Rhondda's visit - 2012
Rhondda arrived with us on Friday 8th June 2012. Before arriving in the UK, Rhondda spent a few days with Alice and Jim in Las Vegas.
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Whilst there Rhondda took a bus trip to visit the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam.
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Interesting tepees as well as wonderful scenery
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Back on the bus and off to the Hoover Dam

Everything was very hot and dry, Rhonnda made sure she had water with her at all times (this was not a problem she encountered in the UK!)
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Back to Las Vegas and the bright lights of the Strip
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The man on the right was a spray paint artist - an example of his work is far right
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The artistes on the left were impersonators in one of the casinos.

Back to daytime and real people ....

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Jim & Alice's lovely house and garden -->
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eating

Apparently this is the best way to eat ribs!

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Getting ready for her trip to the UK. Next stop London.

Despite very windy weather Rhondda's plane was only about an hour late so not too bad. After a slow trog round the M25 we arrived home and almost immediately went out to Xi'an (a great local Chinese restaurant) for dinner xian
Saturday was planned as a busy day so up at a reasonable time and on the train to London.
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The building in the background is The Shard, the tallest building in Europe.
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Our plan was to visit a few of the gardens in the City of London that were open to the public as part of the Open Garden Squares Weekend. Our first stop was Salters' Garden.
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Then to St. Mary Aldermanbury where there's a bust of William Shakespeare and a mention of John Hernynge & Henry Condell, fellow actors and accredited with printing the first folio of Shakespeare's work.
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From there it was only a short walk to Postman's Park.
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Although not officially on the itinerary, we had a quick detour via the Guildhall
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Then off we went to Christchurch Greyfriars Garden - this was probably my favourite of all those we saw.
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Next stop St. Paul's Cathedral Gardens. A wedding was just finishing as we got there so another photo opportunity.
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This was Rhondda's favourite rose
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Next point of interest was the Millennium Bridge.
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You can see all sorts from this bridge ...

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... and there we were on the South Bank
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The garden on the left is the Community Garden at the Tate Modern. I much preferred that to the sculpture outside the gallery.
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Lunch beckoned and so we found somewhere to eat - Strada. Jonathon stayed with us for lunch then disappeared back home leaving Rhondda and me to enjoy the rest of the day.
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London eye
First stop was the London Eye. We'd pre-booked the tickets so I went to collect them while Rhondda bought most of the stock in one of the nearby gift shops.
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Rhondda clearly got on well with one of the London Eye security guards!
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The views from the eye were as good as ever. Thankfully, the weather had improved a bit by the time we went up there.
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Once we got back to terra firma we had another stroll about on the South Bank and enjoyed some street dancing, general views and the 4D Experience (great fun)
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I think Rhondda probably got more of a sight than either she or I expected when we came across the World Naked Bike Ride!
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Next stop was the Marriott Hotel County Hall for afternoon tea. Rhondda thought this meant a cup of tea so it was a bit of a surprise when the full works arrived!
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This was the centre piece leading up to the door at the Marriott - very impressive.

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That was it for the first day - time to go home.

Sunday arrived and the weather forecast said OK in the morning but rainy later on so we changed our plans around and went off to Doddington Place Gardens earlier than planned.
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Doddington Place Gardens are one of our favourite private gardens. There's so much to see.
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Very important place - the refreshment tent!

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The hedges are amazing. The photo above left is Rhondda inside one of them! It takes the gardeners 7 weeks to trim them all once a year.
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One of the highlights of the visit was watching the birds of prey.

The Harris Hawk and the Peregrine Falcon were wonderful.

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Time to go home - we just got in our front door before the rain came. All in all, a lovely day!

Back to work for Jonathon and me the next couple of days so Rhondda was on her own during the day before disappearing up North on the Wednesday.

Monday was a rest day (not least because it was very wet and rainy). Tuesday Rhondda went into London and enjoyed a ride on a tour bus - not open topped! The prices in Harrods were a bit of a shock.

