This door, what tales can it tell, what stories does it hold? How many people have pushed on those heavy wooden panels and walked through to happiness, walked out in sadness.

One of my favorite places to visit is Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire Wales. It is so hauntingly beautiful you can almost hear the sound of the prayers of the monks before the monastary was dissolved. On 3 September 1536, Abbot Wych surrendered Tintern Abbey and all its estates to the King’s visitors and ended a way of life that had lasted 400 years.  I do love to sit at the Anchor Inn and have fish and chips in the shadows of the Abbey and think about all the history that has passed that way…

Whenever I visit a historic site I get butterflies. I wish I could close my eyes and, even if for just a moment, I could see things as they were then. No matter where my travels take me, the feeling is always the same…