July 27-28. South Wales

We just had had a very busy and exciting weekend in South Wales. On our first day we followed this route. On the second we went here. We set ambitious goals as there is much to cover in that region:  there is beautiful mountains, beaches, and waterfalls, storybook rolling hills in different shades of green, and more castles than even in Belgium.  It would be a great place to back to for more. Next time we will explore the Northern part of Wales to compare the two.

As the list goes, we started out at 6am with very agreeable kids and by 9am had reached our first destination: Raglan castle. It was still closed so we just walked around hoping for a small hole to breach the impenetrable fortress for a sneak peak but keepers did too good of a job securing it. So on to the next castle, Caerphilly we went. By the way, roads in Wales were probably built after the rest of England – they are done for the most part in line with the International standards, meaning that most of the time you are not driving on the sidewalk.


Caerphilly surrounded by the complex range of moats was a very pretty sight. They also had a kind of a Renaissance fair going with – with several displays featuring things like hunting birds, souvenirs from coal, and more. But there were also some stalls selling outright junk giving the whole place a flea market feel. The listing household goods stores in the town center added to the provinciality. We got back on the road.

The next stop was Cardiff, one of the largest towns in Wales. They do have an impressive regional city center, a very overpriced castle whose major selling point was a beautiful medieval library. You don’t get to see those a lot. Well they also had WWII bomb shelter complete with scary sound effects and a good selection of war propaganda posters. It is remarkable how closely the format and message resembles their Soviet counterparts.

For lunch we found the local implementation of Walk the Wok. Same menu, close enough taste. A local branch of Krishnaits provided musical entertainment for the day.

After that we got back on the road and explored Margam Park. It was hard to drag ourselves away from the beautiful sandy beach filled with interesting shells.

Next we did the waterfall walk via a nice hike path starting behind the Angel  Inn in Neath. I don’t remember the name of it – it was very difficult to pronounce. Impressively Isabella walked almost the entire roundtrip track of 6 miles by herself and without any nap that day.

We tried to go to Angel Inn for dinner but after being ignored for some time in the large room filled with gleaming creamers attached to the ceiling by the little hooks, got up and left.

Finally, for dinner we arrived to Alltyfyrddin Farm. We had a hard time finding it. The navigation seemed to be dropping us off at wrong farms. I would get out, eye the tractors and other equipment and get back in. Finally we found it. Inside there was a very practical owner Sharon. She immediately said that based on our count the fee should be 20 pounds more. We were not in the mood to argue and so asked for the nearest place to catch dinner. She directed us towards White Mill Inn in the next village.


The place was actually very nice and atmospheric. Pretty village pub filled with locals. It was very slow paced but we got service from the pretty owner and a young blond waitress pretty fast in comparison to the other place. It was funny how both us and the waitress spoke English and possibly understood maybe two words of it. We got interesting local specialties: deep friend piece of pork belly, fried sprats, and beef goulash without paprika, salt and pepper. Because the ingredients were so fresh, somewhat of the blandness of the meal was OK.

We went back to our farm. Sharon put us in a room with two single beds and one king sized bed for Dan, Isabella, and I. Just 4 towels. Not sure how the 20 pounds figured in but I could honestly say it was not worth it.

For breakfast, there were some yogurts and cereal and then Sharon was preparing traditional breakfast of egg, sliced ham, fried mushrooms and sausage to order. Somehow you could feel miserliness in the air despite the cheerful smiles. The same blond waiter was here as well. Probably not a lot of work options locally. The good thing about the farm was that kids were able to go outside at will. They have a week old calf and chickens on the farm. Kids enjoyed it.

Sign on a church

Sunday was filled with sites that topped the ones we saw the day prior. We drove past Carmarthen – nice little town with giant fishes at the entrance. The first stop was Pembroke castle. It is one of the greatest castles in Wales as the founder of the Tudor dynasty was born there.

What we loved about the castle was seemingly endless labyrinths of hallways and passageways. There is even a giant cave under the Keep.


Next, as we drove to St. David’s cathedral on the West coast, we saw a view of the beach in the valley between the rolling hills that we just had to stop and wander about for several hours. I think it was Nolton Cross Caravan Park.

There were some camp grounds around and hoards of warmly-dressed surfers hitting the cool waters. We walked around the beach and went up one of the hills. Some of the best views we’ve seen. Dan said it is “definitely a place to come back to with boys.”


The next stop was St. David’s. The giant sprawling church complex would not fit into the shot under any angle. This was one of the largest churches we’ve seen. What’s also fascinating about it was that the ceilings and much of the décor inside was made from wood. It was a huge scale. The whole place had a pleasant wood smell. We walked around savoring the sites. Interestingly the faces on the icons did not look characteristically "English." They had narrow aquiline faces with light skin and light brown eyes and dark hair. They looked more Spanish than English. We did not notice this facial type around. Maybe in those times some of the models were Spanish? Or they could have also been of Norman heritage.

The final stop was Fishguard where we were supposed to see some famous house. We could not find the house but found Taj Mahal restaurant for dinner. Looks like the place most locals and occasional tourist go to since the only two other options opened at this time were pubs. It is poorly run. It was painful to watch the waiter fumble one order after another and fuzz like there is a reception going on for at least 300 people. But the food was the ultimate validation of the wait. Some of the most interesting and unusual Indian cuisine from around the peninsula. 

 There is so much more here to explore!! Maybe we will come back next weekend.