Y CASTELL GWYN (White Castle)

 So, this post is not about the White Castle in my town here in the US that looks like this.......

 ......where you can get a mound of Sliders like these........

No, no, no......here in Wales, when you talk about White Castle, you are definitely talking about THIS....

Where you can find the handy work of one of these...........William the Conqueror 1028-1087

.......and not one of these..........

Why is it, that in America, all of our castles and kings are burger joints? Sounds like a comedy act to me! ..........Anyway, go to these links to get a complete history of White Castle, Wales and the history of the Normans & Kings, etc. who ruled this place between the 10th century (YES! the 10th Century!) to the present: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_invasion_of_Wales
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle,_Wales

So this is where we went after our delicious meal at The Walnut Tree. Nothing better than walking around a castle to get the digestive juices flowing. Here are the photos:

The castle sits right on the border of England and Wales. It was designed to keep the English out and the Welsh in. This is the Welsh side:

 ........and this is the English side (notice the incredible sky!):

 Welsh side

 English side

 Our shadows on the inside of one of the castle towers.

One of the arrowslit windows where an archer would launch his arrows to defend the castle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrowslit

The acoustics inside of the castle were incredible. I tried taking this movie to capture the sound, but, of course, the movie is never quite like being there.

We left the castle and had a very exciting ride down the hill to get back to Abergavenny. You will see in this video why it is very exciting:

Meeting another car, tractor or bus on these one lane roads ends up in a stand-off. Someone always has to back up to the last driveway or turn-out (sometimes that can be for 1/2 a mile or more). We had to do it on the way up to the castle as we met a tractor. One needs to have patience when driving around this country as many of the roads are one lane (historically made for horses, not cars). Now you can understand why the cars here are much smaller than our big American hogs.

Our time in the UK has come to an end. It is always fun to come 'across the pond' for a visit in the old country. We hope you have enjoyed coming along with us.

CHEERS!