stop at the gift shop for coffee and Snickers, we drove to Flint Castle, one of Edward I's first castles built in Wales. It's in my paper, and it's well-known amongst all my archaeology classes. Like almost every other castle we visited, however, it had a playground...not sure why...
You can see the remains of the outer concentric defenses here--hence why it was in my paper.

Peeking out one of the arrowslits.

This view should seem familiar. Remember how I said that Edward I always built near the sea for easier access to goods and help? Yup, it's like that here too.
Castle number three of the day: Rhuddlan Castle. This one is also partially concentric.

Here's the tower down by the sea gate.
Look, even the pigeons think it's cool!
You can see the remains of walls from buildings on the inside.
To give an idea of proportions, look at how many levels the modern staircase goes up inside of the remains of this tower--and it would have been higher way back when.

Several hundred meters away is a motte castle, Twthill Motte and Bailey, which probably came slightly earlier than the masonry castle. It doesn't look too tall, right?
But when you're up on it, it sure is. The side you couldn't see in the first photo faces down a valley in a sheer drop.
Finally, the last site of the day was Valle Crucis Abbey, but to get there we have to drive around, over, through, you get the picture, the Dee Valley. We were just driving along and then all of a sudden the ground just ended on one side of the bus. It's quite spectacular.
At the abbey.

Oh, on the way in we drove by this pillar. I don't know if you can read the sign...
One of the fireplaces in the abbey--you can see how it's clearly reused a carved slab for the mantle.
Some more of those slabs were laid out in a display upstairs in the abbot's quarters, above the library.


Out back, we found a little white house with this creepy moving mannequin who spoke in both Welsh and English. There was a video version of him in the other room that gave us a tour of the place.
Suppose this picture is a little late in the sequence...
They have the red phone booths in Wales too!!
After we got back for the night, a group of us went for a walk around Chester. Here's a view of the cathedral in the distance. Of course, this was after Kelly and I got pizza for supper finally.
The sunset over the city. I took this picture while up on the medieval city walls, which still remain standing in many areas. It was a bit rainy, but nothing bad enough to stop us. The detour, though, did...
Better view of the walls themselves.
I forgot to mention that at Rhuddlan I bought a cheap Cymru mood ring, which has the Welsh dragon over the changing colors. The rest of the trip, Kelly and I referred to it to see whether or not we should do things, based on whether it showed I was nervous, excited, or even romantic. Oy vey.

After we got back from the walk, we met up with an English guy and girl (both of whom I thought were Australian) and an actual Australian woman and went to a game night at the pub next to the hostel. I left before it finished, but we had a lot of fun trying to guess the right answers. Apparently they came in third and won some free booze--cheers.

The other girls sleeping in the dorm room had started singing songs by The Lonely Island for some reason, which of course I know by heart after last summer's field school. Whenever Christina, the American, saw me, she'd start singing it for whatever reason.

Besides that, the rest of the night I took a long shower (only because there was no water pressure so it took forever to rinse out my hair) and then wrote some more postcards.

I don't know if I'll ever get caught up, but I'm trying! Cheers.