Forty-five years ago, I fell in love with Wales, and it is still just as beautiful as I remembered. I realize, however, that I could never live here. Not just because of the narrow one lane roads with no visibility; the main issue is the language barrier. All school children learn Welsh as a second language starting around age 7 and continuing until they finish high school. There are also schools that are total Welsh immersion from first through graduation. I think this is a wonderful way to preserve the language and culture, but the street signs are in Welsh. Even the road signs are in Welsh with the English translations small and hard to see. 

In England, the towns and villages have adorable names. In Wales, the towns and villages have names that are a strange collection of consonants and are total tongue twisters. When our GPS gives us directions and uses the Welsh names, it’s hard to match what you hear with what you see on the signs. For example, here are some towns and village names in England and in Wales. 

England:  Gussage St. Michael

  Brampford Speke 

  Puddington 

  Chipping Sudbury 

   Fiddleworth

Wales:        Penrhyndeudraeth

           Blaenau Ffestiniog 

           Machynlleth

   Cwm Llinau

    Esgairgeiliog Ceinws

See what I mean?

Brian and I, being the drive-by tourists, learned a long time ago that only a very rare few churches are of any interest to us, and even fewer museums. The exception to that are the outdoor living history types of museums. For example, Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and Williamsburg, Virginia. Yesterday we spent over 3 hours walking around St. Fagan’s Museum of Welsh History and still did not see it all. It’s full of all kinds of original buildings that were disassembled moved in and reassembled. Some were built in the 1100’s, some in the1400’s, a couple from the 1950’s, some from the Elizabethan and Victorian eras, and a couple of pre-iron age round houses. The museum is beautifully arranged and the surprising thing - no entrance fee! 

                                                                                                    Buildings in the Museum 

 

Slate is so common in Wales, they even used it to build fences 

During our first trip to Wales in 1980, we had a serendipitous moment. We were driving down a road and when we rounded a corner, there was the unexpected ruins of a castle. It stood alone, wide open for anyone to explore. And so we did! We learned that construction started in the 1400’s and it was named Raglan Castle after the nearby village of Raglan. Other couples have their special songs…we have Raglan, our special castle. Although we didn’t plan to repeat the things we did or the places we went all those years ago, our castle was the big exception and the only difference that we could see is that now you have to buy a ticket to get in.  But it’s still our special castle.

On the way to our castle, we stopped at Tintern Abbey, famous for a Wordsworth poem and a Turner painting.  It is starkly beautiful and looks like a perfect setting for ghosts and gothic novels.

And to end this blog post, I have an important tip for everyone. You know those new bathtubs that are made in a similar style as the old clawfoot tubs, but now sit flat on the floor, are deep, and recline on both ends? Don’t get in one unless you know exactly how you will be getting out of it. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.