w(h)ales (re)visited

wales was good! we rented a little chevy and drove to shirenewton/usk/chepstow just over the wales/england line to see heather, john and 7-month old owain this past weekend. i'd never been to wales, but my pre-conceived notion of narrow roads, hills, valleys and really nice people proved correct. we managed to not drink much at all saturday, which was good, considering there was no way i'd have been able to manage the dark, winding roads with any kind of blood alcohol level. i've created an amateur photo collage for you, pointing out the highlights. explained below:

let's see, from left to right, top to bottom--1. welcome to wales--hope you can read welsh; 2. welsh sheep; 3. the severn bridge crossing the mouth of the river severn; 4. the happy caricature of a toll-both worker and (5.) the amount of change necessary to get from england to wales (£5.30)--this was funny because the suckers in the 'fast'--'exact change only' lane took so much longer to clear the toll booths than those not paying with correct change; i guess tossing a billion coins and expecting it to be calculated quickly isn't really as efficient as say, the $.80 booths in illinois; 6. the husband and i at the party making odd faces; 7. driving at night in wales--the roads are winding, dark and i was driving on the wrong side of the road (um, as in, not on the right) and apparently in chevys, the brights only stay on manually, so that was fun, turning the wheel with one arm permanently grasping the brights lever; 8. narrow road in the daytime--not much easier than at night, but slightly less scary; 9. view of the valley, looking down toward the severn river over shirenewton; 10. heather and owain!; 11. our hotel--the rat trap hotel and restaurant. despite the name and the hot pink exterior, the hotel was cozy, the breakfast delicious, and the staff extremely polite and helpful. and we saw no rats; 12. my pint of choice at the hotel rat trap: the rev james. was tasty!; 13. a shot of wales--taken on usk road, looking at some farms or something idyllic like that.