This past November, I visited Disney World for the first time since the 90s and for the first time as an adult and without children. While my companions were two seasoned annual passholders and one who had visited last year for the first time since that same trip last of mine, I found myself reading a lot of articles on what to miss, what not to miss, and what to bring—the tips and tricks for the best visit. Some of that advice was helpful, but in retrospect, I feel like I can add to the conversation.
This Christmas I was gifted a book by Gibbs M. Smith called Books & Mortar: A Celebration of the Local Bookstore. All but one of the stores highlighted in the book are ones that I have never visited, which means that my favorites weren’t included. But that inspired me to write a about some of my favorite bookstores. This will be a series of blog posts. I hope you all enjoy!
Isaiah Thomas is very nearly my dream come to life: a bright pink house, dripping with Victorian details and window boxes, in a coastal town with a large garden, in which the owner lives. I haven’t been back to Isaiah Thomas in years, but it left an indelible mark in my mind. I remember the ground floor retail space being rambling with rooms as one would expect of a bookstore housed in a house, but it’s been too long since for me to comment on the inventory. My visits predate this computer or my phone; I have no photos.
It’s past time for another trip to Cape Cod, no thanks to ‘rona!
I definitely recommend looking into others’ reviews of this store—or stopping in yourself if you’re nearby.
As of February 2021, the store is also the home of a fluffy calico bookstore cat. I hope that she is still there.
I know I stepped into some fabulous bookstores while visiting the UK, but I stayed in none of them long enough to really give fair representations, and several I have recollections but not the bookstores’ names. The exception is Waterstone’s on Gower Street in London, the only bookstore abroad that I think I have visited more than once. I realize that Waterstone’s is not an independent bookstore. This particular Waterstone’s was near the classrooms that were used for my study abroad classes.
Friday was another rest day. It was my last in Wales, so we ran a few errands, ending up in yet a few more bookstores, since I had nearly finished the book that I had brought with me and knew that I had three plane flights between me and home.
I went out to the beach that night on my own, just to enjoy being near the water while I could be.
View towards the Mumbles
August 18
The next day we took a bus out of the country to Bristol, England. I had a cheap jumper flight from Bristol to Dublin, where I was going to spend the night in the airport before flying to Charlotte, NC.
The night before our trip, I had discovered that Bristol is home to a cat café, You&Meow, so that was where we headed first, using the phone for directions. We managed to get ourselves let in without an appointment and enjoyed delicious drinks while the cats played and stalked and lounged around the room. One of the younger kittens really seemed intrigued by our shoes. The rule of the cat café is that you can’t pick up any of the cats; the cats have to come to you or be resting comfortably when you approach them. The atmosphere of the café resembles that of a spa.
After that, we let ourselves loose in the city. While in the city, I had my eyes peeled. Bristol is Banksy’s hometown, but I didn’t spot any of his work in the wild, not that I recognized. We found the aquarium and the amusements of Anchor Square, but we decided that we didn’t want to pay the aquarium entrance fee.
The city hosts a series of locks and canals and, you probably know by now, I enjoy being near the water. I got to ogle tall ships at dock here too. I had heard rumor that visitors could climb into the rigging on the SS Great Britain, but we were already a ways from the bus station, on the wrong side of the lock to reach her, and didn’t want to wander too far. We turned back inland when our path seemed to dead-end.
Are either of these your ship? I’d love to know more about her.
I think this is the Pelican of London, a French ship built in 1948, now used as a training vessel, but she has been an Arctic trawler and a trading ship too.
After wandering a ways and picking up takeaway for lunch, we ended up at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery because museum entry is free in the UK.
We whiled away the rest of our time in its exhibits: Egyptian artifacts, dinosaurs fossils, rocks and gemstones, pottery from around the world but especially from Bristol, paintings including La Belle Dame sans Merci, taxidermy including a tiger shot by King George V and a Tasmanian tiger too, and a Romani caravan built in 1900 and in use until maybe 1953. And yes, there is a Banksy piece in the hall.
I don’t have a lot of photos from inside the museum, although photography is allowed. I was too busy ogling the collection and reading the plaques.
Badger family, Hufflefam
Interior of the museum’s Romani caravan
Bristol is another city I should have researched more before visiting. On the bus to the airport I started spotting old, crumbling castles, and looking at maps, I spy things sites that I think would have been interesting to see.
This is the trail more or less that my sister and I took across Great Britain. I couldn’t get GoogleMaps to let me include our Irish travels in the same map. That map is here.
And speaking of doing better research, I should have read the fine print for RyanAir. My jumper flight ticket was fairly inexpensive, but then I ended up having to paying a fee because I missed the email reminder that I had to check in online to avoid a £55 airport check-in fee, and I was struggling to get my phone or the airport computers to connect to wi-fi to be able to check in online while in the airport, so I missed the window to check in online at all. Learn from my mistakes.
