In a few weeks we will be flying to Wales! We are very excited about going for this road trip with our friends Anna and Albert; specially when it brings back to my memory our 2011 British trip around south England where we had so much fun. Both Anna & myself are in love with the United Kingdom and try to visit little bits of the wonderful country now and then. I was very happy when she proposed that Wales would be a nice destination for this late summer trip, because it had also been in my mind for a little while and I was already envisioning all the good things waiting for us: green flat fields, sheep, castles, a mild weather (after 2 months of hot temperatures in Barcelona, it feels nice) and tea (because that is a thing all over UK, right? right? I really need a good cup of british tea)
So, to start warming up for the trip, and to use it as a reminder that I must pack my red raincoat again this year, I thought it would be nice to post a throw back thursday post (the famous #tbt hashtag in Instagram) with a selection of our days on 2011. We started in Bath, visiting afterwards Lacock, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Winchester, Portsmouth, Brighton and Lewes. It was a short but refreshing time that reinforced my love for that beautiful country; being on bed and breakfasts allowed us to interact with very sweet people & eating delicious homemade breakfasts – sorry (not sorry) but eating is always on my mind.
The pictures are only three years old but you will see a younger version of us with shorter hair do’s and maybe a preliminary version of our current travel photography style. We had back then a 400D Canon instead of our current full frame, and you can tell from some of the closer shots. Also quite of them are from the LC-A+ camera, which inspired me to take it again this year to Wales. Do you have any advice on which type of rolls should I take?
Do you have any recommendations of places we shouldn’t miss in Wales this year? We have several spots marked on the map, like the Pembrokeshire coast (yay! it looks awesome) but still not created our route, so any advice will be more than welcome! Also I love to have eating recommendations, so if you think we can’t miss some restaurant or any local speciality we would love to hear.
We will be posting the pictures as soon as possible, but we’d also try to keep our Instagram more updated, so meanwhile if you want to follow us we’ll be using the hashtag #wales4cats, and will try to convince Anna and Albert to join us under the hashtag, so we have lots of nice different pics.
Btw, we are first going on a family trip to Sintra in Portugal for three days, our first time at our neighbors’ country (exciting), so you’ll also find on Instagram our family adventures, hope you enjoy them as well!
love you two from three years ago :) and this trip sounds amazingly exciting! can’t wait to hear and see all your adventures in wale!
Thanks Jane!!! lots of ♥ to the Yoos! :)
The UK is very high on my places to travel next. Whales should be lovely this time of year.
We are lucky to have UK near us :) That is something we can take advantage by having shorter getaways to different parts of the country (mental note to myself to visit it more frequently, hahahahha)
It’s been a long time since I went to U.K, so I can’t wait to see your pics to fresh my mind, and memories <3 Have a wonderful trip.
Thanks! It is so nice, I love to think that we can bring back good memories to other people with our pics, thanks sweetie!
wow so many fun adventures coming up! I also love these photos, I was going to ask before reading, are some of these film?? They look lovely. If I looked back at photos from three years ago of mine – yikes I think the style might be rather cringe worthy. It’s funny because I started out with the 300d and thought it was magical (even though I only ever had the kit lens with it :P)
My film recommendation would be to grab a couple of rolls of kodak ektar 100 (It does landscape colours really nicely). I don’t know if I ever mentioned but it’s cool that you guys shoot in a similar style and I love that you can see your style in these 2011 shots too :)
You started with the 300d? Hahahaha I know what you say about finding it magical even with the “paperweight” kit lens ;) just kidding, it’s a good lens to learn for real and then buy the one that better fits your photography style. Thanks for the recommendation! I would definitely buy a couple of Kodak Ektar 100 for each trip, I can’t wait to see the difference in colors. Awww and thanks for your nice words recognizing our style (and similarities between us two) even in these early shots; I think the trick is that Dani is a copy cat of my photos, hahahahhaa, just kidding.
Hi guys! I follow your blog and I love it but never commented before on it. However, this time I definitely will do it as I have just come back from 5 days in South Wales with my boyfriend. We are from Gran Canaria & Bcn and we have been living for 2 years in UK, first in Worcester, now in London (though in 10 days we are coming back to Bcn “forever”, snif!). Well, and now focusing in some recommendations about your Wales trip. We spent the 5 days in Pembrokeshire, and amazing is not enough to describe this place! Can I make you some suggestions?
1)Pembrokeshire:
– Barafundle beach and Stackpole: One of the best beaches in the world. Yes, yes,you are reading well. And I´m from Canary Islands! The place is beautiful, you walk for 10 minutes and you arrive to this isolated beach (well, most of them are like this Wales… so much to learn about this in Spain…) managed by the National Trust (Best charity ever!!). Theres is no wind in this beach and water is not as cold as you would expect from a beach in UK lol. Beautiful! You park the car in Stackpole (where you can find an amazing tea room and nice ice creams, also ran by National Trust).
