Sunday was another “relaxing” day. We went to a different ward in Cardiff which was a nice change and then it was off to more sites.
We began by visiting Tretower Manor. Tretower was interesting because it represented the bridge between the Medieval and Renaissance times. The noble family originally lived in a stone tower castle complete with medieval fortifications. Later, as the world changed and it became safe to do so, they built an impressive manor house right next to their old castle. I liked how the rooms of the house were filled with things the people who had lived there would most likely use. I also really liked the family's coat of arms.
The snake scarves represent an old family legend. The men in the family were all supposedly born with asps around their throats as symbols of their power. Historians now believe that they were actually just born with the umbilical cords wrapped around their necks and the family twisted the story for their own purposes. I think that they were just members of Slytherin.
Next we visited Bronllys Castle. This was another tower castle on a huge mound and I always just think of Rapunzel. I don't think I would want every room in my house to be round.
The last stop of the day was at St. Fagans. This is a park kind of like This is the Place Heritage Park in Utah, except obviously all the buildings and exhibits are about Welsh history. I saw and went inside of buildings that common people would have lived in in the Celtic, medieval, industrial, and Victorian periods. St. Fagan's also had a really beautiful manor house. I liked all the gaudy Victorian decoration, especially the excessive Chinoiserie (reoccuring Chinese themes in European styles). There were people in historical costume spinning, blacksmithing, doing wood work, pottery, and all other sorts of traditional crafts. And all of them spoke Welsh. I think I could have easily spent all day at St. Fagan's. Oh, and one more really great thing about the park – it's free.
Bahaha. A Victorian urinal stall.
P.S. For those of you who are in Utah and haven't gone to This is the Place Heritage Park, take a day and go. It's a pioneer village where volunteers dress in historical costume, teach you about traditional tasks, and lots of other neat things. It's a ton of fun.
Saturday morning I was woken up by a soft knocking on my door and Susan calling, “Tom would like to leave in twenty minutes if you are coming.” Grumpy and with bleary eyes I looked at the clock and realized it was 11:00. I felt cheated of my sleep because of Tom's robot nature and nettled that I had been woken up but I knew I couldn't stay behind. I haphazardly threw on clothes, shoes and slung my hair up into a lopsided ponytail. Then, whilst stamping down the stairs, I realized how ridiculous I was being. It was stinking 11 o'clock. That meant I had got nine hours of sleep and really I didn't have to go out if I didn't want to. That cheered me up quickly and I headed out with Tom and Susan with a good attitude. Neoma and Hannah had opted to stay in bed.
What started off as a bad day turned into a really good one. We first visited a lesser known castle called Castle Dryslwyn. It was under a bit of restorative construction so some scaffolding got in the way but most of it was still accessible but covered with sheep dung. It was unavoidable so we just carried on and tromped all over the turd-covered castle. I liked this Dryslwyn because it had a unique history. It was built originally by the Welsh princes instead of by a conquering army.
We then drove through the Brecon Beacons again to Talley Abbey or Talyllychau in Welsh. This was reminiscent of Tintern but on a much smaller scale. I preferred to wander through the graveyard next to the abbey and read the tombstone names and inscriptions written in Welsh.
Then we were off to the town of Brecon to see the abbey and castle there. This is a fully working abbey and it was a very pretty building. The castle ended up being nothing more than a few remaining walls that a hotel had been built into. It did have some nice arrow slits for enfilading arrow fire. Enfilading means the arrows move perpendicular to the castles walls. This newly acquired knowledge is thanks to Tom Taylor – the robot spouter of random information that I can't help but soak up.
We also tried to find ruins of an old roman fort called Gair Brecon. We walked all over someones private fields only to turn back and discover that they had been under our noses the entire time. And we were disappointed again to find out that all that was left was a wall. That's it. We searched for over half an hour for a wall. Needless to say we would not be adding that to the list of favorites. But it was a good, funny way to end our day of adventuring.
Overall, there were two things that made Saturday wonderful. The first was that I had the entire back seat to myself. After sitting hip-to-hip for a week and a half you really appreciate personal space. The second was spending time with Tom and Susan. They are both very funny, very smart people and we had some good laughs over beets for breakfast (Tom), jumping off walls and landing onto your bum instead of your feet (me), and great stories about growing up next to a Navajo reservation (Susan). It was a nice day and not to jam packed with things to do, which was a much needed break. After all the adventures I had been on I was tired.
Taking off from Penzance drove out to the southern and most western point of Cornwall and of the United Kingdom. This is Land's End. The most terrific thing about Land's End is the view. Dramatic cliffs and phenomenal rock formations border the crashing Atlantic Ocean which you can see for miles and miles and miles. We parked about a mile away from Land's End itself and the trail we hiked followed the coastline so I was lucky enough to have plenty of time to stare out at the scenery.
