Forest of Dean!

This place was on our list of must-see places before we came. The Forest of Dean is supposably, jk, supposedly the inspiration for various fictional forests in J.R.R. Tolkien's and J.K. Rowling's books and many more I am sure. It was quite magical and there were times when I could imagine seeing some ents or trolls or rock-giants in there. The first place we went to was called Puzzlewood and they have tons of trails all over but it is enclosed so it would be an awesome place to take older kids and let them wander. They have no signs showing a way out so it was fun to get lost and then make our way back. I thought I would finally show some restraint with the pictures on this post but I have failed so here are a ton of pictures. 

So green!

Little trees growing on trees

Next stop in the forest was Symond's Yat. The plan was to do a one-mile walk up to the top of this overlook which should have taken about an hour but instead we parked and started walking and ended up there in about five minutes. So much for some hiking! We'll save it for the spring I guess.

Nubs

This wasn't in the Forest of Dean but it was a castle on our way back to Stroudy town. Can't even remember the name of the castle! But it was closed so we only got to see the outside and that was probably enough. 

We're hoping to make it back to the Forest of Dean later in the year. They have a train that goes through it and stops off at various little towns and I think that would be a great way to see more of that green thick forest. My heart may be true after all.