Our Weekend in Wales

Okay, here's the long-awaited report on last weekend's trip to Wales. Sorry for the wait, Ron! I've actually been hard at work on it over the last couple days, but not here in the blog.

This time, I've put descriptions and our photos of the major sights in a new Wales section on my Sacred Destinations website. This way, you can check out our trip photos plus my website gets over 100 new pages of content! Now I just need to do lovely photo galleries for Bath, St. Albans, Cologne, Trier...

So for articles on the major sights we saw and galleries of our photos with captions (all of which I spent far too much time on when I should be writing my next paper), please clink on the links in the text below. And let me know if you come across any errors or bad links or anything. Of course, the photos of us, food, and other random stuff will still be in the blog.

Okay, so we left on a whim last Friday night, as I mentioned in the quick post that evening. We hopped in Wilma and headed west not long after David got home from work, without knowing where we'd land that night. (See the map above for our route into Wales.) Things went smoothly until we ran into a huge traffic jam on the major motorway M4.

After moving only about a half-mile in a half-hour, we began to despair of getting too far that night. We agreed to find a hotel room just over the Wales border in Chepstow, and while we sat in traffic I started calling some numbers listed in my Lonely Planet Britain, and successfully booked us a room.

We stopped at a "services" area to get gas and snacks just as the traffic started to jam up. Rest stops are great here - not just coffee and cold toilet seats like back home. This one had a mini-Marks & Spencer, a Burger King, a book store, an ATM, a bar/restaurant, and huge bathrooms - like an airport. And I think we made about the same progress as those who stayed on the road!

Traffic returned to normal eventually, and the rest of the drive was pleasant and uneventful. There wasn't a whole lot to see since it was dark, but the big bridge over the bay to cross from England into Wales was neat. It was also a toll bridge, which was a surprise. It was £4, not too bad.

As soon as you enter Wales all signs become bilingual: English and Welsh. This is now required by law throughout Wales, in an attempt to preserve the Welsh language from extinction. Only about 1/5 of the population speaks Welsh. In addition to the signage, it is now also a required second language taught in all public schools. Welsh is Celtic-based, and virtually impossible to pronounce.

Chepstow is just over the border, and we arrived at around 8:30-ish or so. The town is old and small and quite cute, and there was a huge Norman castle next to the parking lot where we left Wilma. Our hotel was "The Castle View", and our room indeed had a view of the castle (and the parking lot).

The receptionist/landlady/barmaid was very friendly and our room was clean and with a nice bathroom, but it sure wasn't worth the price. The stairs up to our room may well have been medieval themselves - they were as crooked and unstable as could be. But the main drawback was the pub/club next door, which was lively loud until at least 3 AM.

After checking in, we headed out again to have a look around and find some dinner. We had a nice walk through the town and came upon a Chinese restaurant that turned out to be wonderful. We shared chow mein and spring rolls, and both were exceptionally delicious.

In the morning we had a full Welsh breakfast at our hotel, which was included. It appears a full Welsh breakfast is the same as a full English or a full Scottish - eggs, sausage, English-style bacon, baked beans, stewed tomato and fried bread. This was David's first experience of fried bread - it's really something else. Imagine how much oil a piece of white bread can soak up while deep-frying! It's even too much for me, the donut-lover. David found it to be too much also. We were packed up, checked out, and out the door by 8:30. A couple snaps of Chepstow Castle in daylight before we left:

Once Wilma was warmed up, we headed north to our first sightseeing stop of the trip, Tintern Abbey. The 20-minute drive to the abbey was beautiful, all scenic countryside and quaint small towns. When we arrived at the abbey, the parking lot began to fill up with cars - but they were all weekend country walkers, not abbey visitors! They all seemed to have similar hatchback cars and good solid wellies and raincoats.

Tintern Abbey is wonderful, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. Even on a gray, cold February morning, the ruins were beautiful. Most of the cathedrals and abbeys we've visited have been intact, so it was a new and neat experience to walk through a grand Gothic church carpeted with green grass and open to the sky. Dreamlike, almost. We also had the place entirely to ourselves (which I'm sure would not be the case in the summer), and it was so quiet and peaceful. The only disappointments were the grey sky, which made for less pretty pictures, and the scaffolding on the west front of the abbey church.

An article I wrote about the abbey is here (with help from a great guide book David bought for me in the shop) and a gallery of photos is here. And here are photos of us at the abbey:
Departing Tintern at about 10:30, we continued north towards Monmouth and then turned west on the highway that follows Brecon Beacons National Park. It was a lovely drive, with many small mountains on our left and more great towns, nearly all of which seemed to have a castle.