I had also assumed that once I got to Dublin I would be able to check in and pass through security and get to my gate and wait out the night there. I foolishly didn’t realize that airports close overnight, even though flights get into the airport late. I had had a reservation for a bed in a hostel in Dublin that I decided to cancel because I didn’t want to have to deal while sleep deprived with the stress of getting to the hostel (you might remember that my sister and I struggled a little to find the right way to get to Dublin from the airport) then getting to the airport on time the next morning.
I think I was foolish. I think I ought to have kept the reservation. But there’s no turning back the clock after a thing is done, and my worst fears might have come true had I kept it.
As it was I couldn’t check in at the airport until the next morning, so I stayed in the lobby. Only one convenience store was open to get anything to eat or drink. I slept a little bit on the bench of a fancier restaurant in the airport lobby. It was not dark. It was not quiet. I didn’t sleep well. I hardly slept.
After checking in, there was another hour or so wait until security was open, so I could not immediately go through that line either.
I made it back to the US though, safe and sound, and on the plane that I had intended to be on. I landed just before a torrential, summer rainstorm that sparked this odd rainbow that barely bridged the highway. What is was promising, I’m not sure, but it seemed significant, and I took its photo for the friend who was driving me back home.
And that’s it, all. I’m home now, back in the US, and not sure what my next adventure might be.
What have been some of your greatest adventures? Where should I go next?
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All photographs are mine. Click to see them larger. Map created using GoogleMaps.
That Wednesday was mostly a rest day. My sister slept in, and I went that morning to walk through Singleton Park and the Swansea Botanical Gardens on my own. The park is huge, and it would have been easy to get lost. I stayed on the paths. I don’t have many photos, just a few of the gardens in riotous color.
Somewhere near the University entrance to Singleton Park
Red flowers on a green pond
All this was free to enter, free to wander. I spoke briefly with a gardener who found me on the paths in the Botanical Garden, but frankly, I was having a difficult time understanding him through the accent. I’d brought a book. I sat on a bench overlooking the campus below a sweep of lawn and just behind the campus’ buildings a glimmer of the sea. No photo captured it well enough to take. The paths wandered over hills, between woods and across fields, and around a shaded pond. I stumbled upon the seemingly misplaced Swiss Cottage, built in 1826, but the old building was looking a little worn.
August 16
Thursday, though, it was time to check something else off of my bucket list. We were going pony trekking in the Brecon Beacons! I’d queried several area stables by email, but only heard back from the Ellesmere Riding Centre in Llangorse. We set up an appointment by email, and my contact there was always kind and accommodating, even though we were still finalizing as late as August 13. I was really excited.
We took the bus from Swansea through the Brecon Beacons National Park up to the small town of Brecon. Our route took us between the Black Mountain and Fforest Fawr regions of the park.
Cray Reservoir
In Brecon, we found the taxi rank from the directions that I was given by my contact in Ellesmere. Finding a taxi took a little longer than I thought it would do. We ought to have scheduled ahead of time or have found a taxi company’s number beforehand.
But a kind driver hurried us to the stable and knew just how to get there.
There’d been a transcription error between the emails and Ellesmere’s handwritten appointment book, and they had thought that we were scheduled for the day before! There was a further error in my phone number, so though they had tried to contact us, they hadn’t reached us. I panicked a little, I don’t mind saying, but the guides there helped us into helmets, and my sister and I (we both have years of experience horseback, though it had been more than a decade since for her) helped to quickly tack up two more horses for the group that was about to head out, though neither of us actually ended up riding the horses that we tacked.
My sister rode a big bay cob-cross named Captain who looked like he deserved the name, a proper police horse. I rode a little bit daintier, bay mare named Thistle. Thistle was still so much more horse and more horse-power than I have gotten used to riding with my little 13 hh pony that I’ll admit I was a little intimated when I realized quickly that Thistle was more immune to my cues than was my mare, both my requests to slow down and my requests not to graze on the verge, and that I was out of practice being forceful.
My Thistle
But I was never in any danger as much as Thistle had more “go” than my mare and was constantly going faster and wanting to ride nearer the front of the herd.
I personally struggled far more than I expected to do giving over control to such a large horse.
I think I needed to have trusted these horses more than I did. I’m used to riding meaning that I have to make decisions and sometimes fight to be minded. I wasn’t making decisions in this group, and the horses knew the route and each other far better than I did. If Thistle felt comfortable right up behind another horse, I should have trusted her to know which horses wouldn’t want her there.
That’s a good lesson for me to bring to any future trekking trips. And for you to bring to any of yours too.
