Post by Baz Faz on Sept 7, 2021 20:03:38 GMT 2
Actually we crosed the Severn Bridge and went to Wales. That was less than half an hour. The bridge was built about 35 years ago. It is free now but at first it was a toll bridge to recoup the cost. It was a toll bridge of a peculiar kind. It was free to cross from England to Wales. However you had to pay to escape back to England. Make of that what you will.
We went to Tintern Abbey. Or at least its ruins. Strangeness started as soon as we parked the car. We had to get a ticket from a machine. The machine did not accept plastic cards. It did not accept bank notes. You had to pay £3 in coins. Fortunately Mrs Faz had some pound coins. Other people were standing around perplexed and not knowing what to do. I think there is a business opportunity here. I could set up a little stall by the ticket machine and in return for a five pound note I would give 3 pouund coins.
The strangeness continues. At the desk where we bought our tickets to go in the abbey they knocked £3 off the price if you gave in your parking ticket. I don't get this. Tintern Abbey is in the wilds. There is nothing round it. Correction: there was a pub but it was closed. Anybody using the carpark would be going in the abbey. So why charge to park and then give the money back?
Welsh is a pretty obscure language but I wandered round the shop and understood some of the words. For instance there were jars marked Mel. Honey in French is miel and in Greek it is meli so that would be no problem. Then I came across a selection of books. One I was tempted by was Teach Your Dog Welsh. When we go for a walk tomorrow I am going to command the first dog that tries to paw me: Eistedd i lawr. I hope it is a Welsh speaking dog.
I picked up more Welsh from signs. There was a cautionary sign by a low wall that was headed Whoops! The Welsh for that is Wps! I pointed this interesting fact out to a passing couple and they gave a cautious smile and edged past me. They probably thought I was a bit gwallgof (or crazy as we say on our side of the Sever bridge).
We went to Tintern Abbey. Or at least its ruins. Strangeness started as soon as we parked the car. We had to get a ticket from a machine. The machine did not accept plastic cards. It did not accept bank notes. You had to pay £3 in coins. Fortunately Mrs Faz had some pound coins. Other people were standing around perplexed and not knowing what to do. I think there is a business opportunity here. I could set up a little stall by the ticket machine and in return for a five pound note I would give 3 pouund coins.
The strangeness continues. At the desk where we bought our tickets to go in the abbey they knocked £3 off the price if you gave in your parking ticket. I don't get this. Tintern Abbey is in the wilds. There is nothing round it. Correction: there was a pub but it was closed. Anybody using the carpark would be going in the abbey. So why charge to park and then give the money back?
Welsh is a pretty obscure language but I wandered round the shop and understood some of the words. For instance there were jars marked Mel. Honey in French is miel and in Greek it is meli so that would be no problem. Then I came across a selection of books. One I was tempted by was Teach Your Dog Welsh. When we go for a walk tomorrow I am going to command the first dog that tries to paw me: Eistedd i lawr. I hope it is a Welsh speaking dog.
I picked up more Welsh from signs. There was a cautionary sign by a low wall that was headed Whoops! The Welsh for that is Wps! I pointed this interesting fact out to a passing couple and they gave a cautious smile and edged past me. They probably thought I was a bit gwallgof (or crazy as we say on our side of the Sever bridge).