We made our first pit stop at Llandovery, after about an hour's drive. I needed a 20-pence coin for the public toilets, which we didn't have, so we had to buy something from the bakery across the street to get change. You can imagine our horror at such a predicament. We got a couple nice custard-based pastry treats for the road. This town had a small castle in ruins on a hill, also by the parking lot, so we went for a quick walk up to check it out before continuing on. The castle was built in the 1100s. On the hill was also a memorial to a Welsh freedom fighter who was hung, drawn and quartered by the English in this town. The memorial, consisting of standing armor with no knight inside, is neat but a little strange. It reminded me of Darth Vader or a Harry Potter death-eater.

The next town of note was Carmarthen, which signs informed us was "Wales' Oldest Town." Here we began to get a Welsh-language radio station, which was really something. (I recorded some of it on my digital recorder, which I'll post once I figure out how to upload it.) It sounded like gibberish or maybe the Pentecostal gift of tongues, although we did make out the words "Gwyneth Paltrow" and "Chris Martin." The whole bilingual thing was strange, as you start to feel like you're in a foreign country after all the unreadable signs and incomprehensible radio, but then in shops they speak English just like back in England. The pockets of Welsh-speaking population didn't seem to be part of our route.

A little further on, I noticed a "Whitland Abbey" just off the highway on our road map, so we turned off to check it out. There were no road signs for it, which I thought was odd, but it was because there wasn't really much to see. We drove down a single-track road through farmland and arrived at what appears to be a working abbey, or else regular people live there. It was a nice old building but clearly not a tourist attraction. We parked and briefly got out for some photos and a short walk up the road, but saw only some unidentified ruins in a nearby field and petted the slightly mental but very cute abbey sheepdog. Then we buggered off before anyone appeared to ask what in the heck we were doing.

Back on the road, pretty soon we began to see big semi-trucks from Ireland - a good sign! There's a big ferry port not far from St. Davids. We passed through a few more nice towns, one of which had a lovely church. I'm quite proud of this photo I took of it from the moving car:

Around 2 we made a bathroom and lunch stop in the fairly large town of Haverfordswest. This town also had a castle, on a hill in the middle of the city center. The main parking lot was very full, but we got lucky when someone left. The town was a bustling, mostly modern one, with a main high street quite like Cornmarket back in Oxford.


We bypassed several pubs in which a small group of men sat chainsmoking and leering, and found a good family one called Friar's. David had fish and chips and I had chicken with "Italian sauce" and chips. And of course both came with peas. Both were very good.



We didn't dilly-dally, and got back on the highway by 3:15. We weren't far from St. Davids now, and soon we saw the ocean. It was lovely and spectacular, and the beaches were very sandy and nice. No wonder this area is a summer hot-spot!

After passing through another small town called Solva, we arrived at St. Davids. Our B&B was sure easy to find - it was right on the main road as we entered the town.

Our B&B, The Waterings, was wonderful. It was a modern building, but warm and home-y and decorated with a nautical theme. On the wooden door to each room was a little plaque that said "Captain," "First Mate," etc. Very cute. We were in the Bosun room. Our room was huge and wonderful, with a little sitting room with a TV, a comfy queen bed plus a single bed, and a big bathroom with a nice tub. The lady who runs the place with her husband was very nice, and she asked for our breakfast order so she could have it ready at the time we specified.

It was now after 4:00, so we hustled into town to see what we could before dark. The Waterings has a nifty runway-like path that leads to the Tourist Information Center and then the center of town.
We headed straight for the famous St. David's Cathedral, which is just on the other side of the tiny town center from our B&B. Because it's built down in a little valley, you can't see it until you get right up to it. Once we did, it was really a spectacular sight! I had seen pictures of it, but I still said "Wow!" It's such an unexpected grand thing to have in such a tiny, remote town way out here on the coast.

We took some photos of the outside and went down the 39 stairs to the cathedral entrance (poor David jammed his finger on the handrail along the way). We peeped inside real quick, and we both said "Wow!" Very huge, pretty, and lots of stone. But we only stayed for less than a minute, because it was getting dark and we could come back to give it the attention it deserves tomorrow. I'll say a bit more about it when I get to Sunday, but I've put almost everything I've written and all of our photos here.

Next, we walked a good while (20 minutes maybe?) towards the ocean, mostly through farmland. Only 1,800 people live in the "city" of St. Davids, so it's largely a very rural area and the walk was peaceful and pleasant.

The coast was absolutely spectacular. Even on a cold and cloudy day, when it was threatening to rain and almost dark, the ocean was such a beautiful blue. We walked along a cliffside path for awhile, admiring the waves lapping the rocks below and taking lots of pictures.



We then explored the ruins of St. Non's Chapel and St. Non's Well, which were located not far from the coastal path, through some cow pastures. Here I navigate a cow-proof wall on the way:

St. Non is the mother of St. David, and she is said to have given birth to him (c.500 AD) on the site of this ruined chapel in the middle of a field out here by the ocean. Photos of us at (or rather on) the chapel:

Next we saw St. Non's Well (photos here), a small spring near the chapel that is said to have sprung up when St. David was born, and claims to have healing waters. David put his sore jammed finger in the water, just in case it's true. And he commented yesterday that he doesn't remember it hurting since! So there we go - proof.

