Mint, Mine and Vine 5th to 12th September 2020

Sunday 6th September

Everyone travelled to what would be our holiday home in Wales, got to know one another and settled into their rooms.

Monday 7th September

Today we decided to look around the seaside town of Porthcawl where we are staying. The weather was glorious and the views out over the Bristol Channel towards Devon were magnificent. The café and ice creams weren’t bad either!

Tuesday 8th September

After a spot of shopping this morning we went to visit a vineyard. We saw the vines and had a great talk all about the Vineyard and what the vines did. The best part of the trip was being able to sample the wines made from the vines! It was only a little drop but we still enjoyed this bit best!

Wednesday 9th September

We wanted to go to “Big Pit” in Blaenavon, unfortunately it was closed due to the current situation with COVID-19. So, we went to the market town of Abergavenny instead. It was a glorious sunny day and we had lunch outside on the picnic tables of the café, there was a welcome shade from the parasols, while we ate. We enjoyed looking around Abergavenny and doing some shopping. The views at lunch time and during our drive through the mountains were wonderful.

Thursday 10th September

Today we visited the little town of Llantwit Major situated on the coast. There is a beautiful beach in the town and the views across the Bristol Channel were amazing. In the afternoon we had a tour of “The Royal Mint” a tourist attraction with an impressive visitor centre located in Llantrisant, South Wales. It is a government owned mint that produces coins for the U.K. It was fascinating, we even pressed our own 50 pence coin which we could keep as a souvenir!

Friday 11th September

Barry Island is known as the home of the TV series “Gavin and Stacey”, in Wales. This was where we visited today, we didn’t see Gavin and Stacey but we did get a chance to have our picture taken in front of a large poster of the cast titled ‘Marco’s Café’. We enjoyed looking around. Then we travelled on to Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. We saw the impressive castle as we drove past but we carried on as the group were keen to do some shopping today. There are lots of shops and shopping arcades in Cardiff.

Saturday 12th September

All in all, we had been very lucky with the weather. Having visited The Vineyard, The National Museum of Wales (Sain Ffagan), The Royal Mint and seen lots of lovely seaside views we had some great memories from our visit. “Adventure really is out there!”.