Most of the riders in our group were younger children there with their two moms. We all talked a little as we rode through the streets of Llangorse and then onto country roads that wended between fields and farmland, often shaded by trees, and from there onto a narrow bracken-lined path along the slope of Mynydd Troed. From Mynydd Troed, we had a view across the valley towards Pen y Fan, southern Wales’ highest mountain. Then we turned back downhill, joining again with more country lanes, most of these framed by hedgerows, and ultimately back onto the roads of Llangorse.
The horses never spooked. Not when we encountered an obstacle in the form of large machines clearing the trees from the road. Not at passing cars. Not at dogs barking from behind their fences.
At one point the saddle of one of the younger riders slipped sideways, and the horse—all the horses—just stopped while we fixed it and got her back up and on with a tighter girth. At one point Captain went into a few strides of canter to catch up with the herd; no one raced to join him. My sister said that his canter was actually much more comfortable than his trot, and it wasn’t that much faster. Our ride was walk and trot.
I didn’t ask at the farm and should have done whether or not we were allowed to bring cameras. I left my bags at the stable and my phone and camera with them so I was unprepared when we stopped near the peak of our ride to take photos. (Ordinarily, I always carry a phone with me while riding, never knowing when I might be stranded in a field and need help, and I would remind others what a blessing that tech can be, but having several adults with us who had more knowledge of the area and who would not in panic dial 911 instead of 999 made me feel safe enough to go without.)
I did find our route I think on Google Map’s street views, so I can give you some taste of the green vistas that we enjoyed from horseback.
Looking forward along the road towards Mynydd Troed
Looking out over the vista beside us on the way up
This was somewhere near the peak of our trail, though not along the bracken-lined trail, which was higher
This is the entrance to the bracken-lined trail on Mynydd Troed. Our path took a sharp left from the gate.
These are both views of the trail headed back toward Llangorse, though both looking back towards Mynydd Troed.
I was fairly sure that I had found the right route when I had taken these screen captures in September 2018, but now writing this in July 2019, I’m just less sure, so I’m afraid I don’t have a map for a you, or a way to look for other screens to capture.
By the time we returned to Brecon (the taxi driver from before had given us a card with the number to call, so we were easily able to get a ride back), most of Brecon was closed and the bus was not too long in coming. We had time to duck into a nearby Morrison’s for a few end of the day supplies.
I am relatively certain that this is Fan Gyhirych.
Do you see the cottage foundations there too?
Back in Swansea we got fast food takeaway and ate in Castle Square before wandering up to the castle ruins. What’s left of Swansea Castle is greatly dwarfed by the surrounding modern buildings, and there isn’t a lot left. Compared to nearby Oystermouth, it isn’t very impressive, but it is very neat to see a castle so much surrounded by modern structures.
Then it was back to the university campus for the night.
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Most photos mine, except those that are screen captures from Google Maps, which are clearly labeled. Most can be viewed more largely by clicking on them.
We were underprepared for the tourism economy of Tenby.
We took a bus from Swansea to Carmarthen and the train from Carmarthen to Tenby. We followed other tourists up Warren Street into White Lion Street and to its conclusion at the sea.
We had come with the intention to leave Tenby for Caldey Island. After getting coffees because the morning was chilly and gray and we had woken fairly early, we found the Caldey Island Shop down a narrow alley off of Tudor Square. We asked about tickets there, but the tickets onto the ferry for Caldey Island were more expensive than we had anticipated.
The Cistercian monks of Caldey Island are said to produce the best chocolate in all of Wales. We found some of their chocolate in the Caldey Island Shop in Tenby. My sister and I both brought home bars and thought it very good chocolate. We passed on tickets to the ferry though.
Our main plans thwarted, we ended up spending a good deal of time wandering the streets inside the old city walls (east of the Five Arches, so we really only explored a small portion of Tenby), ducking into bookstores, art galleries, quirky shops, and tourist shops.
Image made with GoogleMaps
The same alley as Caldey Island Shop boasted an old fashioned sign that just read books. The bookstore that that sign marked, Cofion, was too disorganized, its books stacked higgledy-piggledy and floor to ceiling, for me to dare to venture inside. I have had too many stacks of books collapse on top of me for me to find such an environment relaxing. But we ventured into other of the city’s bookshops including Tenby Bookshop, and admired many of the children’s books and bookish gift displays. We stopped in the art gallery of John Cahill and his friends.
We also hunted for a sweatshirt to keep my sister warm.
St. Catherine’s Island and Castle Beach
We wandered up to the remnants of the castle, a gate and a tower on a hilltop. We climbed Bridge St, passed through the gate, but found that way to the tower blocked by the Tenby Museum and Art Gallery, which had an entrance fee too, so we turned around again to continue wandering.
