Welcome to the A to Z challenge, a blog post everyday of April apart from Sundays, covering every letter of the alphabet. My theme is travel, that thing that we haven’t been able to do over the last 12 months, so it seemed appropriate to reminisce about past travels we’ve taken, looking forward to when we can travel freely again.

Today we’re visiting the capital of Cymru, a Shropshire village that helps defeat winter every year, and a part of London that stands out for it’s artistic flair.

Gold star for all of you who knew that Cymru is welsh for Wales, and several years ago we went for a long weekend in the capital city of Cardiff.

I love finding the sculptures and quirky things about a place – the below sculpture is by John Clinch and is called; People Like Us. It’s in Mermaid Quay and is meant to represent the people that used to work in the area. The bathroom picture is because the sinks are really funky and appealed to me – yes, I take pictures in public toilets.

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Wherever we travel, I always get ridiculously excited when I see the Australian flag – there was an incident in the early 90’s in Washington DC where myself and my friends stood under the Australian flag in the Kennedy Centre and sang Advance Australia Fair very badly. Thank goodness camera phones weren’t a thing back then. Anyway, our flag was flying in Cardiff because there was a rugby competition somewhere in the world.

In the west of England is the tiny village of Clun, where every year the Green Man battles the Frost Queen to ensure that summer will return to the area. This is a fabulous festival and I would really encourage you to attend if you ever get the chance. It’s full of ancient traditions and mythology, and it’s a really lovely area. The Green Man and his followers meet the Frost Queen and her supporters on the old bridge in the middle of town for the final battle.

The festival is held at the beginning of May on bank holiday Monday, and then at the end of May there is another festival, Arbor day, when flags are hung in a black poplar tree and left there for the whole year.

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Camden Town is in northwest London and you need to add it to your places to visit list if you’re ever in London. It has a famous market with quirky, individualised stalls, which includes lots of vintage, gothic, and retro shops. There are lots of places to eat and we nearly always get churros – we love them. The other thing that Camden is well known for is its street art and several years ago we did a guided walking tour of the art, which was really good because we got to see art that we wouldn’t have found ourselves and learnt about the artists that had created these masterpieces. If you love art then Camden is definitely the place for you to visit – here’s just a few of our favourites.

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During the tour we saw several pieces that were of Amy Winehouse – she used to live in Camden and is commemorated by a statue in the market area.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit other bloggers who are crazy enough to be doing the challenge with me – Click Here to visit the master list of participants.

Stay safe and have a good day.

Past A to Z posts:

2018 – C is for Cafe

2017 – C is for Clootie Well

2016 – C is for Cats