Relaxing in Wales

Tuesday 14th August

Before leaving this morning we had a short walk around the village where we stayed and looked at the old stone buildings. The house and outbuildings date back to the 1600s. Beautiful stone – not unlike bluestone.

Our B&B - 500 year old farmhouse.

One of the pubs in town - it was a small town but there were at least 4.

More of the farm buildings.

The church in the village where the farmhouse was located.
Apparently the laird who owned all the land around was a bit of a gambler
and had lost almost everything. He put his last money on a horse
that won some big race, and this saved his property.
The inscription on his grave gives thanks to the horse
that paid for his tombstone.

We had a quiet drive today following a river valley along to the sea and then travelling south along the coast to a place just outside the village of Aberporth. Along the way we stopped at the town of Machynlleth to sort out some banking and have morning tea. A lovely village with mostly old style shops – a tour bus was stopped here, I'm guessing for the lovely shops.

Town clock in Machynlleth.

Along the road we passed through more lovely villages – houses built with stone like our farmhouse accommodation and further along houses built with slate. In some of the villages the stone houses had been rendered and then painted in soft pastel colours. It gave the village a very quaint and fresh look.

Stopped in the town of Aberaeron for lunch. This town was right on the coast with a small port (local fishing boats) and a huge caravan park. The main street was buzzing with people and parking was at a premium. From there we moved further along the coast to Aberporth and our hostel for the next 4 nights. We are staying in the Piggery Poke Hostel. It is in a 500 year old farmhouse and really well equipped. We are the only ones here tonight so we have the run of the place.

Wednesday 15th August

A quiet day today with just a short drive to the nearby town of Cardigan. We took the scenic route to get there via a few seaside villages and lots of narrow one track roads. Lots of caravan ‘parks' in out of the way spots - I'm thinking they are just camping grounds in farmers paddocks with no real facilities but we didn't go in to check this. Somewhere there must be listings of all these out of the way places because there were lots of people camping there.

Lovely seaside views. Yes, the weather was a bit ordinary.

Tour boats to see seals and porpoises. I'm not keen on these sort of boats.  

Near the town of Cardigan we visited St Dogmaels abbey - 12th century. It still amazes me to see just how old some of these places are and to see they are still standing in some form or another. Also visited Cilgerran castle nearby, built mostly in 1223.

The abbey.

This yew tree, outside the church next to the abbey, is 500 years old.

Cilgerran Castle.