Eventually our wandering brought us down to the beach, as all good wanders should do.
We’d arrived at low tide so were able to cross to the tidal island of St. Catherine’s. To climb the steps onto the island and enter the fort cost another fee. So I played around in the caves and the natural bridge beneath the island for a little, though the largest cave at the time we were nearby was flocked with children on a tour, so I stayed in the smaller of the caves.
You can actually see that stairs mentioned in the next paragraph here.
We found a set of stairs from the beach that did lead up to the top of Castle Hill, so we were able to reach the solitary tower that remains of the castle and walk on the heights above the beaches where there was an asphalt walking path that looped a small park. The path follows the original curtain walls.
We found the lifeboat station, and entrance to that was free, so we went inside there for a moment to admire their lifeboat and read the placards.
The harbor near the lifeboat station
The peak of the park, looking out towards St. Catherine’s Island
The pastel houses and narrow alleys and medieval walls and certainly the sea were beautiful, but it was a city in which we should have planned to spend more money. Too little was free. A good deal of that onus is on us for not doing the research ahead of time.
Crackwell St. and the steeple of St. Mary’s Church
Then it was nearing time already to catch the train back east, though I found time to briefly follow a path a little ways past the Tenby Golf Club that claimed to lead to “South Beach;” I didn’t have time to find the beach.
We’d bought return tickets in Swansea that morning. When we arrived in Carmarthen however, we’d missed the last bus back to Swansea, and Carmarthen was all shut up for the night when we arrived. We talked to a bus driver in Carmarthen when one arrived, explained our situation, and that driver very kindly helped us out. We needed new tickets, but we eventually did get home. We were taken to Tycroes. We were at that point trusting the drivers to get us home. We were let off on at a stop not far above the company offices and directly across from a public footpath. Our first bus driver talked to our next, who was just setting out. We were retrieved and brought back to Swansea.
The confusion left us tired and exhausted, but I am so glad there were kind adults who took pity upon two weary travelers on a foreign adventure. Otherwise I really don’t know what we would have done.
Made with GoogleMaps. We took no suggested route, back to Swansea especially, so I pretended that we drove to convince GoogleMaps to let me map a more roundabout route and have made it as near as possible to the routes I think the buses and trains drove.
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All photographs are mine. Several can be enlarged if you click on them.
The next day we were off to one of the most highly rated beaches in Wales: Rhossili.
Our bus (about an hour either way) took us along narrow roads lined with hedges and through some adorable small towns where sheep grazed freely on the roadsides. There were even some free-grazing sheep on the green town square in Reynoldston.
Right around the time that we reached Rhossili, the weather cleared. Now that we were going home to Swansea every day, we could plan our outings a bit more by the predicted weather than just by the itinerary. We got a great beach day!
But we never actually went down to the beach, though the sweep of golden sand was stunning from up top of the cliffs. We were too distracted by the challenge of Worm’s Head.
We finally had good weather on a day that we intended to climb a mountain! If anything, it was maybe even a little hot.
Worm’s Head is a series of tidal islands accessible for 2.5 hours on either side of low tide. The islands look vaguely like a dragon rising out of the sea.
The islands are reached by a walk along the clifftops, which descends steeply along first stone steps, then a well-worn dirt track before the grassy slope ends abruptly in a short ledge maybe 2-4 feet high, dropping to the jagged rocks and tidal pools that form the temporary land bridge known as the Causeway.
Early in our trek across the Causeway, we heard one father warn his children not to get distracted. My sister took up the motto, and I tried to keep up with her. There’s no path across the Causeway. It seemed best to watch others’ paths and imitate them if they seemed successful. Some of the rocks were narrow and sharp. Some of the tide pools were deep. This is a walk that requires good footwear. I did alright in my trekking shoes and my sister managed in her flat-soled sneakers. I have fewer photos of the Causeway because we were hurrying but also because I was nervous about balancing and dropping the camera. I was glad to have a cord that kept it around my neck, but if I fell, that would not protect the camera. We passed a foundered anchor, maybe from the nearby wreck of the Helvetia that lies on the beach.
It took us nearer to a half hour to cross the land bridge. We scrambled up a short cliff and onto the Inner Head, where we sat down and enjoyed our lunch overlooking the land bridge, Rhossili Bay on one side with its sweep of golden sand and the crashing waves of (I think) the Bristol Channel (it’s hard to say where one water feature becomes another).
The path to scramble up from the Causeway to the Inner Head
Our view from our picnic lunch
I decided to set out to explore towards the farther end of the peninsula while my sister again waited for me.
I found a narrow dirt path through the bracken to the left of the head, which curved around the seaward side of the landmass, and eventually let out into short-cropped grass.
