Chepstow to Tintern

We enjoyed chatting with our host at breakfast, learning about how strong the Welsh language movement is.  We stopped by Tesco for lunch materials and by the Post Office for stamps and set off back across the Rennie Bridge. The River Wye separates England and Wales for many miles, and our walk started off on the English side.  As we left town, we were in a field of buttercups and daisies, as we would be many more times.  Here, though, there was a medieval tower, of unknown origin, sitting in back of the house. We soon were climbing high above the river on the top of cliffs, with striking views down to the Wye, far below.  There's a good view from"Wintour's Leap", where a Royalist is supposed to have jumped with his horse and survived while fleeing Cromwell's Parliamentarians.

Much of the walk was through woods, which were damp and permeated with the smell (which we enjoyed) of wild garlic.  The woods were carpeted with the white flowers, and we were overwhelmed by the beauty.  We were again walking beside or on top of Offa's Dyke. We came to our first view, down through a gap in the trees, of Tintern Abbey.  We were again overwhelmed!  What a sight it was, way below us, beside the winding river! We stopped and ate our lunch at the "Devil's Pulpit", a big rock column from which the Devil was supposed to have preached to the monks in the abbey far below.  After lunch, we continued to walk in the woods, on the dyke, surrounded by wild garlic in bloom, with occasional glimpses of the abbey.  At a footpath sign marked for Tintern, we turned down the hillside.  When we got to the abbey, we went in and spent a happy, leisurely couple of hours.  The sun was shining and everything was wonderful!

Our B&B was the "Wye Barn", a 450-year old house beside the Wye, quite near the abbey.  We had dinner at the pub, "The Moon and Sixpence",  which had a curious spring-fed pool in the dining room. The road we followed to the pub had the Wye on the right and a hillside on the left. On the way back to our B&B, we could hear the springs rushing down behind the retaining wall at the base of the hill. We found holes through which we could reach and touch the springs!