A real Welsh road trip

Once again, the Morgan’s are on the road. This time we’re taking a long drive for a day trip, almost 7 hours total, but there are these Roman ruins we just have to see. We both feel a connection to Rome and Romans of long ago. Me, I think I may have been a plebe in an earlier life. They say you are reincarnated in a lower position when you come back so being a VP in aerospace fits.

Collette connected with early Romans during her SEAL training. She claims to have had an out-of-body experience during her surf conditioning exercise and pictured herself as Marcus Aurelius.  Fits that she would come back and be married to me.

Anyway, read about a series of ruins at a small town called, “Newport”. It’s a good drive from our place, 3.25 hours each way with no stops for site seeing. So, sounds like an early morning. Up at 0-dark early, showered, had a bowl of Crunchy Nut cereal (really good in case you haven’t tried it) and a coffee, then on the road. The morning is perfect, no rain, little cloudy and a bit chilly, around 40⁰. We heard that they were going to declare a drought because it hadn’t rained in the last 3 hours, just hearsay.

This time we were able to snap a few pictures of the beautiful countryside.

Humming along in our tuned and roaring Bugatti makes the roads seem like child’s play. I know I complain about the roads in every country we go to and Wales is no exception. Can’t really blame them for terrible roads, they were formed by simple erosion so you should expect a curve every 10 feet or so.  Much like Ireland, you can always tell when there is a sharp curve ahead, the speed limit increases to 60mph. That’s right, increases! Good thing we upgraded to that Duesenberg SSJ Speedster!

The route today will take us through Hereford, Newport, Talgarth (quick stop at the old mill for a coffee and pastry), Newtown then back home, Llangynog. Mostly a drive through the countryside and in this good weather, some great scenery.

First stop in Newport was the Roman baths. The fortress at Newport (called, “Caerleon”) was a legionary outpost manned for more than 200 years. (A Roman legion was 4,000 – 6,000 men) As Wales was the western most border of the Roman empire, it was important to protect it from invasion or dissension. Built in 75AD, this fortress included housing and shops; barracks for the legion; an amphitheater that seated 6,000 people; and of course, the baths.

Baths were extremely important in early Roman life. They were most often communal even though some homes had private baths. A typical soldier would bathe at least once a day but sometimes as often as 3 or 4 times a day depending on their assignment and social time.

But this wasn’t bathing like you and I do today. A Roman soldier would first go to a heated (yes, heated) changing room to exchange his uniform for a pair of shorts or nothing at all. Next, he would go to the frigidarium or cold bath to do a little shock treatment to the body. After a thorough chilling, he would enter the gymnasium for a workout or sparring with others. After working up a good sweat, off to the oil room. There the legionary would get a total body rub down with scented olive oil. All slicked up, time for the scrape down. Using a piece of bone or a metal strigel, the soldier would scrape the oil off his body either into the drain or sometimes into a container for the woman of his dreams to use as perfume.

Finally, he would get into the pool to bathe. No diving, the pool was too shallow, besides this pool is for bathing and socializing. This is where everyone (almost) had the opportunity to discuss life with others, even outside their class. This was also a place where one could play games, write notes or gamble. Guess this is where the expression, “lose your shirt” was coined.

Now that the soldier was clean, time to head off to the barracks and relax. In the barracks at Caerleon, 8 soldiers would share a room and store their equipment in another room.  If this was a special night, the legionary might go to the amphitheater to see a play or hear poetry or music.

On the way to the amphitheater, we took a quick look into the museum. In Wales, all museums are free to the public, what a concept! And this one was pretty good. There are lots of personal items on display that were found in the drains of the baths and around the barracks.

Next was a quick stroll to the ruins of the amphitheater and the barracks.

That’s it for Newport. We finished our picnic lunch so time to start the drive back home. About halfway, we’ll stop at Talgarth for a coffee and pastry at the Talgarth Mill, a fully restored 18^th century mill still in operation today.

Finished for today. Tomorrow we’re off again on another road trip. This time, to the coast and the town of Fishguard to see the amazing “Last Invasion” tapestry and St. David cathedral.

Til then…..Llwybrau hapus (Happy trails)