It has been a fantastic 3-day holiday in South Wales.
Fresh air? - Yes
Sunshine beach?-Yes.
Forest?- Yes.
Farm animals and wonderful wild creatures? - Yes.
Comfortable hotel stay? - Yes.
High expense? - NO.
Unfairness & discrimination? - NO.
We arrived at Neath in West Glamorgansmall town to the southwest of Swansea. We booked the BLUEBELL hotel via lastminute, and it turned out to be a great surprise during our trip. Not pricey at all, this lovely gem hotel has great interior decorations and the most friendly staff I've ever met. We would like to go out midnight for snack hunting in the Tesco nearby, and were always told that the door would be kept open till our return. When we were back, the old gentleman at reception would ask smilingly if we want a cup of tea or something--- made us feel like home. We only booked for 1 night at first but decided to stay longer. The website price was a bit higher than that on lastminute, and we asked if it was possible to book at same price as previous night. Without any hesitation, we got one night extension at same bargain price-- yeah!!
As foreign visitors, we noticed that the differences between Wales and England not only lie in accent, but also in the atitudes towards life and other people. For some reasons all people we met in Wales were so nice that we felt like falling back to darkness hearing the indifferent voice when making our first England phone call back at West Midlands.
Bay sight seeing and forest hiking are typical things to do in south wales. Yet we heard that strawberry picking was in its best time from late June to mid July. There are list of PYO (pick-your-own) farms providing opportunities to pick strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and other vegetables like asparagus depending on the time of year. More information can be found at the website: http://www.pickyourownfarms.org.uk/wales_pyo.php. Bearing in mind that it is an US website, more farms offering this kind of service might be found elsewhere via Google etc.
Some more photos from the PYO trip.
We are desperately looking for any farm providing self-jam making sessions---- any recommendations? XXX
Fresh air? - Yes
Sunshine beach?-Yes.
Forest?- Yes.
Farm animals and wonderful wild creatures? - Yes.
Comfortable hotel stay? - Yes.
High expense? - NO.
Unfairness & discrimination? - NO.
We arrived at Neath in West Glamorgansmall town to the southwest of Swansea. We booked the BLUEBELL hotel via lastminute, and it turned out to be a great surprise during our trip. Not pricey at all, this lovely gem hotel has great interior decorations and the most friendly staff I've ever met. We would like to go out midnight for snack hunting in the Tesco nearby, and were always told that the door would be kept open till our return. When we were back, the old gentleman at reception would ask smilingly if we want a cup of tea or something--- made us feel like home. We only booked for 1 night at first but decided to stay longer. The website price was a bit higher than that on lastminute, and we asked if it was possible to book at same price as previous night. Without any hesitation, we got one night extension at same bargain price-- yeah!!
As foreign visitors, we noticed that the differences between Wales and England not only lie in accent, but also in the atitudes towards life and other people. For some reasons all people we met in Wales were so nice that we felt like falling back to darkness hearing the indifferent voice when making our first England phone call back at West Midlands.
Bay sight seeing and forest hiking are typical things to do in south wales. Yet we heard that strawberry picking was in its best time from late June to mid July. There are list of PYO (pick-your-own) farms providing opportunities to pick strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and other vegetables like asparagus depending on the time of year. More information can be found at the website: http://www.pickyourownfarms.org.uk/wales_pyo.php. Bearing in mind that it is an US website, more farms offering this kind of service might be found elsewhere via Google etc.
The strawberry picking area is just a small part of the Nicholaston Farm, located in Gower. Behind the farm ground are cliffs and never-ending blue sea. I learned the first time in my life what asparagus look like before they are placed on shelf in superstores.
I found myself burying my head in grass within seconds on arrival, splitting clusters of leaves. Large, ripe, red-from-head-to-toe strawberries appear a bit shy, hiding underneath dry hays.
These lovely little fruits are nothing can be found in Tesco--- they are smaller sized, with larger seeds, brighter coloured, and beautifully shaped. I remembered high school biology textbook mentioned something about doubling number of Chromosomes to double the size of harvested crops-- taking watermelons and strawberries as two examples. You can easily find the "chin-dipped" strawberries in superstores --- probably offspring of several hybrids.
Some more photos from the PYO trip.
We are desperately looking for any farm providing self-jam making sessions---- any recommendations? XXX
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