We did not have any wireless, so our blog will be posted as
soon as we get internet again.
It was bittersweet to say goodbye to Ireland this morning.
Sad to leave a beautiful country right after I found what I was looking for,
and exciting to continue our journey to the next country---Wales.
We took a ferry from Ireland to Wales. I had never been on
one as large before. I was so surprised to see the amount of families aboard.
Sam wasn’t happy with all the screaming kids, and there were a lot of them. The
seating wasn’t set up like I would have expected. Some chairs were around
tables, some were padded bench style and some were almost like theater seating.
It was very full and finding a seat was not easy. We had to walk around for a
bit before a family told us we could have their seats, as they were moving to
sit next to friends.
The ride was only 2 ½ hours long, so it wasn’t bad in
duration, though if you ask Sam, he would tell you that the screaming kids made
it not so fun and it seemed like eternity to him. I had thought about going
outside to watch the sea, but it was a cool and dreary day, so I opted to stay
warm and dry, as I wasn’t sure what I would be doing later.
Our tour guide met us at the port. Rob was a nice man. He is
the husband of the team and said he would conduct the beginning of the day and
his wife Irene would meet us later in the day and take over. He also said to
not even try to learn much Welch, and I am going to take his advice. Sam has
the names of the places we visited and I am not going to even attempt to spell
these names. Irene told me that a w is like an O and the y is like u. The word
for bus is bws. That is my only attempt at writing Welch. According to Irene
they would not acknowledge the fact that you pronounced it correctly, so I am
not even going to try. Sam has told you the name of the train station we
visited. Yes it is that long and yes the Welch language can have very few
vowels. It is apparatently in the style of the French in that it seems backwards
to us and it is also in the style of the Germans, in that they run words
together to make up names.
Rob picked us up and drove us to the first town we visited.
He pointed out some places of interest and then took us to the first castle. We
were very impressed by Rob’s knowledge of midlevel times. He was a very good
historian. I almost wanted to ask if there was going to be a quiz later. The
castle he took us to was the most impressive castle I had ever been to. The
size of it was bigger than I had imagined. We saw the dais and the seat and
bench where the present Prince of Wales was inducted. It was all very
impressive Rob also told us that Charles Dickens worked there at one time. He
even pointed out where he lived. After he walked us through this castle, we
stopped for a bite of lunch. This is where we hooked up with Irene. After a
picture with the four of us was taken, Rob left to conduct another tour in the
South Wales area.
Irene told us that the castle we had just seen wasn’t even
the most impressive. She finished showing us the town and we headed off the
next stop, which I believe was the train station. The name was very impressive.
We have actual stamps on our passports showing the name and that we were there.
After that it was to a Celtic burial spot, a sort of stone henge thing, but on
a much smaller scale. It was located out in a farmer’s field, but he has to
provide access to the public. The countryside I think is greener and prettier
than Ireland. They have the same rolling hills, stone walls, tons of sheep and
cattle, but on a much greener scale and with very pretty mountains in the
distance. We walked around the burial site and then headed to the next stop,
and old medieval church, a monastery and a sacred well.
Irene is very nice and knowledgeable as well. She took us to
the church and explained all about it and walked us to the sacred well. She
said it is claimed to have healing powers. The area was again beautiful, with
many trees, hawthorn bushes, stone walls, and green, green fields with sheep
and cows. She said there are approximately 10,000 sheep to every Welch living
there.
We then visited another castle. I am again tired tonight, so
I think I got the order of what we did wrong, but it doesn’t matter. This
castle had an actual mote and was so well preserved that you could see where
all the gates and things were. It was reputed to be the best designed castle in
the world. It was like a castle in a castle. It was very well defended in its
design. I don’t think any enemy would be able to overtake it. Irene showed us
around the castle and explained it some more to us. It would have been
magnificent in its heyday. You could imagine living in that era but just being
there.
Our B and B we are staying at, is beautiful. It was built in
the 17th century and was turned into a B and B fairly recently. It
was featured in a magazine with its’ previous opener It is very beautiful. We
are here two nights and then we move on to the next place we will stay in
Wales.
I am tired tonight, so at this point in my journey, it is
time to get some rest, and let the adventure continue tomorrow.
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