I didn’t make it out to the Outer Head, but instead climbed the backside of the Inner Head, gaining the altitude up a steep incline, which was despite being steep, a fairly easy climb.
Looking back toward the Outer Head from about midway up the path up Inner Head. You can see the path around the edge of the Inner Head down there as well.
Looking up from about midway up the path up the Inner Head
The view back toward Rhossili from the top of the Inner Head
I opted to take the shorter way down, which was little more than a goat’s trail. While we had been lunching, we’d watched several hikers take this way to the top of the Inner Head. I think in retrospect, that path might have been easier going up than down.
My sister while she waited spotted our only semi-aquatic or aquatic mammal of the trip: a sea lion who bobbed fairly far below us in the bay.
I took her by my easier trail around the backside of the Inner Head to see the end of the peninsula and the Devil’s Bridge (an odd name that I am only discovering now for a land bridge that looks from a distance like its bridge forms a heart).
We didn’t climb the head again, but I wanted her to see the far end of the peninsula.
We climbed then back across the Causeway, with a little more urgency this time, and hiked back along the clifftops towards the town and the bus stop. We did get to marvel at a hovering bird of prey. I eyed the Vile, a medieval system of agriculture involving long, narrow divisions of the fields, about which I had read, and about which I was curious for the setup of one of the towns in my WIP.
The area around Rhossili is a treasure trove of history for someone who knows how to look and what to look for.
There is also on the walk from Rhossili to Worm’s Head the remnants an Iron Age fort called Old Castle Camp. The fort looks more like unnatural rises and falls in the fairly flat ground, and I think we actually passed it without a thought, remaining on the more prominent, kept, gravel path.
You can see the Vile fairly well in this view from Google Maps. I used the coordinates from Ancient Monuments to locate Old Castle Camp, the red marker.
St. Mary’s Church still has elements of the original Norman construction from the late 12th century. We passed it on the way into town, and it isn’t far from the bus stop, so with a little time to spare, maybe I should have stepped away to explore. Instead we chatted with another pair of young women waiting for the bus, a native Welshwoman who reveled in the sunshine and her friend from Australia. We connected over our Harry Potter merchandise.
Then there’s the wreck of the Helvetia on the beach at Rhossili that I already mentioned. She wrecked in 1887.
Back in Swansea, we went to the Pub by the Pond, one of the favorite haunts of the Swansea University students, if only because there is an entrance to the pub directly from campus. We drank ciders and ate our meals out on the back deck beneath a willow overlooking the pond, known more formally as Singleton Boating Lake. I smiled to sea dragon boats beside the swan boats. We could have done without the falling willow flowers, but the view was fantastic, and the walk back to the dormitory for the night after having a drink was difficult to beat.
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All photos are mine. Those without a frame can be viewed more largely by clicking upon them.
It’s been almost a year, and I haven’t finished typing up my British adventures for you! Though a lot has gotten in the way, I haven’t forgotten. These may not have as many details in them as they might have done a year ago, but I can still share photos and recommendations with you all, and I hope you’ll still enjoy them. I hope you aren’t too upset by the delay, and I hope you can enjoy these despite the passed time.
As we come up on the anniversary of my travels, my hope is to keep up an alternating pattern for a little bit, one week a travel blog and the next a book review. I have 4 more travel blog posts after this, so I think even alternating, we should be back to all books all the time (or most of the time) by September’s end.
If you’re just joining us, you can find the earlier posts about this UK adventure here.
And while I’m doing some housekeeping, check out my newest page! I’m selling my used books, and I still have another 2 and a half boxes of books to post, so keep an eye on that shop. There’s more fantasy in this next box.
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After traversing Ireland and northern Wales, Swansea University, where my sister was earning her master’s degree, became our home base for the rest of our travels. The first day in southern Wales, we decided to spend the around Swansea Bay, especially as the day’s forecast was a bit gloomy.
The day began with a tour of the campus itself and all the hidden gardens and gems that my sister had discovered in her months there. The main office buildings of the campus were once part of Singleton Abbey, the 19th century estate of the Vivian family, but the majority of the campus is housed in modern buildings, of which I didn’t take any pictures.
The pond inside the on-campus Botanical Garden
The stable block of Singleton Abbey, now administrative offices
Gardens around Singleton Abbey
We went through a corner of the next-door Singleton Park to reach the road, and just across from the road, just across from the University, is the beach.
We walked along the boardwalk back into town to catch the bus to Mumbles.
Directly across from the exit to Singleton Park, looking towards Mumbles
Looking ahead towards Swansea
More or less, we followed my sister and mother’s earlier path through the small town of Oystermouth so that I could experience all of the places about which they had been raving for months. My mother was particularly enamored of the Mumbles area, where they stayed when my sister first came to Wales. We first ate lunch at a pub called The White Rose in sight of Oystermouth Castle. The White Rose has been on that site since 1856, though the mock-Tudor style building is from the early 1900s.