-Bosherton: Nothing extremely especial in this village, but “Ye Olde Worlde Cafe”, a tearoom ran by “Auntie Vai”, they have a beautiful garden to stay while you have the best “Cuppa” in UK (especially cause it´s made from leaves,not tea bag) and a piece of cake,… yummiee
– San Martin´s haven: A small National Trust beach, also isolated and very wild. We came here to take the boat to do one of this sea cruises to see seals, puffins, dolphins and gannets… and I can promise you will see all that!!!!!!!! We made the Grassholm trip (3 hours), and it was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen. You NEED to book in advance (we did it one day before) or you cannot take the boat.
http://www.pembrokeshire-islands.co.uk/show/english/home.aspx
-Our hotel was in Sandersfoot, which is the typical boring family holidays village, however, it has a really really good restaurant if you want to try quality meals from the area. Restaurant is called: http://www.stbridesspahotel.com/food
It´s a little expensive but worthy if you enjoy gastronomy :D . We have one plate each, plus mineral water and cider and we payd 43 pounds…
– Two tearooms I really suggest you if you pass around, because they were both beautifully decorated and have nice food, with especialities like crab sandwich or lobsters, as well as vegetarian options:
http://www.quaysidelawrenny.co.uk/
and its sibling, as the owner is the same person:
http://www.wavecrestangle.co.uk
– On our way to Carew Castle, we found this hidden gem! Nash Farm Shop & Corn Mill Cafe, a great place to have a full English breakfast or take some incredible sandwiches for a picnic.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nash-Farm-Shop-Corn-Mill-Cafe/282001641919218
This is what we visited in Pembrokeshire. Out Pembrokeshire, I can recommend you a couple of places more.
2. Gower Peninsula. We stopped here in our way to Pembrokeshire. I can recommend you:
-A very nice beach: Three Cliffs beach, to walk around and take amazing pictures.
– Rhossili and Worms head National Trust. There are some nice pubs and tearooms here, we didn´t stop in any as it was late, we just walked along the Worms head.
3. Colby Woodland Garden: It´s another National Trust property. A very impressive country house, with amazing gardens and also some paths to walk in the wood.
4. Pendine beach. Typical British resort, not especially pretty neither ugly, but it has the longest and biggest beach I have ever seen!!! If you go, be careful of not going beyond the limits as it´s military area and they often do exercises there! Scary!
There is a nice and quite authentic beach café.
And so far this what we have visited and discovered in our trip to South Wales! I’m already missing it! There a lot more of things to visit that have missed (St David Cathedral, dolmens, Iron age monuments, etc) but we have gone in a lazy and relaxed mood. I have to download the pictures and maybe put them in my blog (it´s not a really good blog btw). Wales is definitely one of my favourite places in England, of course, after Cornwall! If you have never gone there, you should go in your next trip to UK, because it´s just magic!
I hope this loooooong comments helps!
Cheers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03hj6g2
Thank you so much Pilar!! So happy with all of your recommendations. Thanks also for taking the time to write them for us, I’m beyond grateful to have such lovely readers. Everything looks just my cup of tea (never a phrase would be so literal as this time, hahahahha) I will go ahead and add them all to our map. I have been looking at the cruises, did you take the Dale Princess or the faster one? For pictures it may be better the Dale? Why did you chose this island for the cruise over the other two? Awww, when asking I feel like imposing too much after so many good recommendations! :) Btw, if you would like to go for a cup of tea (or coffee) when you move to Barcelona let me know!
Sorry, some misspellings in my comments, I just wrote it really quickly!!! :S
ups, sorry, again. I forgot the last thing! If you have any way to “hack” this and watch the bbc iplayer, here you have a series of special programmes about Pembrokeshire. It´s more about people but you can see some interesting places and things going on.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03hj6g2
Hi there again!
We took the Grassholm Cruise, 3 hours long, as it was in a small fishing boat instead of a launch as I was scared of it lol. Also because in their website it looked more interesting for us and actually it is, because you border Skomer island and see some puffins and then they take you to Grassholm island which is an island completely covered by gannets (smells horrible), and it´s quite striking. Nobody is allowed to walk in this island as it´s protected and apparently just scientifics can go. There other companies that also arrange cruises but I don´t know them. I think you can check them here (I´m sure you have already seen this website) http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/attractions-search/?boat%20trips=1
We´d love to have a cup of tea with you guys when we are back to Bcn! So we can exchange views on Wales and other parts of England :)
Please do ask whatever else you feel! :)
Mmmmh sorry I was checking the website and I think I didn´t answer properly your question. Yes, we took the Dale Princess, so not the faster one (as it´s the inflatable one and I didn´t like the idea). It´s also a little cheaper (35 pounds vs 40 pounds). I reckon the good thing with the inflatable one is that probably they get closer to the islands.
I hope this helps!!
Thanks, it definitely helps!! :) :)
So great to hear you guys are going to UK c:
I love that country as well but sadly I’ve been
only to London and Glasgow :c I lovelovelove
B&B and the ones that I see on television looks
so rustic and homey! The pictures are lovely
and still very photogenic as now c; and you look
lovely with your shorter hairdo as well! I can’t
wait for the Wales pictures! Xx
looking forward for your adventures in Wales :D
Oh how exciting! I have not been to Wales. I hope you have the most amazing time and I cannot wait to see pictures. Great blog! – Stephanie
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