Day 32 (21st July 2022)

 Today stared really well - left early and arrived before opening time at Castell Harlech. A very impressive ruined castle built way back in the 1280s by Edward I to secure his conquered Welsh lands. Good thing about getting their early is you have the place pretty much all to yourself.

I was due to meet my friend Melvyn in Aberystwyth for lunch, and according to waze anyway, had more than enough time for another stop along the way.

This was the small ruined Cymer Abbey, built by Cistercian monks in 1198 but never really flourished, partly because of the wars between the Welsh and the English.

My journey to Aberystwyth was a bit of a nightmare. A very slow moving truck with a long line of cars behind meant my trip time was almost tripled. Then when I finally did arrive in Aberystwyth, the restaurant I'd planned to meet up in was closed. I chose an alternative rather badly, but partly because I'd forgotten that Melvyn has the eating habits of a truculent 7 year old who won't eat anything except strawberry nesquick. I ended up eating everything, he had 1 forkful of crab and a few olives. I then felt very guilty when he absolutely insisted on paying for it.

I thought I could just about make it down to St.Davids to check out the smallest cathedral city in the UK (I always thought this title went to Peel on the Isle of Man until it was pointed out to me that the IoM isn't part of the UK). However, as luck would have it, once again traffic was moving at a pace most middle-aged joggers would have been comfortable with, and this went on for miles and miles and miles. Trying not to make racist sweeping generalisations, but I have deduced a fundamental difference between the Scots and the Welsh. The Scots deal with an increase in tourist traffic by putting polite little notices from the Police asking slow drivers to pull in wherever possible to let others pass, and this they do. All the time. Now the Welsh seem to do the opposite, and before any Welsh people unfollow me, what I did notice from my position at the back of two long queues was that when opportunities to overtake arose, the drivers of these painfully slow vehicles deliberately moved into the centre of the road, making overtaking impossible.

After almost an hour of creeping down A roads, I decided to abandon the St.Davids idea as by the time I would now arrive, the cathedral would have closed. At this point maybe I should point out that my mother-in-law is Welsh, so I shall be putting my theory to her to see what she makes of it! I suspect it is revenge at all those English having 2nd homes here!

Grr.

So, trying  to at least achieve something positive, I reset waze to take me to stop #63

BARRY ISLAND PLEASURE PARK

Oh    my    god 

What a dump! I said as much over the phone to Guy and he told me to shush! There weren't many people around (it was almost 6pm) but I had to laugh! Who was it that warned me about Barry Island? What was really making me smirk was the smashed up bits of old rides right next to this particular entrance gate. How to make people feel confident in hurtling upside down on a rusty old ride...

No thank you ma'am.

My patch for the evening is, as the crow flies, about halfway between Barry and Cardiff and surprisingly rural.

Allons-y 

Douglas Germinal CCXXIV Brain over and out