THURSDAY   
WELSHPOOL

And we are back to our previously scheduled program. I wanted to visit a bit of Wales on the trip and this is the bit. It is Powis Castle outside of Welshpool.
One interesting thing about being in Wales is seeing all the signs in both English and Welsh. Which way to the toiledau? It's that way.
There were a lot of peacocks wandering about. They are blocking the sign for the mynedfa'r ardd.
We toured the castle but they don't allow photos inside, so here are the horse cart stalls. It's not as nice as the castle.
While photos are off limits inside the castle, which is unfortunate because it is beautiful, the gardens were available for all kinds of pictures. So that's what you are going to get.
It was technically spring, but it was often cold during the week. It was certainly a bit chilly this day.
It seems that you can rent out this cottage in the garden.
A little information about the castle. It was originally a fortress for Welsh royal types, unlike a lot of castles in Wales that were built by the English to keep the Welsh in line. It has gone from being a medieval castle in the 13th century to a stately manor today. The current Earl of Powis still lives in part of the castle on occasion and the castle has had royal visitors from Princess Victoria (before she was queen) to more recently Prince Charles.
The castle grounds has a pet cemetery, or as Stephen King would spell it, pet sematary. Here lies Tweed, Bren, Punch, Apollo, Prince, Blucher, Nero and Jung-Bahadoor.
Sheep! And a pheasant! Karen said she wanted to see sheep on the trip and I told her there would be no shortage of our ovine friends.
It looks like an igloo and that seem appropriate because this was the icehouse. It was used to store ice that had been collected from a nearby pond. The ice was packed between layers of straw which insulated the ice, keeping it frozen throughout the year.
This might be the pond where they got the ice.
I wanted to go in the shop but there was a peacock blocking it and I was too a-scared.
I look faaaaabulous!
This is an example of what the gardens would look like in bloom instead of the dead of early spring. How did I get this photograph? Perhaps it was time travel. Or perhaps I just took a picture of a postcard in the shop once the scary peacock moved away from the door.

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