Summer holidays in Wales are a lot shorter than in
Canada and the summer weather ends at the end of July. I have been told that the Welsh word for July
means “end of the summer”.
Canal Boating
Our children with spouses joined us for two weeks. The first week I was in school so they
visited a lot of places near Cardiff. The night the first group of kids arrived
was a Saturday at about 10:15 se we went to the Cottage to wait for them. St Mary’s street was barricaded to traffic
and there were screaming young people running all over the place. Apparently it was a quiet night because the
university students are out of town. The
next day they joined us in church and later that week the pastor organised a
pub night in Cardiff bay where some of the younger people socialised with our
children.
The day after school ended (the year end assembly
followed by the staff lunch and the staff meeting at the Buffalo for drinks was
great) we left for Ellesmere, north of Shrewsbury. The train took us to Gobown and we were to
take a bus from there. While we were at
the bus stop a person across the street asked where we were going and pointed
out that what we would pay for bus was more than a taxi so taxi it was.
The B&B in Ellesmere was also a pub-restaurant
and the publican was a chatty sort and, upon finding out we were Canadian asked
Matt if he played hockey. When Matt said
“no but I wrestled” the publican said “so did I”. It seems that he knew Matt’s coach and they
knew a lot of the same people. They
reserved an excellent table for us for dinner and the first round of drinks
were paid for by the owner. The next
night was “quiz night” and they talked us into being part of that. It was so much fun – when we did get an
answer right it was because another table (or the quiz master) told us the
right answer!
The canal boat trip was a wonderful time and we will
do it again. Our destination was
Llangollen (very difficult to pronounce).
Although a little nerve wracking at first boating is leisurely. We went through a few locks and over some
high aqueducts on the trip. Most of us
were renters but one couple we met sold their house ten years ago to live on
their canal boat and don’t regret it. We
spent two nights in Llangollen and saw the sights. Some went on a steam train and a couple of us
walked a few miles to an old monastery.
The monastery was well laid out and a lot of it intact. Early in the morning I climbed the hill to
view the castle (Castell Bran – raven castle?).
It was very peaceful and gave a fantastic view of a number of
valleys. I wonder why it lasted only a
few years. We also visited a castle on
the way back.
Carolene spent a lot of her time over the last year
planning this trip and we all appreciate her for this.
Short Trips
The rest of the summer was short trips around
here. We almost went to the Eisteddfod
in Llanelli but it was rainy and we have
no boots.
We did a day trip to what the English call Llantwit
Major (Llanilltud Fawr) and toured around the town. We popped into the church again. Since we were there last time they opened up
the west end with some ancient crosses that had been discovered. The volunteer was just about to leave to make
cawl for her husband but gave us a brief tour.
Two hours later we insisted she feed her poor man. She was a fantastic source of church history
and welsh history. Since we are not High
Church she had to explain a lot. We then
went to the Old Swan Inn for lunch. A
pub has been here since the 11th century and the current building is
very old. The food was terrific.
I have a book from the library on Cardiff suburbs
and we have been making day trips in the city.
One trip was to an iron-age hill fort in the west part of town. I actually didn’t find the fort but I found
the old church that has been re-built and re-vandalised many times.
During the summer Cardiff bus runs a special on
Sundays to Brecon that we took a couple of weeks ago. We didn’t plan for hiking but a girl on the
bus told us about several good hikes that we hope to make next year. We enjoyed Brecon and had lunch at a ‘good
old boys’ pub. Sunday lunch there was
terrific. Sunday lunches are always
great. In the afternoon we ventured up
to the church as it is a major attraction.
We had just enough time to view it before the afternoon sung service. A large choir from Much Wenlock was there (I
didn’t know there were that many people in Much Wenlock).
I stumbled on a news article about a week long
Celtic Congress that was meeting in Cardiff.
I contacted the organiser and got permission to attend and pay by the
day. It was interesting and fun. I even got to make use of my Welsh lessons –
sort of. There was an all Celtic church
service at the Welsh Tabernacle that Carolene joined me for. We even tried to sing the hymns.
In the City
There is always something going on here in
Cardiff. The whole summer is the Cardiff
Festival. Sand is trucked into the plaza
in Cardiff Bay with all sorts of rides for the kids. We often like to walk down the Taff river to
the Bay to enjoy the place. Last week we
heard the three counties youth orchestra.
I have never heard such a good youth orchestra. Eli Jenkins pub is there (google Rev Eli
Jenkins prayer) although most people go to the larger gastro pubs. In the Tiger Bay days most pubs had sawdust
on the floor and boxing rings. Only one
of the original pubs is left. It has a
nice interior now with a friendly, rowdy group at the bar.
We are finding the district of Pontcanna a nice
place. It is quite Welsh. In Coffee #1 I heard cymraeg being spoken. On Mondays there is a welsh string group that
practices in the Cayo pub. They often
sing in Welsh. Y Mochen Du (black pig)
is a pub where welsh speakers congregate.
You don’t get beer you get cwrw.
The other night we and a couple of younger friends (Carolene
helped them move the other week) went on a Ghost Tour of Cardiff Castle. It started at 10:00 pm and ended at 1:00
am. It was excellent. We got into places that are normally closed
to the public and heard all the stories.
It was well worth it. I didn’t
hear or see anything but a few people on the tour felt stuff. When we entered a room the guide told us to
turn our torches off and he told us all about the things reputed to have
happened in that room.
Cardiff hosted a “super cup” football match between
Madrid and Saville. The city centre was
full of Spanish football fans partying all day.
Carolene’s New Thing
I was actually happy to leave our garden in Canada
behind. Here in an apartment there is
not a garden. What people do is rent an
allotment (there is a waiting list) and drive down to the allotment and do their
gardening. Our vicar has an allotment and
it is all weeds. Carolene volunteered to
clean it up which means I do too! May
God reward my actions and not punish my thoughts.
Rugby Sevens
Sunday I went to a “Rugby 7s” tournament at Cardiff
Arms Park. The preliminary games were 7
minutes per half and the game was very fast.
I remember playing this in junior
high school in North Vancouver. The first round
of eight games were very uneven probably because of seeding. The subsequent rounds of the single knockout tournament were a little more even.
Summer is Over
Today we will travel to Malvern to visit a
number of friends from seventeen years ago then it is back to school. I am looking forward to school and finding
out what this year will produce. I have
already had a teacher dream but this one was optimistic!
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