Wales

Saturday morning we set off on our drive to Wales from the Cotswolds. Wales looks different from the English countryside: greener and wilder, sometimes with dense forests, and more mountainous than the rolling hills of England. 

We drove for several hours until we reached our destination of Llandeilo, a little town near castles (three of them) and "Black Mountain" (looked more like a large hill to us; the real mountains are in northern Wales, apparently).

We stayed in a hotel called the Cawdor.

Wales is a land of magic and mystics. Who is that mysterious figure in the alcove of our room?

Sounds like getting along with English kings could have been a hit-or-miss proposition

(a few beheadings along the way).

We went out to one of the castles, stopping first to tour the main house of an estate whose ancestors had been there since medieval times.

We hiked through open meadows and woods to the castle. It was late in the day by then and we had the entire park to ourselves, making it all the more impressive when we rounded a corner and finally saw the 1000-year old castle looming above us.

It was even better once we got inside. This was truly fantastic, to be clambering along ancient castle walls, through narrow alleyways and up winding staircases inside towers, looking out over the valley spread out before us, hearing only the wind and the occasional bird.

Back in town, we looked for a place to eat. There wasn't much to choose from, but we finally found a pub. Soon we noticed that several groups of people around us were speaking Welsh. Prior to this we had heard only English (although spoken with a thick enough accent it was hard to tell); but this was definitely not English -- it sounded more like something from Middle Earth.

The Welsh seem to favor long words with lots of Ls, Ys and Ws. Here's a crossword puzzle we found in a local publication. Looks like doing one of these may take more patience than doing one in English.