After a relaxing lunch, we went up the short hill to Oystermouth Castle, a fairly well-preserved castle—there are even stone fireplaces and chimneys still intact. I’ve been in a few ruined castles and monasteries and forts and estates that are called castles, but this was by far the most impressive, I think, in any country. With a castle on the site since 1106, the oldest of the remaining stone structures is from the 12th century, but the majority of the stone structures that remain were constructed by the de Braose family in the 13th century. The castle was briefly the primary residence of the lords of the Gower in the late 13th century. The de Braose connection was especially interesting to me as Count Falkes de Braose is a prominent figure in Stephen Lawhead’s Hood, which I was rereading prior to my trip to Wales in anticipation of perhaps stumbling upon some of the book’s locations. (Falkes himself is fictional as far as I can tell, but the family is obviously not, and they were eminent in southern Wales.)
Armed with a free-to-borrow map from the gift shop and informational office, we gave ourselves a tour.
We wandered the outer walls and then through the remaining residential structures, including several basement rooms and the second story 14th century chapel with its remaining tracery windows. The chapel’s design is attributed to the Alina, daughter of the last de Braose to be lord of the Gower. She became Lady John de Mowbray, fled by boat to Devon following her husband’s unsuccessful rebellion against Edward II, survived imprisonment in the Tower of London, and then succeeded in securing the Gower for herself and her heirs. She’s a pretty awesome, 14th century lady!
Oystermouth Castle definitely offers some of the best views of the seaside town.
There were a few exhibits too about the castle’s history.
Leaving the castle, we carried on down Mumbles Road towards the tip of the peninsula, pausing to explore art galleries along the way. Most were closed (it was a Sunday), but I know we climbed all the floors and explored the crannies of Gower Gallery and Picture Framing, and I ogled the paintings visible through the windows of others. Gower Gallery is neat for its eclectic, busy collection of British art in all sorts of mediums, some of it quite inexpensive too.
We left the street at the parking lot for the pier. The road blocks at the pier were all decorated for the Festival of Stitch, adding an extra bit of fun to the seaside scenery.
At the end of the pedestrian road, which housed a few shops and restaurants, we found the stairs to the beach that was exposed by the low tide. I had been too long from any beach to keep away. I like a great deal about the city and area that I have come to call home, but one of its features that I most dislike is that it is at least 4 hours’ drive to the ocean. The Mumbles (the tidal islands themselves) separate Swansea Bay and Bracelet Bay, both bays visible from the beach. I went out along the sand and then the stones to explore the rocky outcroppings of the nearest tidal island at the beach’s end and its crannies that are sometimes underwater. I didn’t make it all the way out to the lighthouse, choosing to keep in sight of my sister, who waited, like a saint, on the stairs above the sand.
Bracelet Bay
I’ll admit that though the draw is supposed to be the long, Victorian pier, I was far more interested in being near the water than above it. We walked back along the boardwalk, me soaking up as much of the seaside as I could do. Before we left for Swansea, we made sure to stop for some of Joe’s vanilla ice cream. Joe’s didn’t live up to the hype for me, but it was good ice cream.
Looking along the beach towards the boathouse and pier
Our adventures over, we visited Swansea’s Tesco Superstore and had a quiet night in the dorm, getting in an earlier night in preparation for the next day’s adventure.
Image created using Google Maps. We didn’t take a car, but I was better able to manipulate the route pretending that we did. This should be a fairly accurate route map, though not exact.
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All photos are mine. Most will be more impressive if you click on them.
This post has been sitting in my drafts for, well, years, waiting for me to upload photos from inside the museum—I do so love a museum that allows photography. I won’t do much editing of its text. Now that so much time has passed, it seems unwise for me to try to edit my thoughts, clouded as they’ll be by the passage of time and the fondness of memory. So, here’s a post from 2014.
We spent most of the day at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park and spent our whole time in the Japanese Gallery which has its own building.
The entrance to the museum
I end up in a lot of museums whenever I go abroad and am left on my own to decide the itinerary. An AP art history class in high school left me exhausted but well-educated and, what’s more, interested. The National Museum in Ueno boasts an impressive collection of artifacts relating specifically to the history of Japan, of which I was only able to see a part, which has been neglected somewhat by traditional textbooks—including those assigned to me in all of my classes. I find art and relics a good way to learn about a nation’s or culture’s history.
I am also pleased to report that photography is allowed within the museum with the usual stipulations (no flash, which you wouldn’t want anyway, since it would create a glare on the glass). So called “important cultural property” was labeled as such, so a guest with time only to quickly peruse the collections could easily identify which pieces the museum considers most interesting. All labels were in English and Japanese.
