Pilgrims

Grand Tour of Wales:  Day 4

The cathedral of St. David's is located on the westernmost tip of Wales, way out on a rocky, windy peninsula down in a hollow of the River Alun.

Founded by St. David, the Welsh patron saint, in 550, the site has drawn pilgrims for over a millennium and a half.  In 1120, the Pope considered St. David's so spiritually important that he decreed two pilgrimages to St. David's was equal to one to Rome.

Reese, down in the hollow.

 

 

The nave (12th century).

Interior of the bell tower.

Beautiful Gothic archways.  As the cathedral expanded, exterior doors were filled in with stone to convert them into interior doors.

Playing a St. David's I-Spy game, given to the kids by the cathedral usher.

I-Spy.

Ghostly remains of the colorful medieval interior, before the white-washing of the Reformation.

15th-century ceiling in presbytery.

Sitting in front of the medieval 'close' (the stone fence enclosing the cathedral complex).

Tombstones propped against the close.

Atop The Thirty-Nine Steps, symbolic of the thirty-nine key tenets of Anglicanism.

Coastal Living

Grand Tour of Wales:  Day 3

Today, we headed to Pembrokeshire Coast where we will stay in a farmhouse overlooking St. Bride's Bay for the next three nights.  The green hills rolling into craggy coastline very much reminded us of northern California where we lived for a number of years.

The farm has been in the same family since the 16th century.  They invented the the "Victory" butter churn (with the patented 'lever action clasp') in the 1700's, which was produced continuously until 1968.  This churn is still widely used around the world.  They now raise sheep.

View from the farmhouse.  Those are some lucky chickens.

Our host John, with his lab Duffy.

Duffy and Dash.

The farmhouse.

Oscar, the horse.

Chasing sheep.

Later, we took a walk along the Pembrokeshire coastal path and spent the afternoon at Marloe's Beach, which is near the boat launch for Skomer Island, famous for its large bird colony (especially puffins).

The coastal road.

Marloe's Beach

Eating Welsh Cakes by the sea.

Especially When the October Wind

Grand Tour of Wales:  Day 2

Following our afternoon at Carreg Cenned, we traveled to Laugharne (pronounced Larne), about half hour away.

Laugharne is home to another castle (of course!), which is located on the Taf estuary.

Laugharne was also home to Dylan Thomas, where he lived from 1949 until 1953 in a tiny boat house overlooking the reeds and tidal flats of the estuary.  Dylan Thomas grew up in this region of Wales, and after his early literary success as a poet, he moved to Laugharne to focus on short stories, plays, and his broadcast work.

The boat house has become a bit of a pilgrimage for Thomas fans, and admittedly I'm one of them; but the boat house remains sweet, without all the trappings of a tourist destination.










It can only be reached by a narrow walking lane, a stone wall separating it from the drop down to the flats. Today, it was covered in autumn leaves.

Before reaching the boathouse, you pass the "writing shed," which has been largely left in tact from when Thomas last used it.  There are even balled up pieces of paper with discarded thoughts and writings.  Thomas wrote Under the Milkwood in the writing shed, which many regard as his masterpiece.

When Dylan Thomas turned thirty, he wrote Poem in October, a reflection on another "year's turning."  Today, the poem is remembered and celebrated along one of his favorite walks in Laugharne, a four-mile loop which climbs Sir John's Hill for stunning views of the waterways and of his boathouse.  We, too, followed his path and can imagine how this exquisite vista inspired him to write:

Heron, mirrored, go.

As the snapt feathers snow,

Fishing in the tear of the Towy.  Only a hoot owl

Hollows, a grassblade blown in cupped hands, in the looted elms,

And no green cocks or hens

Shout

Now on Sir John's hill. The heron, ankling the scaly

Lowlands of the waves,

Makes the music; and I who hear the tune of the slow,

Wear-willow river, grave.

Before the lunge of the night, the notes on this time-shaken

Stone for the sake of the souls of the slain birds sailing.

The "Birthday Walk" starts at Laugharne Castle.

Laugharne Castle

Taf Estuary

Looking back at the boathouse (small white building near the water).

Abby took this one!

 
My grandmother has given me numerous Dylan Thomas mementos over the years:  volumes of his poetry, a wonderful edition of his book, A Child's Christmas in Wales, and albums of his broadcasts.

We stayed at Brown's Hotel while we were in Laugharne, and I snuck downstairs that night while Doug and the kids slept to have a glass of wine in the bar, which was one of Thomas's old haunts.

As I sat in a seat by the bay window, which I later learned was his favorite spot to people watch, I felt a sudden flush of Welsh pride, or perhaps simply a connection to my grandmother who adores Dylan Thomas and Wales.  My nana and Thomas hail from the same region of Wales and from the same era--it was a pleasure to get to know both of them better during our brief stay.