Crisscrossing Wales

Email from June 20:

I’m typing this from the entryway of our Lake District house. We arrived here about 8:45pm and there is no answer at either of the bells, knocking, or calling any of the phone numbers. We did see some guests go in, but after going in with them and looking around and knocking on the owners’ door, the guests were nervous we weren’t supposed to be there and hinted that we should go back into the entryway. I’m sure all will be sorted out eventually, but until then, I will utilize the time to write the events of the day.

We set out this morning not entirely knowing where we were going. We knew we wanted to go to Devil’s Bridge and we knew we needed to make it up to the Lake District, and Roy had given us a few stretches of highway we should drive through Wales, so we spent the day zig-zagging through Wales. We passed Tintern Abbey, numerous castle ruins, and a lot of gorgeous rolling hills and sheep grazing. And in West Wales there were some pretty think evergreen forests. At times it felt like we were driving to the beach house or through Snoqualmie Pass. It was beautiful. We drove through Brecon Beacons national park and then over to Devil’s Bridge. Devil’s Bridge is an 11th century bridge that was built over a very steep crevice in the wall where the river runs through. That bridge is impressive enough, but they actually have built two more on top of it, one in the the 1700s, and the top one around 1900, and because it’s so steep, they never ripped up the old ones. It was a cool little area and the violent river has really carved down deeper in the rock under them.

From there we headed North again and stopped first at Powis Castle which was built in 1277 (around the same time as Caerphilly), but was inhabited until the early 1900s, so instead of being a ruins, it’s still a very stately home with all the furnishings and amazing manicured gardens. There were even a couple peacocks strutting around in the courtyard. It was a little treasure we walked into not knowing about it beforehand.

Then we stopped in Llangollen at the aquaduct we had originally planned to boat over and discovered we could actually walk across it. So we did. It was really cool and a few longboats crossed over it while we were there as well.

From there we decided to go straight to the house in Windermere so we wouldn’t get here too late. Alas, it seems we actually did (around 8:45pm).

I know you're all dying to know what happened. Well, around 9:45, I walked to the little hotel next door. She said that the people that run our little B&B are horrible (she called them "the gruesome twosome"), they cut off check in at 8:30, and they probably won't refund the money. She said it would be tough to find a room this time of night in the Lake District in the summertime, but she would call her friend who is the front desk person at a hotel down the road (she was full). He had a room available, and she talked him down in price so, although it's a bit more expensive than we've been paying everywhere else, we now have a lovely room with a private hot tub, spa bath, a pool, and a fancy breakfast in the morning. The guy here said our credit card may refund the money if they won't, so we'll try that. But if not, oh well. Stuff happens. And this place is lovely!

Welsh Sunday Dinner

Email for June 19:

We made some toast and had some muesli for breakfast and then we popped off to Caerphilly for 9am Church. The meetings were good. I was shocked at how people had actually prepared for the lesson. They had a ward Facebook page where the information was shared for RS and Sunday school and they actually read the reading for the classes. They even talked about how the youth are doing assignments and following up by sharing at the beginning of class each week (if we could only get our youth to do that as well!). After the meetings, the Forwards caught up with all their old friends from the Caerphilly ward and Tom and I chatted with whomever approached, though Jenny and Sarah (her friend from last night) were pretty good to not leave us (even though we insisted we were fine on our own).

After about an hour, we followed the Forwards to Jan's house (Steve's sister that came with us yesterday). The whole family was there: Jan and Roy's son and daughter who each have a spouse and a son. Grand-dad was there and us and the Forwards. Jan made us a proper English Sunday roast dinner with pork, potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, and roast vegetables with gravy poured over the whole of it (they serve the plates, you don't dish yourself... they just presented us with a completely piled plate) with mint sauce and applesauce for us to apply as desired. After finishing our large dinner, it was Teddy's first birthday (one of Jan and Roy's grandsons), so we ate chocolate cake with cream poured over it. Jan also served fruit salad and strawberry trifle, so we had to have those as well. After talking for a bit, the Rocky Road came out, which was sort of like a chocolate fudge with bits of biscuits and marshmallows and dried fruits and other things mixed in. It was really good. Moral of the story: we ate well and now we're stuffed.

We had a fabulous time talking to all of them. Jan was a nurse and was telling me all sorts of stories of her experiences. Then they all started talking politics. It was the most cordial, fact-based political discussion I've ever heard. Basically, it sounded as if they weren't sure whether to vote in or out of the EU this week, so they were going over the facts. It sounded as if they were leaning IN, but they're still not sure. The whole family is the nicest, greatest people. We had some great conversations about the gospel and the world and everything else. Jan pulled out our smoked salmon at this point for everyone to try. Joshua was the only kid that would try it ("it's not bad...it's a bit strange") but he went back for some more. Jan and Roy and Steve all quite enjoyed it as well as Grand-dad. Jenny said "I don't like fish, but this is actually alright." So there you have it.

We took pictures (Ethan took the picture of all of us so he's not in it and that's why it's pretty hilarious because he also never told anyone when he was going to take it) and said our farewells. Tom and I got back to Gwenno's just after 7pm. We've thrown our laundry in so we can hang it up tonight to dry before we leave in the morning, then it's off to the lake district tomorrow.

