Wales - July 2013 - Part I: Cardiff, Brecon Beacons, the Gower and Pembrokeshire

I didn't know much about Wales until I met O. He's my colleague, working in Cardiff, we first met in 2011 in the Czech Republic, we drank quite a bit of wine that evening and found out that we have quite a lot to talk about - music (his tumblr has been a source of inspiration to me ever since), politics and history, languages, travelling. When I told O. Monsieur and I were thinking about going to Scotland for holidays, being welsh, he was adequately shocked and just said "Come to Wales!" - back home I asked Monsieur if that would be an alternative and we more or less agreed that it might be worth a try. When we were in Berlin in January, we found a really cool guidebook (there's sheep on the cover!) and the pictures in there didn't have a hard time convincing us. Our decision was taken, we'd go to Wales.
I'll write this blog post in two parts. As we've spent two weeks in Wales, there's quite a lot to write about and of course there are a lot of pictures. I'll start with our first week, with Cardiff, our day trip to the Brecon Beacons, our short stay on the Gower peninsula and our adventures in Pembrokeshire. The second post will be about the trip north along the cost of Cardigan Bay up to Aberystwyth, our stay in Snowdonia and the return to Cardiff. I created this map on Tripline to give you some orientation:


O. was delighted when I told him about our plans and he offered to show us around Cardiff, his home town. On July 13 we arrived, the weather was fantastic, KLM had left both our backpacks in Amsterdam, but after having bought the basic survival kit for tourists (toothbrush, sunscreen) we met O. and his wife for a first tour around Cardiff. It was terribly hot, so we spent most of the afternoon in Bute Park, an incredibly beautiful and calm green island right in the middle of the city. Later they took us to Cardiff Bay, where a lot of building work took place in the last few years, creating a whole new part of the city, including the National Assembly for Wales and the very special Millennium Centre. The giant letters on its front say "CREU GWIR GWYDR O FFWRNAIS AWEN" and "IN THESE STONES HORIZONS SING" - the Welsh sentence meaning "Truth is as clear as glass forged in the flames of inspiration". We had dinner at Mimosa (nice place, though very loud that evening because of several hen parties) and later our first of many beers in Cardiff.

Typical view in Cardiff - they built this huuuuuge stadium in the middle of the city!

On the door to Secret Garden Café in Bute Park.

The impressive front of the Millennium Centre.

On Sunday, our backpacks still had not arrived in Cardiff, but KLM sent me a message (in French - no idea why!) telling me they had been found and we'd have them back Sunday afternoon. Fine - we decided to go visit Cardiff Castle in the meantime. And it was well worth it! The castle is huge, its history goes back some 2000 years and you can only imagine what this place must have seen in all this time. It's amazing. And there are people who really care about it, not just as a sight, but as a historical place we can learn a lot of. The audioguides are very good, not only informative, but funny and really well spoken - something you don't get too often in this combination. We enjoyed our visit a lot!

Having our luggage back was a relief, all our hiking equipment has been in there and we'd long since planned to go for a tour in the Brecon Beacons National Park on Monday. The landscape in the Beacons is really beautiful, and we saw some nice caves and waterfalls that day, as well as MANY sheep and Shire horses!

On Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Cardiff and started our journey. With a short stop in the friendly seaside village of Mumbles (where we had a perfect lunch at "The Kitchen Table" - that's a place I'd love to have around here!), we arrived at the incredibly beautiful beach of Three Cliffs Bay in the south of Gower peninsula. We suddenly realized that the beaches we've seen in our guidebook actually exist - breathtaking, long, white, sandy beaches. Wow. Who would've thought that! I have to confess I didn't actually think of Wales as the beach country. Well, it is, that's for sure. Three Cliffs has been the first of many, many really nice beaches we've seen, and the first where we decided to just give it a try and get wet. Being lucky enough to travel to Wales in the hottest summer they've had in years, the water was warm even for my taste, and I don't like cold water at all.

In Mumbles.

At "The Kitchen Table".

Three Cliffs Bay.

Later that day we travelled on to Rhossili, where we found a private B&B, bought all we needed for a nice barbecue and spent the evening at another amazing beach, it's so huge we felt all alone and only later saw that there were other people, some hundred meters away... After dinner, we took a walk out where, when the tide's low, you can cross over to Worm's Head. When we arrived there we were just too late, but we could see how the water got higher and higher and in the end cut Worm's Head from the mainland. It was such a beautiful evening, and it was only the first of many in these two weeks.

Near Rhossili.

Rhossili Beach.

Rhossili Bay.

Me teasing Worm's Head.

*baaa - cliff sheep.

We spent the next three days based in the nice little town of Saundersfoot, one day in Tenby and out on Caldey Island, which has been a great trip. The island is tiny, but there's an abbey on it and a lighthouse, we walked around and enjoyed the calm atmosphere, Caldey's just not part of this world, I guess.

On Caldey Island.

In our guidebook the Pembrokeshire Coast Path is highly recommended, so we decided to go for a walk the next day. First we visited St. David's, including the famous cathedral, a very impressive building. Then we brought our car to Solva and took the Puffin Shuttle to Nolton Haven. Back to Solva by foot - about 7.5 miles (12 km), along cliffs and beaches on well kept paths, seeing wild ponies and MANY sheep on the way. The weather was great, but the heat really made this walk something to remember. In the beginning we took our time, then we had to speed up a bit, and in the end it took us about six hours. Do I have to say that we've slept very well that night?

St. David's cathedral.

Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

We decided to drive right up the coast to Aberysthwyth, stay there for the weekend and then continue north to Snowdonia - and this is what the next blog post is going to be about =)