Our Blog - WalesOur "summer vacation" this year was to Wales. The thought was that we would go North to cooler temperatures, but do it BEFORE everybody else started their summer vacations. Unfortunately, there was a minor problem called a heat wave/drought that decided to rear its ugly head! Anyway, it was a shorts-vacation instead of a pants-vacation, and the golf was a little interesting (more on that later) .. but all-in-all, a good vacation. A bit of history on Wales ... It is part of the UK and on the island called Great Britain. We're always confused by these ... but Great Britain is the actual island and contains most of England, Scotland, and Wales. The island of Ireland is to the west of Great Britain and that contains the countries of the Republic of Ireland (just called Ireland) and Northern Ireland. Then the United Kingdom is all of the countries on the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) plus Northern Island. Everybody confused now?? Good .. .that means we are in good company! We had been to England (well, London only so far), Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland before, leaving only Wales "out in the cold", so we had to rectify that situation. Wales is pretty small ... just over 8,000 square miles with 3 million people. So, a bit smaller than New Jersey and the population is between Utah and Iowa. The official languages are Welsh and English, and they are treated as equals based on a couple different acts in 1993 and 1998. Driving was fairly easy as road signs were in both Welsh and English ... although driving on the "wrong" side of the road took a little bit of getting used to. We flew into Bristol (in England) and drove across the border into Wales to our first city, Cardiff. Day 1 and 2: CardiffThen we started a "loop" that would take us back East towards the English border (even staying overnight in England but walking across the border for dinner), then up and around a set of mountains on our way West to the Atlantic coast Day 3: Cardiff to NewportDay 4: Newport to Hay-on-WyeDay 5: Hay-on-Wye to SennybridgeDay 6: Sennybridge to GlynhirDay 7: Glynhir to CardiganOnce we hit the Atlantic coast, we headed South, around the Southern tip and back along the South coast before heading back across the English border for our flight back home. Day 8 & 9: CardiganDay 10: Cardigan to PembrokeDay 11: Pembroke to Burry PortDay 12: Gower PeninsulaDay 13: SwanseaDay 14: Porthcawl |