OK. Here it is. A summary of our excellent getaway. 49.5 hours away from home, while Julie and Cindy Blick watched our kids. I failed miserable in planning ahead on this one but seemed to make up for it during the trip. God was good and he was intent on giving us many great moments.
Highlights from our time in Wales:
– Evening in Swansea, on the beach. Stayed in a hotel on the beach. Ale and steak pie.
– Thrift stores in Wales – Debbie scored some vintage reading glasses (think 40′ purple horn-rimmmed) for 50p each and a stack of knitting needles
– We bought fleece wool from a farmer at a Castle. 9 fleeces of black and white wool. Debbie has a 140 year old Lithuanian spinning wheel and now she has something to spin.
– Hay-on -Wye. We bought a stack of great books for 10 pounds. Biographies of DAvid Livingstone, Gladys Aylward, a book on commerce by Selfridge (department store in london), etc.
– Met a book binder in Heresford (England) and discussed the home binding of my book. This guy is doing some ancient Celtic book binding. One book he showed me is a work in progress for a Cathredral – the goat vellum alone costs 2000 pounds. I dont think i will be spending that much on my book!
– Great pub called The Kites Nest in Hereford – 2 steak dinners for 10 pounds and he let us pitch our tent in the back of the pub for free.
Most excellent break. General advice for those going to Wales = avoid the cities, enjoy the country.
Wales does rock.
Climbed Mt Snowdon last year. That area of the country is amazing… would remind you of bits of the New Zealand West Coast and the Central Plateau. Nice.
i am so glad you got away together – god planning our vacations sometimes works way better than we can ever do on our own!
you never stop inspiring me. i need to get out with my wife or at least her and our son. although the weather went ugly on us. tonight it went foggy, so me thinketh we need to wait for warmer conditions. but i need to do it with them.
and what the heck – a lithuanian spinning wheel?! how did you get it? it makes me excited everytime our little country is mentioned, let alone in the positive way :-). blessings be to your house from ours.
Ahoy Andrew, if you don’t get your book hand bound. Cafe Press has a system where they will print and ship your book for you. http://www.cafepress.com.
Pax,
Jordon
As a Wales inhabitant myself (as the T-shirts say: 0% Welsh but I live here) I am glad you enjoyed Wales.
That said, dont give up on the cities. Although expensive to buy a house, Cardiff is one of the best places to live in my opinion, with plenty to see and do: one of the top modern cities in Europe, and Swansea, although not as nice as Crdiff, is a great base for going up the coast.
Simon
Glad you got away. Sounds like you had a great time. You and Debbie are in my thoughts and prayers.
andrew, do you have high speed internet? do you have a chat account (Yahoo messenger or IChat or AOl IM?). do you have an iSight? let’s talk intercontinentally, like
rudy
i’m genxlatino3 on the aol im/ichat
and
genxlatino on the yahoo thing
rudy
my computer is too slow for isight – 400 mhz on the imac and 500mhz on the ibook
i am looking at alternatives.
i do have fast adsl – 512 at day and 2 megs after hours. yeah baby!