From there we hiked back to the car and drove to Saint Michael's Mount. This is another small tourist town situated right on the beach. However, the real attraction is the castle situated on an island that is only accessible when the tide is out. There is a cobbled walkway that runs between the mainland and the island and as the tide moves out more and more of the pathway shows up. It takes awhile and most people end up rolling up their pants, taking of their shows and wading through the water. This is what Neoma, Tom and I did. I felt like a pilgrim, following a path that was a foot underwater and surrounded by people with the same destination. It was fantastic!
The castle was beautiful as well. My favorite room was one of old maps. Map making used to be such an art form! I guess modern map makers would argue the same for their craft, but their maps don't typically include illustrations of creatures and places do they now? I also liked the view of the pathway to the castle. As more of the pathway emerged more people began to follow in lines of weary pilgrims. They moved slowly, in step with the tide. It would back up a foot, they would come forward a foot. I was very amused.
We left Saint Michael's Mount then and headed to Plymouth. I was not expecting what we found. Plymouth is a big city! We walked the harbor a bit and stopped at the Mayflower Monument. It was a pretty, clean looking arch in a very dirty pier. Perhaps that is symbolic of how the Pilgrims felt? Like they were the clean, wholesome people leaving the filth of secular England? Maybe. We also took some time to walk down the Hoe and the Barbican which are Plymouth's most “trendy” hang out spaces. The architecture of Plymouth is pretty modern because, as an important port, it got completely bombed out in World War II. Therefore, I didn't think it was a particularly pretty place and I just kept wondering the entire time why anyone would call a neighborhood “the Hoe”. Tom was in la-la land a bit as we wandered because things we saw kept popping up and bringing experiences to the front of his memory from his mission in the 1970s. He dragged us from place to place saying “I remember this” or “This has definitely changed in the last 30 years”. So while Plymouth was probably not my favorite place in England it was worth a trip there for Tom to reminisce so much and so happily.
The rest of us were beat by that time and ready to head for home. But Tom is a robot. So we made one last very late stop at Glastonbury Tor. This is a giant man-made hill with the ruins of an abbey at the top. We climbed to the top in almost darkness, sat looking over the blinking lights of the town and then headed back down in complete darkness. It was slow going. I couldn't take any pictures because it was so dark. The hill was impressive but probably would have been more so if there had been light, and if there hadn't been a couple of drunks wandering around the top either. I did learn something interesting about Neo-Paganism though. Apparently, the earth is divided by lines of power called ley lines and where they intersect are special and powerful parts of the world. (For those Dr. Who fans out there think of The Rift.) At Glastonbury Tor a couple ley lines intersect, and about a million cross at Stonehenge. I'm just curious about whether the ley lines or the pagans came first. Hmmm...
I try to throw a Harry Potter reference in whenever I can and a visit to Cornwall makes it easy. Yes, I visited the homeland of Cornish Pixies and although I didn't spot any electric blue creatures flying about, I definitely felt a bit of the magic that makes Cornwall so special.
The first place we visited was the castle of Tintagel. This is supposedly the birth place of the legendary hero King Arthur. I asked why it was believed to be so and the best answer I got is that “it just fits the description.” I'll let you decide what to do with that. To get to the castle you had to walk down a steep ravine and then take a million stairs up along the side of a cliff, passing Merlin's Cave and cross over onto a small narrow peninsula. Once you are at the top you can see over the ruins, far out into a cerulean sea and down into some large caverns along the coast. The view was spectacular.
Merlin's Cave
The stairs
The view
The Castle
After climbing back down and then out of the ravine we were famished so we stopped at a delicious bakery and got the biggest pasties I have ever seen. They were bigger than both of my fists together. And I ate the whole heart-clogging, face-fattening, delicious thing.
We then drove to St. Ive's, the ultimate beach destination for Britain. We got there at low tide and I couldn't help but giggle at the sight of all those boats stuck in the sand waiting for the tide. St. Ive's was a little too crazy for me. The streets were packed with tourists from all over the UK but the shops were very cool. I just couldn't understand why people would want to sunbathe in cloudy weather. For Britain, I guess it was actually pretty warm weather but I definitely wouldn't have wanted to wear a bathing suit and play in the water!
After St. Ive's we decided to try a change of scenery and we drove into the moors to find some more neolithic sites. I loved trekking through the gorse and heather. Both are large coniferous plants with very sharp needles that look very similar but with very different flowers. The combination of dark green and yellow and purple was very nice to see but without the paths through the land we wouldn't have been able to hike to the sites. While we hiked I thought about the wandering Jane Eyre and the vengeful Heathcliffe because the scenery just oozed Bronte.