St. Fagan's, Caerphilly

Email from June 18:

This morning we started with a lovely toast breakfast with Gwenno (our host) and then drove to St. Fagan’s Museum of Welsh Life to meet up with the Forward family (the family I stayed with 11 years ago). Jenny and Steve were there with their 6 (!) children: Isaac is now 17, then Josh, Jamie, Ethan, Leah, and Luke who is 4. Also there was Grand-dad (Steve’s dad who gave me tips on how to marry a Welshman last time I was here) and Steve’s sister and her husband (who told us: “Wales is God’s own country. It says so in the bible. ‘God created great whales.’ There's a spelling error but it's right there.”) and they brought one of Steve’s nephews (from a different sibling). We walked around St. Fagan’s for most of the day. There was apparently a Welsh museum strike because the workers used to get overtime on Saturdays and Sundays but they’re trying to take that away, so there was a strike today. Most of the museums were closed entirely. St. Fagans is an outdoor museum where they’ve taken historic buildings from all over Wales and put them all together in one big park. It was still open, but many of the buildings were closed. We did get to go into a couple of the houses and the blacksmith’s shop (he was hammering on some hot metal). It was lovely. Between Jenny and Steve’s sister, we had quite a picnic of fruit, sandwiches, pork pies, Scotch eggs, biscuits, crisps, and donuts.

Around 2pm we left St. Fagan’s and drove to Caerphilly. Caerphilly is honestly one of my favorite places ever. The giant castle and moat is right in the center of town. (We don't know what it's like to go to the grocery store or to Burger King and have a giant 11th century castle across the street.) It’s known for being one of the biggest castles in all of Europe, 2nd largest in UK, and having a leaning tower that’s leaning farther than the Leaning tower of Pisa. They’ve also added a cool dragon coming out of the ground in front of one of the gates. We didn’t pay to go in (it’s a ruins), but we walked around the entire thing. At this point, it was just Jenny and Steve and their kids. Then we went with them over to some old Caerphilly friends’ houses (Jenny and Steve live in Chorley now – where the Preston temple is – and poor Steve is Bishop again). The friends, Lee (now the bishop of Caerphilly ward) and Sarah I remembered from last time. They’d built a beautiful kit cabin out in their backyard as well as a mini football (soccer) green. So the kids played on the green and the adults played pool in the cabin and talked. We left their house around 7:30pm, got a recommendation for a good Indian place in Caerphilly (“You haven’t had a curry yet? Well then you’ll have to go there, haven’t you?”), and Tom and I were off to dinner.

At the Indian restaurant, the lady came over and asked “You want papadam?” We had no idea what that meant and the poor girl thought we couldn’t understand her accent, so she sent another guy over who said “Would you like Papadam?” Tom asked: “Is that a kind of bread?” His response was: “It’s Papadam.” We ordered two and realized we had had them before (they are like a big crisp shaped like a tortilla), but we had never known what they are called. It's what Indian restaurants serve before a meal the same way other restaurants serve bread. People here know their Indian food. And we clearly do not. The food was all quite delicious. We ate more than our fill and returned back to Gwenno’s around 10pm. Church in Caerphilly is at 9, so we best be off!

Roman Baths, Cardiff Castle, Doctor Who Experience

Email from June 17:

The rain continues to be magical. When we come inside, it absolutely downpours and when we venture outside, it lets up and gets sunny again. We ate breakfast with our lovely host in Bath. She grows her own kefir and gave me some homeopathic remedy for my seasonal allergies. I'm not sure if it worked or if I'm just not as allergic in Wales... but either way, I've been better this afternoon. We said goodbye and walked down to the Roman Bath house and took the tour there, and drank the obligatory sample of the mineral-rich spring water. Then we grabbed a Cornish Pasty on the way out of town and drove to Cardiff.

On the way there we crossed the River Severn, which is the root of the name Sabrina.

We got to Cardiff and headed straight for the Castle. When I did my home stay in Caerphilly, I went to the ruins of the Caerphilly Castle. Only two other people were able to go to Wales for their home stay and they went to the Cardiff castle. We were sort of comparing notes and pictures and they said they had toured a castle and I said "me too" but then I looked at their pictures of Cardiff castle (which is giant, inside great walls with a big green, and very elaborately decorated inside) and realized my trip to the Caerphilly castle wasn't even close! Ever since then, I've wanted to tour the Cardiff Castle. There was a big joust happening for school groups on the green when we entered the gates, so we got to see the final sword fight and the champion taking his victory lap on his decorated joust horse at the end of the day. It was so festive! Then we toured the house part of the castle, the big Roman keep in the center, the walls that were turned into bomb shelters during the war, and walked through the big green. It was all spectacular.

From there we drove and then ran to the Doctor Who Experience (our tickets were for the 3:30 adventure and we parked at 3:25pm, but we made it!). We went through a very cheesy 30 minute adventure through Daleks and Weeping Angels and then were let free into the warehouse of props and costumes. We had a blast looking around.

It was pouring down rain when we finished, so we waited a minute, but the museum was closing, so we headed out into it. Of course, after about one minute outside, the sun come out and we walked through the Cardiff town centre. We ate dinner at Wagamamas with a view of the town square (Roald Dahl Plass). As we were eating dinner, a whole bunch of Porsches started driving into the town square and lining themselves up. Not really sure what event it was, but definitely a pretty good Porsche parade. We walked back to our car and drove to our new home for the next three nights just outside of town. We're staying with a lovely primary school teacher named Gwenno. And her townhouse is the Welsh version of ours and I love it.