21. The Going Rate was Twenty-Eight

May 01, 2024

21. The Going Rate was Twenty-Eight

It’s Wednesday and we were anticipating it to be one of our biggest drives from a challenge perspective. We drove from St. David’s up the west coast of Wales to the town of Barmouth. We were told to expect it to be about a three hour drive. (In reality it was more like four hours). The sun was shining gloriously this morning which made it wonderful to see all of the splendour and beauty that would grace the day. We were very grateful that today, of all days, there would be sunshine. Most of the drive was rolling hills and farms and lots and lots of sheep. There were some beautifully scenic spots with views of the water and whenever it was possible, David tried to stop so we could get a picture. The navigation system thankfully had us driving on a fairly main “A” road which means most of it was two lanes. So it ended up being a fairly pleasant drive for me as a passenger and I don’t think it was too terribly stressful for David. I should note that our rental car tells us what our average speed is for the duration of each day’s trip and today it was 28 mph. So yes, it is slow going travel. The speed in cities and towns and villages in Wales is 20 mph and then it bumps up to anywhere from 30 to 60 mph depending on the roads between villages. The last 30 minutes of the trip was pretty much all switchback type of driving through the mountains on narrow roads but it wasn’t as bad as the roads we’ve driven in Scotland. Apparently motorcyclists like to travel the roads up here as it’s fun to filter in and out of all the vehicles and manage their way around all of the curves. I believe I read that this is also a big testing area for motor vehicles to see how new cars handle themselves on the winding roads.

We stopped in the town of Aberystwyth which is a well-known town in Wales. It is very well known for the National Library of Wales and is often counted as one of the most beautiful libraries in all of the world. We didn’t get a chance to go and see it which was unfortunate but next trip maybe. We did walk down to the harbour and checked out the large renovations going on in town.

Our accommodation for the night is an old hotel. In many ways it’s seen better days but we are making the most of it and looking for humour wherever we can. A pub supper at another downtown hotel was on tonight’s menu.

We took a nice long walk down into the Barmouth Harbour. The beach area here is huge and is very sandy. It’s all really nice sand to walk on—even our hiking boots didn’t sink into the sand. And there are so many dogs here. For the entire trip there have been dogs, but in Wales they really love them all. Dogs are welcome in all of the shops, restaurants and hotels. And water dishes are often outside the shops to give the dogs a chance for refreshments.

Pour men’s petites enfants. There is a walking path on a railway bridge here that follows the coast line so we were able to walk along part of that bridge. There’s a cute Pay The Troll poster when you’re passing onto the bridge so Grandma made sure we paid our way to the troll.