The sites were very cool and the one I liked best was a large stone that hard a hole carved out in the middle. It was set upright on another stone and Tom likes to tell us that passing through it is a fertility rite and thus will increase your fertility. Yes, he was full of it and yes, we all passed through the ring. Another funny moment was finding the quoit at Chun Downs. We all piled on top of the quoit and danced around for a bit. Also, I just think that “Chun Downs” is the ugliest and funniest name for a place.
The very last thing we did was the worst and most exciting. While driving home at about twilight, we passed a sign for a Celtic Chapel. Tom of course pulled over and we all piled out and began walking on the marked path. The path steadily got creepier and creepier. The path was covered with stinging nettle and the trees looked like they were dying. Everyone was spooked but of course we kept going. At one point Tom walked off the path into a little hollow and then he bolted back out and tripped over his own feet he got so scared. But of course we continued on. Then we came to a tree that had strips of cloth and lace and glass shards tied all over its branches. By this time all of us were shaking and looking around nervously. But of course we continued on. The chapel was small and falling apartand lit by the last bit of sunlight. We stayed for about three seconds and then we bolted back to the car as quickly as possible. We later found out that the tree we passed is a Wishing Tree that neo-pagans worship at. Apparently, there has been a history of violence between the Christians and Pagans wishing to use the chapel for baptisms and the tree for pagan rites. Cornwall has a long history of mysticism and paganism and a large number of pagan worshipers still live there today. All I know is that the trail and chapel were the creepiest places I have ever been. All of us were shaking off goosebumps for at least an hour after.
We spent the night in the Penzance hostel. I loved being in Penzance and thinking about and humming a little of Gilbert and Sullivan. It was a good way to shake off the chills and luckily, this hostel was much more comfortable than the one in Borth. I went to sleep very happy with the day's adventures and so excited for the next.
I spent the whole free day we had planned in Cardiff running around town with Susan. We both needed to catch up with family and pick up a few things around town so while everyone else was sleeping (except Tom but I already told you he is a robot) we took off to the University and then down to Queen Street. Queen Street is the shopping district of Cardiff. It has a million shops and its mall goes on for blocks. I love it but I can get overwhelmed pretty fast too.
Susan has become a very good friend to me. She is quite a bit older than me and therefore we have very very different lives but I think our personalities match really well as do our music tastes (Beatles never die). I love to shop with her and sightsee with her because she gets so excited. She definitely helped me choose to spend my money on clothes! We went into four different stores of the same chain (Primark) to find a skirt we loved in the right size. Only Susan could get me to do that and be happy about it!
Now that she has left early (her first grand baby is due soon so she wanted to be home for that and left on August 9), I just have to publicly say how great she is. She planned this whole trip for all of us. She organized where we would go for weekends and for the big week long trip I've previously described. She booked all the hostels and contacted all the right people for the tours we wanted to take. She is superwoman. Thank you Susan!
Unimportant side note: I love Apple. The home button on my iPhone was malfunctioning so I brought it into the Apple store and they replaced my entire phone. For free. I love them.
To begin, the Borth hostel was weird. We shared a room with three other women, some who were very open with their personal lives. It was mildly dirty and the manager was semi-creepy. At least, this is what our group decided over yet another English breakfast. By this time I started to worry about what all these delicious breakfasts were going to do me. More specifically to my thighs. Don't worry, I decided I didn't care and kept eating.
The main activity of the day was exploring the seaside town of Aberystwyth. We started at the National Library of Wales. Those who know me well will know how excited I would be about a special library. It was huge! It also had some beautiful exhibitions. My favorite was one celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. I saw some first edition King James bibles as well as some much older than that. They were exquisite to say the least.
We took the time to walk along the promenade and I got to see the Atlantic ocean up close and personal for the very first time in my life. I also discovered that skipping rocks on the ocean is much harder than on a lake. The promenade is bordered by the ocean on one side and rows of colorful hotels built sometime between the Victorian or Georgian periods. (I realize those periods are very different but I can't remember which is which at the moment.) At the end of the promenade is Aberystwyth University, which used to be part of the castle. The real castle ruins are there as well, situated on a very pretty spot almost completely surrounded by ocean.
Next we wandered through the town a little bit. Aberystwyth is a tourist town and therefore the shops are great. We stopped into quite a few charity shops and stopped at a local meat vendor for delicious shredded roast beef on whole wheat baps. A bap is like a large, softer hamburger bun minus the sesame seeds. While we were eating we watched some boys bring in literally one half of a pig at a time into the meat shop. It was disgusting and funny all at the same time.
Afterwards we called it a day and headed back to good ol' Cardiff. Even though we were dead tired none of us went to bed immediately. The joke was that even though we had been stuck in a car together for the last four days and now all we wanted to do was stay together in our tiny living room! I think being together so much – not splitting up for classes and meals and evening activities – forced us all to become even better friends. Tom, Susan, Neoma, and Hannah are all wonderful people!