This is the clearest example I have of one of the more detailed labels, citing the piece as “important cultural property.”
This is probably among one of the earliest pieces in the museum, a bowl with flame ornamentation from the Joman period, made between 3000 and 2000 BCE.
Some rooms seemed to display collections based more on use than period. There was a whole room devoted to swords and sword fittings, which was one of the first that we visited. There was another room that housed Bugaku and Gyodo masks used during court dances and ritual ceremonies.
Wakizashi sword by Tsunahiro, 1573 (Genki 4) during the Muromachi period.
These are oni masks used in the Shinto ceremony tsuina to drive out demons, both from the 14th century.
“Imperial Visit to Ohara” by Hasegawa Kyuzo, color on gold-leafed paper, Azuchi-Momoyama period, 16th century
Furisode with wave and sailing ship design on chirimen crepe, Edo period, 19th century
Poem by Ryokan, ink on paper, Edo period, 19th century
Yoroi style armor by Zennosuke, Meiji era, 20th century
Letters from Aizu Yaichi to Horie Tomohiko, ink on paper, written with pen, Showa era, 20th century
As interesting to me as the pieces that fit into the Western imagination of Japanese art, were the pieces that showed the influence of other cultures on the Japanese artists.
“Prince Yamato Takeru no Mikoto,” an oil on canvas by Aoki Shigeru painted 1906 (Meiji 39). I would have guessed this to be French or Spanish Impressionist.
“An Offering to Buddha,” color on silk by Arai Kanpo, 1915 (Taisho 4). I woud have guessed this to be of Indian origin.
The museum also had a few interactive stations where guests could, for example, make themselves a postcard using rubber stamps of traditional Japanese motifs.
On our way in, we’d been sidetracked into wandering between the tents of a crafts market setting up in front of the museum. I’d been waffling over whether—or maybe what—to spend my money on, and we weren’t convinced that all the vendors had yet arrived, so we planned our trip to the museum so that we’d have some time afterwards to return to the market and shop.
I didn’t take any pictures in the market, but left with souvenirs for myself and for friends. I’d spent fairly little money on souvenirs during my trip, so I allowed myself to splurge a little, coming home with a piece of framed glass enamel and ceramic tiles that I made into coasters for thank you gifts to those in America who helped me on my journey. I’m fairly certain that I bought both of these directly from the artists. I always prefer helping small businesses and individuals when I can, even though I myself benefit from a big company, but especially when it comes to arts and crafts.
And then… then it was time to hop on the train to Narita Airport.
Kari and I spent as much time as we could together, eating dinner at the airport and doing a bit more souvenir shopping for the few people for whom I hadn’t yet found gifts (and because the banks don’t take coins when they change currency for you), but all too soon it was time to face security and board the flights home.
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I forgot how beautiful those tiles were. I only kept one for myself.
All photographs are mine. Click to view them more largely and read the captions, and I really recommend that you do. The dates on some of these amazed me and may amaze you.
After breakfast of toast and beans with a view of Maenllwyd Guest House’s garden, we set off early to make the bus back north a little ways to the trailhead for the Minffordd Path up Cader Idris.
We left before any of the attractions of Machynlleth were open.
Rain was predicted for later in the afternoon, but I was determined to make it up one of the mountains that I’d come to this country intending to climb. Since Snowdon had defeated me, I wasn’t going to let rain keep me from Cader Idris’ slopes. I am glad my sister loves me.
We had a welcome—a very welcome—surprise climbing onto the bus. We happened to hit a day when all travel with the TrawsCymru buses was free. I don’t know why it was free. A holiday weekend, I think. But we were blessed; this happened to be the day that we needed to travel the farthest by bus. But this first leg was just a short hop, 18 minutes north.
There’s little at this bus stop. There is the Gwesty Minffordd Hotel. There’s a car park at bit off the road, where there are toilets. There is a welcome center with a café a little ways past the car park. There’s no town.
The driver—I wish I’d gotten his name; I think I recognized from our travel on TrawsCymru the day before—kept the doors opened when we disembarked to make sure that we knew where we were going, kindly ensuring that we had proper directions to the trail.
Waving goodbye, we set off.
I was maybe a bit distracted by anticipation. I don’t remember seeing the trail map. I remember seeing the stairs.
The first twenty minutes or so of the trail was a steep climb, mostly up stairs, to get above the treeline. A stream, Nant Cadair, cascades down the mountain beside the trail, sometimes quite close.
I stepped just off of the path to get this shot onto a rock shelf.
Once above the treeline, the path evens out, the going gets easier, and the views get better. Above the trees, you get tantalizing views of the valley below.
