UK Continued - Cardiff to Aberytswyth

Our plan for the next several days after leaving Cardiff was to follow along the coast of Wales in a clockwise direction.

Leaving Cardiff the weather was good with blue sky and puffy white clouds; also a bit warmer than it had been.

Our first stop was at St. Fagan's National Museum of History. It’s an open-air museum demonstrating a timeline of Welsh history and representing the architecture and culture of Wales. It includes several relocated historic buildings taken stone-by-stone from across the country and rebuilt including a blacksmith forge, water mills, a chapel, a schoolhouse, and a typical row of workers cottages. 

We made a quick stop at the ruins of Ogmore Castle which was adjacent to a farm and near a small stream with stepping stones. Two horseback riders crossed the stream while we were there, going to the farm.

Next, on to Carreg Cennen Castle – this was perched on a hill and was reached by the usual single lane (two-way) roads lined with shrubbery. The castle was a short steep hike up the hill with great views of the surrounding area which was quite beautiful with green pastures dotted with sheep.

We went on to Tenby, our destination for the night, and checked in to the Premier Inn (with an elevator!) in Tenby (a quaint seaside town) and strolled about. There’s a castle on a rocky promontory so we walked along the path circling it and happened upon a lifeboat station about 30 minutes before they were going to do a training launch of their very expensive (2.7 million pounds in 2006) lifeboat. We stayed to watch. It was quite interesting. You can kind of see the ramp through the opening. They use cables to bring the boat just beyond the opening, then they let it go. The engines are running when they release it and it takes off right away once it reaches the water.

The next morning we took a quick walkabout in Tenby. It’s a very picturesque sea front with colorful houses (Georgian and Victorian Regency Style according to google). It was a walled city and some of the walls are still present.  Excellent breakfast at a little place called Fuchsia. Also stopped in to Loafley Bakery and bought a couple of cinnamon rolls for later (yummy!!). 

Upon leaving Tenby our destination was St. Davids. It was another good weather day!

We stopped along the way to tour Carew Castle (pretty decent) then continued to Pembroke where we had lunch at Will’s (good sandwiches). In a bit of a reversal the table had Hellmann’s Ketchup and Heinz Mayonnaise.

We travelled along more narrow roads to get to Marloes Sands car park and then took a walk down to Marloes Sands beach and along a portion of the Wales Coast Path with gorgeous views. It’s not just that the roads are narrow (with potential for 2-way traffic) but they are windy, and bordered by dense overgrown hedges seriously limiting the view ahead.

We stayed overnight at St. David’s Cross Hotel. Up 2 flights of stairs (no elevator). We had time for a quick stroll in St. David’s and popped into their lovely cathedral.

The next day, Wednesday, June 10, it was on to Aberytswyth.  It was colder and windy.

We made a quick stop at the Pentre Ifan burial chamber (a large rock balanced on 3 standing rocks). One of those things where you wonder how they managed to do it with primitive tools.

We drove along more treacherous narrow roads to reach Mwnt Beach where there was a small 13th century church (The Holy Cross Church); some stairs to climb down to a secluded beach, and a small hill to climb up to a nice viewpoint.

We arrived at our hotel, Gwesty Cymru, in Aberystwyth. It was very nicely renovated a few years ago. We had a large room on the 3rd floor (no elevator!). After eating at a local restaurant, it was time to crash and get recharged for the next day.

To be continued...