Breacon Beacon's

I had a week off for midterm break while my parents were here so we decided to go to Wales for a couple of days. We stayed one night in the Breacon Beacons National Park (where we went the GreenMan Festival). We stayed at this old manor house that was converted into a hotel and it was amazing. We arrived just around dusk and got to spend some time walking around the grounds.

Our room

We decided we were probably in the old servants quarters since we had to take the back stair way up to our rooms. There were a variety of rooms ranging from very expensive to cheaper. We stayed in the cheapest rooms which were still around 100 pounds a night.  We got a view at some of the more expensive rooms and they looked amazing- like the kind of thing you see in the movies.

view from our room

hallway

Conservatory

 Conservatory the next day

the bar view 1

the bar  view 2

the fire was lit later in the night and it was magical.

Reception room 1

Reception room 2

The grounds

Stairs down to the river

all lit up at night

Walk along the river

Cool hedges

me looking at old pictures of the place. They have great fishing in the river and many of the pictures are of people catching some really big fish. It was an amazing place and we wished we would have spent more than one night there.

We went into the closest village for dinner that night and we ate at the Bear which is suppose to be one of the best pubs in the UK and it was. The food was amazing!

Parent's visit

Now that I can tell the world I'm pregnant, I can say how tired I have been and that is my excuse from slacking so much on my blog.  A couple of weeks ago my parents came to visit for three weeks and even though I was tired and sick we had a great visit. We hung around Leicester, went to Wales for 3 days and went baby shopping.

We had some sunny days so we took advantage of them while we can. We took a hike and went to an old castle ruin.

Lots of beautiful fall colors

Ashby De la Zouch Castle

The tunnel that went from one end of the castle to the other.

Listening to the history of the Castle in the tunnel

My mom in the tunnel

We walked up the 98 stairs to the tower which had amazing veiws

My dad in the jousting fields below

 A picture of us on the top of the tower taken from my dad below

The History of the the Castle from the English Heritage Website:

Ashby de la Zouch Castle was the purpose-built seat of one of the most powerful men in late 15th-century English politics, William, Lord Hastings. His adaptations to the relatively modest existing manor house at Ashby began in 1472–3, but by the time of his execution in 1483 only about half of his grand design had been realised. The castle remained in use as a family seat, playing a prominent part in the Civil War, when it was held for the king. It began to attract visitors in the 19th century after Sir Walter Scott set a scene in his novelIvanhoe there.