Bernie and Linda's Blog: Abergavenny & Aberwystwyth

We have have two beautiful days on the road. The weather and the the scenery has been spectacular.

After a hearty breakfast at the Neeld Arms in Grittleton we headed west to Wales. In order to cross the River Severn you need to take one of two bridges. One is on the M4 and the other, almost right beside it, is on the M46. Both of these bridges are long spans and are toll bridges. We chose the M46 bridge because it allowed us easy acces back onto the less busy A and B roads that wind through the towns and villages. As we approached the toll booths we started looking for some cash. But as we rode up to the toll gate the lady in the booth waved us through. "Motorbikes are free", she told us. The toll for cars was £6 something.

About 10 miles from Abergavenny we discovered a very nice village called Usk. We stopped for coffee and checked a few hotels. We couldn't find a vacancy so we continued on to Abergavenny. The prices for accommodations vary a lot. We have been quoted anywhere between £35 to £180. So far we have been paying between £62 and £85. These prices include a full breakfast. Still... it is pricey at $2 to the £!

The roads we have traveled have been very nice. Both the A roads and the B roads are narrow with no shoulder. There is a fair amount of truck traffic on the A roads. The trucks fill their lane and leave minimal space for approaching vehicles. We are much more comfortable on the motorcycle than we were in the car... Me particularly. Also forward visibility is limited due to the curvy roads and high hedges, that grow right to the edge of the pavement. We are keeping the speed down. I'm more comfortable going a bit faster when I have a car ahead of me leading me around the blind corner. :-)

It takes quite a bit of concentration to adapt to driving on the left side of the road, especially when you are starting out. As a reminder, I have an arrow, made of electrical tape, taped to the windshield on the bike. However, riding a motorcycle is much easier than driving a car. Cars are often parked on the side of the narrow roads and vehicle have to squeeze by each other. It is much easier to deal with these situation on the bike.

We stayed at the Kings Head Hotel in Abergavenny

We stopped here for coffee on the road to Aberwystwyth. The sign outside said " morning coffee" We stopped at about 10:30. It was closed. We are not sure if we arrived too early or too late. Beautiful spot though!

We arrived in Aberystwyth at 11:30. The road from Avergavenny to Aberystwyth climbs and winds though the Brecon Beacon mountains. They are not rocky peaks but they are very scenic. We climbed gradually to maximum elevation of 1350 ft then a steeper descent to Aberystwyth on the coast.

Thank goodness for the GPS. Navigation without one, would be much more challenging. Nothing is on a grid, as we know it, and all major intersections are roundabouts. It is nice to know which exit to depart the roundabout on before you enter it. The GPS tells you to "depart on the 3d exit" for example. It certainly reduces the stress for me.

Aberystwyth is a university town. It is not too large but it has a nice laid back beach strip with hotels, guest house, nice restaurants and bars. It didn't take long for us to find a nice place to stay... Heldsmans guest house, located on the beach road. We decided to stay for two nights and get caught up on some laundry. Also there an 8 kilometre walk along the costal hill to the next town. We are planning to do that tomorrow.

Just a quick note on the weather. Everyone is telling us that this glorious weather is unusual. It was close to 30C here today. There were a lot of sunburnt people leaving the beach just before sunset. The weather is forecast to be nice for the ne t couple of weeks.... We'll see.