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Rhondda's first stop up North was with Trevor and Heather in Sheffield before moving on the Denise's, Wendy's, Cherril's and Aunty Enid's then back to Wendy's and finally Trevor's. A busy time!
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First a guided tour of Sheffield ...
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Next stop Knaresborough to see Mavis & Frank (and enjoy roast beef and Yorkshire pudding)
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This is the oldest chemist shop in England

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Then up to Durham for a sleepover and a look around.
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Back to Sheffield and an interesting Japanese restaurant - plenty of stories for Rhondda to tell her friends and family back home about this one!
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Enough of eating for now, back into the countryside
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Back to food!

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Next stop was Denise's. One of the activities was to watch the Olympic Flame parade (unfortunately Rhondda didn't manage to get a photo of the flame but at least she saw it!). There was a mix of sponsors....
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Even some of the cars were decorated.
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Whitby was the next stop. Home of Captain Cook and the lovely abbey.
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Watch out Bridlington, the girls are coming for a day out!
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On the Yorkshire Bill

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The girls had to have a quick march back to the train station so Wendy enouraged them by singing Onward Christian Soldiers.

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View from back of Denise & Peter's

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Next stop Hull to stay with Wendy & Bob before moving to Cherril's

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Back to Denise's for a family get together
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There's always time for a bit of shopping!

But there's also some gardening to be done whilst at Aunty Enid's

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The next girls day out was in Hull but it was raining so it seems most of the time was spent in the indoor shopping centres - hard life!
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Back to Trevor and Heather's for the final stop up North
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A day out in Cambridge was the next treat. The "head phones" for the bus tour were apparently not too user friendly
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You can't visit Cambridge without going on a ride on a punt - especially if someone else is doing all the hard work!
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Back to Sheffield for dinner and goodbyes
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4th of July and Rhondda came back down south for the last bit of her visit so I met her at St. Pancras Station in London and home we went.
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One thing she has wanted to do all her life is visit the Rhondda Valley (that's where she's named after) so an early start on the Thursday meant that we were on our way.
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First stop Paddington Station. Despite the signal problems on the Bakerloo Line we managed to catch the train!
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We arrived in Cardiff Central station a couple of hours later - this was Rhondda's first visit to Wales.
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The next train was a lot smaller but the driver and conductor were both lovely - giving some history of the Rhondda Valley, telling us what to look out for and so on.
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The Rhondda Valley used to be a big coal mining area and there's a Heritage Park to remind people of that.
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There were various stations en route, some with Rhondda's name in so she had to jump off quickly for a photo shoot then back on so we didn't go without her!

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The driver explaned that Pontypridd was the start of the "shoulder" of the valley and Porth was the start of the Rhondda Valley itself.

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There were some lovely views along the way - nice and green. We were really lucky with the weather - dry all day (amazing!)

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The final stop in the Valley was Treherbert so we got out for a walk around and something to eat. Rhondda was amazed with all the place names, signs etc that had her name on them.

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Being in a valley, the town is surrounded by hills.
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Lunch was at Sharan's Fish Bar - very tasty. Looks like it might be getting some competition before too long.
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We had a quick wander round the park then back to the train to head east.
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As we had plenty of time, we stopped off in Cardiff on the way home. Rhondda caught up with her texting on the train.
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We didn't have a huge amount of time so went on an open top bus tour of the City. We started at the castle and it was very interesting.
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Nigel was our guide. He was so taken with Rhondda's name and the fact we'd been to the Rhondda Valley that he took a photo of her driving licence!
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Rhondda listening hard!

Above is the harbour.

Looking down the estuary, you can see the Millennium Dome (the building with Spiky corners)

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We finished our visit with scones, jam, cream and a cup of tea at Truffles then back home on the trains and tubes.
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Rhondda's last full day in the UK ....

After a quick visit to the Post Office to post all the cards, guide books and calendars that Rhondda's bought whilst she's been here (too heavy for her luggage), we spent a lovely few hours with John and Margaret.

Then back to the station for a final trip into London.

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Sarastro

We went out for dinner in the evening at Sarastro. You can tell it's a bit different from all the greenery outside. As the advert suggests, it's showtime (only "before" rather than "after" for us).

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Don't think they show up too well but there was a live band for a while.

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Then it was off to The Peacock Theatre in Theatreland for a great dance show.

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All too soon it was time to say goodbye and wave Rhonnda off at Heathrow. Tears all round. Hope she won't leave it another 15 years before she comes back again!
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