Tintern Abbey

Monday, June 24

 

We drove into Wales and up the Wye River Valley to arrive at Tintern Abbey [360°] [360°] just before noon.  This is one of the many religious institutions which were shut down by Henry VIII during the dissolution in the 16th century.  What sets its ruins apart, along with two similar monasteries in the north, is that a shell of a cathedral size church remains while other closed monasteries were stripped for building materials.  Without a roof, floor and windows these monastery churches are magnificent to behold.

 

 

Marnie experienced "a chill" as she walked through one of the entries to the church and atributes that to something very bad that happened on that spot.  Perhaps long ago one monk went medieval on some other monk on that spot. 

 

 

Afterwards we had a late lunch just accross the road at the Anchor Inn (seen above on the left) and found a spot to park which overlooked the Wye River.  Fatigue caught up with us today so we abandoned our plan to go to Cardiff and just rested in the car for an hour like so many retired British couples I've seen who are out for the day to see some historic sites.

 

We drove further up the very scenic river valley to Monmouth (photo above) arriving just before 5:00.  After knocking about the town center awhile we thought it would be nice to see the sea and drove half an hour to Newport.  We eventually realized that the reason we weren't finding the shore is that Newport isn't quite on the shore.  About and hour later after driving back over the Severn Bridge into England we found quiet Severn Beach tucked inside an industrial area.  We climbed an embankment, saw the sea and almost immediately left for our BoA cottage which was still nearly an hour away.  Tintern had been wonderful, but unfortunately too much of the rest of the day was unproductive driving trying to find a good spot on the sea.

 

We had a late dinner (8:40) and watched the second half of Frankenstein which seemed to drag on well beyond the two hours it advertised.  Kenneth Branough both starred in and directed it and we both agreed that he stretched himself too thin on this movie.  It started well but went south in the middle.