At one point, the path dissects, one route going left and the other right. The sign was in Welsh, and we weren’t sure which route led most swiftly to the top. We lingered a moment for the group behind us to catch up and asked if they knew. They didn’t either. We decided to part ways with that group, so one of us would be right.
We went right. We were wrong.
Ours was the longer route to the peak of Cader Idris, climbing first to the peak of Mynydd Moel.
The way up Mynydd Moel continued to be fairly easy, and though it became clear not too far along our route that we had chosen the way that would not lead us to the mountain lake, where I thought we might stop and enjoy lunch, we continued. We had Mynydd Moel all morning almost to ourselves. We maybe met another five hikers, all coming down from the peak; they must truly have gotten an early start.
Far to the left there, you can see the slate bridge over Nant Cadair, and across the stream, the path towards Cader Idris.
We stopped and ate our lunch on a stone wall that the trail dissected. My sister decided to sit and enjoy the peace while I saw a style not far up the trail that looked a very attainable goal, and I thought from our vantage point then could have been the peak. It was not.
Over the style, a short way along a sheep track through the heather and bracken, a second valley opened up on the other side of this crest of Mynydd Moel’s.
I think that peak is maybe Cader Idris.
See those cars WAY down there? I took this one I think from atop the style.
The other side of the highest peak that I managed.
The main trail continued along the mountain’s spine, and had the rain not been forthcoming, and my sister not waiting patiently, I might have continued along it, because without a week’s worth of clothes and necessities on my back, the climb was much easier. And I wanted to reach a peak.
But I turned around.
I was satisfied.
I’d explored.
And I’d explored alone.
Retrospectively, being on the less-walked trail let us set the pace. It was a serene experience to stand on that mountaintop and hear nothing but the wind and the insects and the peace.
If I go again, I’d like to see the lake. I’d like to see the peak of one or both mountains.
But I would not trade the experience that I had.
The climb down from Mynydd Moel was far easier than the climb up.
All in all, we were up and down the mountain in about two hours—though we didn’t reach the peak—either peak.
That dark blue line tracking to the right shows our route. I climbed just over that hatched black line, which is the fence, then along that dotted black path a ways before turning around. I think we came in from that white spine off of the yellow road. Looking at this map, I climbed 420 meters or 1377 ft above sea level, which is still only half of either mountains’ heights. Topographical map found via Walking Englishman via GPSVisualizer. His own journey upwards was much more complete, and the pictures are excellent. Click the map for the link.
Looking at his route, I can see we really only did a short section of the full loop of the two mountain peaks.
We stopped to catch our breath and drink water and chat with a couple with their dog at the café.
We trekked back to the road.
Then we realized that there didn’t appear to be any bus stop on the south-going side of the road.
And we panicked a little.
The people at the café were tremendously kind, using their cells to help us determine the bus schedule.
There is a road sign across from the Gwesty Minffordd Hotel. That is the bus stop. It is unmarked, but the bus drivers must know to look for weary hikers.
We sat in the grass while the rain began and waited for the bus for what seemed a very long time and was probably forty minutes or so (buses only come by every 90 minutes, for any future adventurers).
Once on the bus, our route took us south. We switched from the TrawsCymru T2 to the T1 in Aberystwyth, taking the layover time to wander the streets, mostly Terrace Road, near the bus stands and find some dinner.
Mostly, this was a dinner quest, since we’d had trail snacks for lunch, and we didn’t end up being particularly adventurous, opting for KFC to eat as daintily as possible on the bus, an easy and quick takeaway meal and filling after a morning’s hike. I’m only discovering now that we were only two or three blocks from stumbling upon the ocean! I’ve said it before in these blogs, and I’ll say it again; research every stop and look at maps beforehand.
The second bus took us to Carmarthen, and from there switched onto a train, which took us to Swansea.
We arrived at Swansea in the dark and the rain, but we had been sitting all day, and from here, my sister knew her way. We walked either 15 minutes to the main city bus station or the 45 minutes to her dorm room. Honestly, I was tired; I don’t remember much of this leg of the trip.
For all that, this was probably one of my favorite experiences on this trip.
And in just about three days, we crossed all of Wales North-to-South (it can be done in less time than we did of course), starting from Holyhead, down through Snowdonia National Park, and then down along the west coast to Swansea Bay. Google Maps doesn’t allow me to input more than one route on public transport at a time, so I can’t give you the several days’ complete picture (or not without—and perhaps I may—tracing it myself onto a map that I print).
Made with Google Maps. We followed the blue and green lines, roughly a 4 hour journey (once we got on the bus) from Dôl Idris Car Park to Swansea, probably more with our layover in Aberystwyth.
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All photos are mine. Most can be viewed almost full screen if you click on them. The maps are otherwise attributed in their captions.
Dragon Bite Books 