Since this was a Valentine's Day weekend, we went out for a Valetines dinner that night at a hotel in the town center. It started at 7:00; we arrived fairly early so we had drinks in the comfy chairs of the reception area. I had some nice local sparkling water and David tried two different Welsh cream ales that he really liked. I tried them and I must say they were some of the least nasty beers I've tasted.

Dinner was quite lacking on atmosphere, but the food was good and we enjoyed each others' company and watching everyone else. It was a three-course set menu; I had butternut squash soup, duck, and a double chocolate tart. The duck was only okay (but maybe I don't like duck as much as I thought), but the other two were fantastic. The dessert was like a dark chocolate bar on a pie crust. Wow. I felt a little ill but it was so worth it. David had the same soup, roasted lamb, and passion fruit cheesecake, and was happy with all three. Sadly, we had no cameras with us to take my traditional food pictures.

After dinner they brought us coffee automatically, so I loaded mine up with cream and suger and gave it go. Still pretty icky, but I actually think I could acquire the taste if I tried. I eat darker and darker chocolate all the time, and the taste is actually quite similar. All in all, it was a really great day of travel and sightseeing.

Okay, it is now quite late and I'm going to have to tell our Sunday adventures (including the cathedral, the bishop's palace, and a long hike by the ocean) tomorrow. I think I'll continue in this same post so as not to confuse things, so check this space for the rest tomorrow.

Part II (added Saturday 2/18/06)

We started out Sunday morning in St Davids with an 8:30 breakfast at our B&B that we had pre-ordered. I had porridge and scrambled eggs; David had another full Welsh breakfast. It was very good and in a pleasant breakfast room. The nook next to our table was decorated with carved Buddha statues and Athenian vases, and they had nice music playing.

We checked out of our room shortly thereafter (though we both wished we could stay another night) and drove down to the beach at a little peninsula called St. David's Head, where there was another coastal walking path (actually there is everywhere - the entire tip of Wales has a "Pembrokeshire Coast Path" that is part of a national park). Our goal, besides having a nice walk along the ocean, was to find a prehistoric stone circle that was marked on our road map as being on St David's Head.

It was cold and windy as ever, but we had a nice walk. The coastline was rugged and rocky and lovely, the path was well-marked and not too muddy, and there were crazy surfers out in the waves.

However, there were no signs for our stone circle anywhere. After awhile, we thought it might be at the top of a nearby hill, so I headed up there to check it out real quick while David waited at the bottom. Turns out he could see me at the top, where I looked a little like Neo with my black coat (first photo below - you'll have to enlarge it). It was a nice but quite steep walk and the view from the top was great. I could see the ocean on two sides, the beach, and Wilma in the parking lot.



But no stone circle. I was back in about a half-hour with slightly quivery legs and ready to head back to Wilma, but then David said a passerby had told him the monument was further down the path, all the way around the next peninsula. Oy vey. David was up for pressing on, so we went for it. It continued to be a nice walk, but it got to be quite long, and still no ancient stone circle. We came across a couple promising looking things, though:

David thought the above circle could be it, but I thought it might just be a modern thing. Finally we gave up and headed back, happily finding a much shorter path than we came on! We went down on the sandy beach on the way to the parking lot, and it was really nice. The tide was way out and we inspected some tide pools, but they had very little life in them. There was a heart-shaped pool, though, which was appropriate for Valentines' weekend (it's in the left of the photo with me in it below).

When we got back to the car, I looked at the road map again and checked the key - turns out the symbol I'd seen didn't mean "stone circle," but "iron age settlement." Oops! And when we got home, I checked it out online and it turns out the ring of stones in the photo above is indeed part of it. So David was right and we were successful after all, although a stone circle would have been a lot more exciting! Guess we'll have to go to good old Stonehenge.

We then drove from the beach back into town, parked for free, and did a thorough tour of St. David's Cathedral. We both took a ton of photos and thought it was pretty neat. The big photo gallery is here.

Then we went next door to the Bishop's Palace, a set of ruins where the 14th and 15th century bishops of St. Davids lived large and entertained distinguished pilgrims to the cathedral. Photo gallery here.

All this was done by around 2:30, and then we headed east for the long drive back home. This time we took the M4 most of the way, which is south of Brecon Beacon's Park rather than north, and we passed near Cardiff and Bristol on the way. Traffic wasn't bad and the drive went smoothly. We didn't make any major stops this time, as we were ready to be back home - especially poor David who had done so much driving throughout the weekend and had to go back to work the following morning.

We had a wonderful time in Wales, and especially St. Davids, and hope to go back in a warmer season for more coastal walks!