Slimbridge Wetlands & Tintern Abbey . . umm I mean Berkeley Castle

This morning we had a hearty breakfast and prepared ourselves for Slimbridge Wetlands Center and Tintern Abbey. When we were all piled into the car, we noticed that we were only leaving 30 minutes later than originally desired, which was perfectly planned for us. *smile*

As we headed down the highway out of Bristol, David pointed to a grassy field filled with cars and made the comment "they must be racing today" which gathered the rest of our attention to the field. Upon further look from the rest of us the cries of "BOOT SALE" throughout the car (except for David) forced David to take the next exit and weave his way back to the sale. Upon parking the car, we designated that we would only spend 30 minutes at the sale and then we would be back on the road to Slimbridge. This was to prove to be too optimistic. This sale was HUGE! Even after revising our time, we arrived at 0945 and left at 1100 which we thought was really good time . . . and what a haul that we left with!!



Satisfied with our purchases, we headed off to Slimbridge. As we neared the bottom of the visitors center before exiting into the park, we purchased a total of 2 bags of bird seed for each of us. This proved to still not be quite enough as David could be seen later in the park purchasing handfuls of seed for another 20 pence per handful. I think he was making it his personal mission to make sure each NeNe ate from his hand.



As we wove our way through the Wetlands, David and I noted that getting Tintern in on this trip was being a wee-bit optimistic and so we decided that as long as everyone was enjoying themselves we'd stay as long as needed with the birds. Everyone took the opportunity to feed some birds, some even by hand.



There were some that were a little peckish and some (like the NeNe's) that were gentle so that you hardly felt them.



About half way through we ran across the cafe and stopped to have soup and/or sandwiches as well as some ice cream . . and most importantly sit down for a bit. The soup was a beef goulash which was quite good. Refortified, we headed back out amongst the birds. As we passed through the different areas, a quiet, unassuming duck came upon me and "cheeped" at me so I fed her and then when I went to get more seed she "cheeped" again that I'd taken away my hand so I fed her another handful. She was so sweet and gentle, I was almost disappointed that we needed to move on.



Having run out of bird seed and new birds to see (this trip) we headed for the gift shop. Upon exiting the gift shop a sign was noticed that Berkeley castle was only 4 miles away and, while it may be too later to visit Tintern, there was still time to get in on the last tour at Berkeley.



Once in the car, road beverages pulled from the cooler as well as fortified with some crackers and cheese (from earlier trip to Cheddar of course), we headed off to Berkeley. As anticipated we were the last to get into the castle and so had a guided tour just to ourselves. Dave was amazed at the amount of antiques and rarities (all with a story) that was in the portions of the house that we toured (so who knows what else the family has). As the staff closed the castle up behind us, I reminded Linda that we still had to take a closer look at the garden. While Dave and Linda perused the garden, I attempted to take a photo of a butterfly who was alighting from flower to flower. As we lingered, Mrs. Berkeley came home and David noted that she probably is ready to have her castle back so we should probably start heading to the gate.


Feeling satisfied with our day, we headed home to partake of steak and mushroom packets and to start planning our next day.