Nelsen’s to the UK – Part One

I met my family at Cardiff airport where they were all glad to be done with airplanes for a while. We got our huge 9-seater van rented and it was a little scary with dad driving on the left side of the road. He started off nice and easy going pretty slow in the parking lot and making every turn like he was back in driver’s ed. The first night we just kind of roamed around Cardiff.

The next day we decided to go to Swansea (about an hour drive) to see where I live. Everyone got to see the Student Village where we picked up Alex. The we got to show them the gym where I play basketball and campus and Swansea city centre where we got some carvery for lunch, which is basically our typical Thanksgiving food – meats, veggies, mashed potatoes, and a Yorkshire (bread dumpling type thing).

For the afternoon (when we thought it’d be warmer) we drove out to Rhossili Bay on the Gower. The drive was like a scene from a movie where tourists are driving on tiny, windy roads with sheep here and there and of course, on the other side of the road from which they are used to. There were many times I sucked it in because I wasn’t sure if we were going to scrap the car we were meeting with the right side of our large van. At one point we pulled into a drive to turn around and when dad pulled out again he naturally went to the right side of the road. There was a car coming around the curve and we all screamed “LEFT.” We got over in time, but learned that pulling out when there were no cars currently visible on the road was the worst part of driving here, because it felt correct to go to the right side.

Unfortunately I wasn’t thinking about using my camera because mom and Nicole both were so I don’t have any pictures from this day or from part of the next day when we saw Lacock, Stonehenge, and Bath, England.

On the way to Stonehenge we stopped for some food and the cashier asked if we’d been to see the Lacock Abbey right up the road where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed. This sounded interesting since most of the family loves Harry Potter, so we backtracked a bit and checked out the town of Lacock. Then we continued on to Stonehenge and Bath. Bath is where I realized I should probably be getting my own camera fired up, especially if I want to blog about the events!

It was really cool to see Stonehenge and learn about all the theories behind their existence. Bath is a really pretty town that has Roman Baths that is now a museum and talks about how people used to “hang out” at the baths and swim.

Mitch and Dad both interested in the hot spring baths

The next day was a day for castles. We went to Raglan Castle, Caerphilly Castle, and then Cardiff Castle later for a Welsh Banquet.

Princess Emily waiting for her Prince

everyone walking along the moat

Caerphilly Castle

Beautiful photography courtesy of Emily Nelsen (who was also up in the tower that Mitch “broke into”)

Nicole was very interested in Lord Phil’s performance at the Welsh Banquet

Alex joined us on his birthday..

..and had to do a clog dance and we all sang to him

The next day the family headed to London while I went to two days of class in Swansea and one basketball practice. We met up on Thursday night again in London – check back in for Nelsen’s to the UK – Part Two (coming very soon).