Bibliophile Awareness - 24 July 2011

Sundays are always lovely because we get to take things a little bit slower than usual, at least until church is over. I love the ward we are attending in Cardiff. Everything is the same but different. It's figuring out what makes things different that is interesting.

After Sacrament meeting we left for Castell Coch. In English, the name means the Red Castle and it was, as expected, red. (I'm holding out for the place that names itself the color it is most definitely not - wouldn't that be the best joke?) It is a small castle, lavishly decorated in a mishmash of Victorian and medieval styles. This was done because it was a summer home of the Third Marquis of Bute who was a Pre-Raphaelite that financed the restoration of most of the castles in Wales including Castell Coch. I was told that numerous weddings take place at Castell Coch and I could see why. It was like a mini fairy tale.

The next stop was yet another castle. If you are starting to get all my castles confused that's okay. So am I. I've said this before - Wales has more castles than any other country and I'm seeing not even close to all of them. Caerphilly Castle is unique because of its expansive moat system. It is the largest castle in Wales, and arguably the second largest in Europe. We only had a short time there so I zoomed through, going up and down every stairway that wasn't blocked off. It was massive, not in hight but in ground space. The castle just seemed to sprawl out all over.  While we were there a wedding was being set up and I couldn't think of a better venue. But I can't help but wonder what that would cost. I'm guessing a lot. While I liked Caerphilly I don't think I would put it at the top of my favorites list. It was so large that taking a good photo of the whole castle was impossible and it was missing some of that ancient history sparkle that some of the other castles seem to radiate. I think this is because the castle was so big it was hard for me to imagine people, families, individuals living there.

The wedding in the Great Hall

The Leaning Tower of Philly

After Caerphilly we took a drive through the Brecon Beacons to a small town called Hay-On-Wye. The Brecon Becons are a mountain range in Wales. However, a mountain in Wales is a foothill in the rockies. Still I think it was through the valleys and hills that I got a better sense of what Alexander Cordell called "the fair country." The Brecons are made up of stunning grassy hills occasionally covered with a rippling forest or bordering a crystal clear blue lake. The road winds in and out of these valleys and now and again you get a peak of a small hamlet tucked away in the beauty.

Hidden in the Brecons is Hay-On-Wye which, succinctly, is a bibliophile's paradise. Hay-On-Wye is the used book capitol of the world. It has more used book shops than in any other place. The whole town is built on this premise. Each book shop has a different speciality. Some will only sell books that are so old, some only children's books, some only horror, some only poetry, and so on. I particularly loved the bookshop in Haycastle. I loved walking up into the courtyard of the castle and seeing the shelves of books that had been propped up against the walls and covered from the sun. They set it up this way because the Hay Castle shop works on an honesty policy meaning if you want to buy a book then you just put your money in the box on the wall. Between all the bookshops (which make up practically every other store on a street) is a clothing boutique, art gallery, or antique shop. I don't know if I can describe the relaxed and book-loving attitude. I found a few, very cheap books and a 1923 print of a work by Arthur Rackham. I owe Hannah a special thanks for showing me his stuff. He is genius and captures the spirit of fairytales and childhood.

Hay Castle Bookshop

Murder and Mayhem - The Horror bookshop

A lovely children's bookshop - my dream job

Since visiting Hay-On-Wye I've adjusted my life plan. I'm going to go to graduate school in librarianship at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver but make sure that I do a book preservation track as well. Then, with my Canadian passport I am going to go on an extending working-holiday to Hay-On-Wye where I will read and fix and cherish books all day long. It will be magical.

By the time we were ready to leave Hay-On-Wye (if the shops hadn't closed I would never have been ready) it was around 5:30 in the evening. One thing about Wales that can be very frustrating is that basically everything closes at that time. We stopped in Hereford (as in Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire where hurricanes hardly happen) to try and catch the cathedral there open but it is currently underconstruction. I saw a beautiful public library and found a nice, and by nice I mean strange, metal plate in the grounds of the cathedral so Hereford turned out to be a stop well worth my time.

The library

The cathedral

Strange

Luckily there were a few more castles in the area that had free admission and no closing time. I liked the castles at Skenfrith, Gwyn, and Grosmont because they were small and untouristified, if I may be so bold as to make up a word. Grosmont was my favorite of the three partially because of its gross name and also because the setting sun reflecting off the stone walls was really pretty.

Skenfrith

Gwyn

Grosmont

We finished off the day by attempting to teach Hannah how to heel-click in the grassy courtyard of Grosmont Castle. She'll get it eventually I'm sure. It did take me the better part of a year to get good at it. Now I can confidently show off my heel-click without fear of failure. But more to the point, the chance to laugh and jump and play and tease was a good for all of us and just the right way to end another spectacular adventure in Wales.