After exploring North Wales Gemma and headed headed south looking for more sunshine and puffins
Next on the list was St Davids, UK's smallest city (it has less than 2000 people!). Apparently in community with a cathedral is a city, and DAMN, does it have a big cathedral. Our main plain was to take a boat to the islands just off the coast and continue the eternal (but flawed) hunt for puffins.
Is that...is that a fort I spy?
On our drive south we stopped off at Portmeirion on the recommendations of Gemma's grandmother I think. It cost 10 or 20 pounds entry to see not much.
Baiky wonders we were wandering in Portmeirion
Weirdly colourful, it was designed by some eccentric bloke to resemble Mediterranean cities or architecture. We mostly wandered around the empty 'town' (toursit village outside of the tourist season) taking photos. However, it did have a cannon, a ghost garden, and mint cakes.
Enjoying my mint cakes, getting people to the summit of Everest since 1953 (apparently)
Next on the list was St Davids, UK's smallest city (it has less than 2000 people!). Apparently in community with a cathedral is a city, and DAMN, does it have a big cathedral. Our main plain was to take a boat to the islands just off the coast and continue the eternal (but flawed) hunt for puffins.
In hindsight, I agree with the boat people, perhaps not the best rubber dinghy weather.
However, the weather was not just against us, but seemed to be holding a long-seated grudge I was well unaware of. Winds, rain, darkness - it did not want us visit Ramsey island and the western most point in wales.
St David's Cathedral; bigger than the town itself.
Instead we had to make do for a visit to the super large cathedral, a wet hike along the coast by Whitesands beach, oh and also an awesome chocolate factory named Wickedly Welsh, a (super tiny) brewery in the Gwain Valley, and an independent cheese maker (factory? Fermenter? I don't know, it was just a farmhouse really) that was really, really hard to find. Good cheese though - we sampled a lot. I also found a fort, but simple things make go running like a 5 year old chasing Mr Whippy.
Baiky learns how chocolate is made, then promptly eats his knowledge.
The brewer was hilarious. He retired and bought a farm, then started brewing so he had something to drink. At some stage he took some samples to a few local pubs, and BAM! he suddenly owns a brewery and is serving royalty.
Not us, actual Royalty, he got to serve his beer to the Royal family.
Now he just sits in his brewhouse, pateiently waiting for people to come drink with him (Pinko, you and me gotta get in on this racket).
Inside the Gwain Valley Brewery.
We finished our trip with an overnight stay in Swansea and a day spent in Cardiff. To be honest there was not much to write home about for this period. We checked out the nightlife in Swansea and the wandered around Bute Park. The I had to spend another four hours in the car with Gemma...
