Brecon and the Brecon Beacons

A later start to our sightseeing this morning since we took some time to Skype with our daughters. Nice to talk with you, girls!

Very rainy this morning, so we set out for the nearby town of Brecon to have some coffee (and cake) and plan the rest of our day. We decided to head in the direction of Abergavenny and come back through the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Our first stop was at Tretower Court and Castle near Crickhowell. This is a partly ruined Norman castle and the 15th century courtyard house that replaced it. We had a slow walk through the house's many rooms, including the great hall...

We then walked over to the Norman castle ruins which we could walk over and through...

We then drove to Abergavenny and wandered around the shops for a while before finding the old Priory. It had a really good exhibition on the history of Abergavenny, and the church had a large number of medieval tombs complete with carved effigies of their occupants.

Heading back we drove up a stretch of road through the Brecon Beacons National Park that National Geographic rates as one of the ten best drives in the world. A beautiful road indeed, but the sheep grazing by the side of the road made it a little tense. One sheep walked right out in front of us onto the road, stared at us for a while, then walked back to where he came from. Mind games. There were a few places we could pull over to admire the scenery. It was very cold up there, but worth lingering.

We got back to Pentrebach quite early, which gave us an opportunity to have more of a look around. The sun was now shining so it all looked very different. When we returned to the cottage Petra took the opportunity for a late afternoon nap and sent Phil off to the pub (which is about 50 meters from our front door) so she could have some peace and quiet. Phil did not object, and had a nice chat with the barmaid, who was the only other person in the pub, over a quiet pint.

STOP PRESS - It's 10:30pm now and we just stepped outside to have a look at the night sky. A perfect clear and cold night, and with no lighting around us the stars and milky way make a spectacular sight.