Hello, friends. Once again, I’ve stopped in Yorkshire for a brief housesit… which affords me time to write to you about my first tour of the spring season: Woolen Wales. It was a week of friendly faces (a super group of travelers), gray skies, coach rides and urban wanders, castles and cafes, plus wool and textiles for treasuring. What? Sounds like all the RTT tours? Well, yes. But since I’ve never been in Wales, it was an excellent opportunity to get to know a new-to-me setting within the British Isles. I found Wales surprisingly modest, uncompromisingly gray (you’ll see that word a lot) but also full of friendly people with a wonderful, lilting accent that charmed my (handmade) socks off. So without further ado…

By the way, I’ve looked up that phrase “without further ado” because we use it in a pre-tour email update to our community of travelers. Is it ado?Why does that look so odd? Should it be adieu? And what does it really mean? Collins dictionary defines it as If you do something without further ado or without more ado, you do it at once and do not discuss or delay it any longer. So I’d better get on with it!

Colleen and I left Santa Fe at a very reasonable time of 1 pm ish. No sleepless night for me while worrying about catching that 7 am flight! And our journey from Santa Fe to Denver, Denver to London was long and uncomfortable but thankfully uneventful. We even followed the Heathrow signage successfully from disembarking, through customs (all done by computer scanners now) and directly to the Heathrow Express. By cab, it takes about 40 minutes to an hour to drive from Heathrow Airport into the heart of London. On the Heathrow Express, just 15 minutes. It’s always jarring to wheel your luggage up the long ramp from Paddington Station, out into the daylight and suddenly find yourself in… well, LONDON! Our hotel was just around the corner. After a quick stop to drop luggage and have a coffee, we were off to take a walk in Hyde Park and environs. I stick to my tried-and-true remedy for jetlag: on arriving, stay awake as long as you can even if you feel sleepy or terrible, have a good meal, then retire to your hotel for an extra long overnight sleep. We were in our room by maybe 6 pm? And asleep not long after!

The next day, refreshed and ready to go, we had a nice breakfast then caught a train west from London Paddington Station all the way to Cardiff, Wales.

The group arrived the next morning and through the day, so we gathered for a first evening’s dinner and introductions, then sent everyone to bed. But even on the first night in Cardiff, those who were able to keep their eyes open just HAD to come upstairs to the bar for some knitting and nightcaps. (Hmmmmm… this may have been the sub-theme of the tour: Knitting & Nightcaps. Or perhaps the title of our next tour in the UK? Something to work on, I think.)

On our first day, we explored a bit of Cardiff. First off, breakfast. Then we walked over to Cardiff Castle, just across the street from our hotel. Thinking of a medieval fortress? An opulent palace a la Blenheim? Nope. Cardiff Castle is actually the Victorian-era home of a local family (landed gentry nonetheless). Not a very significant historical structure and definitely not the place to learn about Welsh history. However, some beautiful interiors and we all enjoyed the wander through it. Next we jumped on a water taxi making its way along the River Taff. It took us out to Cardiff Bay and the waterfront. Disembarking, we walked around a bit, had lunch, visited with a local handcrafter’s guild and then walked back to the city center on our own.

I’ve been to Cardiff twice now. In general, I find it uninspiring. The downtown is full of shopping streets, restaurants and people. Some folks would find that exciting! Happening! There’s definitely a party going on here all the time. But I find it tiring. And the neighborhoods through which we walked were very tired looking. Granted, I wasn’t being shown around by a local or by someone who wanted to show me all the best of Cardiff. But in general, I’ll give it a pass next time I’m in Wales. Just posting this as an honest response to my time in that city. I found almost everywhere else more pleasant than this big city along the water.

By the next morning, we were heading out of Cardiff (happy to wave goodbye – but you probably got that already). Our first stop was the National Botanic Garden of Wales in Llanatharne. Yes, you read that correctly: LLanatharne. This will be the first among many, many, many Welsh words that I will post here. I cannot say a single one of them out loud. Oh, wait, I do know how to say Aberystwyth. Because I listened to an audiobook where the first few chapters were set near there. Otherwise, I was forced to listen to others say place names before I attempted them. And even after hearing them, I didn’t quite get them. Sigh. I’ve conquered most words in Scotland, England, Ireland and can even take a stab at places and names in Iceland. Alas, done in by a new set of spellings and pronunciations… Welsh! But I digress. The Botanic Garden was of course, a wonderland for me. I zipped first to the walled garden to visit with the 3,455 plants that grow here but are impossible for me to grow at home. It was heavenly. Then I made my way up to the raptor center onsite for a demonstration and to visit the birds kept there. I’ve never seen a Sea Eagle other than flying high above the cliffs near the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, so I was amazed at the size of them when standing right across from the two living there. There were golden eagles and falcons, kits and buzzards (what we would call hawks), plus owls from tiny to tall. I had to skedadle over to the cafe to grab food for the road because we were soon on our way to our next accommodation at Druidstone.

So… Druidstone. Part hotel. Part hippie commune. Amazing food. Questionable as appropriate accommodations. Maybe when I was in my twenties, it would have been alright. But… these days I like a room with a bathroom attached or at least not involving stairs in the middle of the night. We also had a plumbing incident involving a LOT of water, extensively slow service on every type of request (even two scrambled eggs for breakfast), dogs and cats roaming the place inside and out, and very few toiletries onsite despite being miles from the nearest pharmacy or shop. I have to laugh. Eventually we all did. But in its favor, Druidstone has a stunning location, brought in a mighty fine band for us to have a ceilidh (or locally referred to as twmpath. (Yep. Try saying that one. It’s actually pronounced toom-pah. Same word is used for speedbumps.)

I think the next day was my favorite. We traveled from Druidstone over to the village of Cardigan. After a brief stop in a local coffee house to see the … yes… largest cardigan ever (knit locally and hung for display), we walked over to visit St. David’s Cathedral. I’ve visited many cathedrals now in the UK. Each has its own special atmosphere. Among my favorites are Durham, in the north of England, and St. Magnus, on the Orkney Islands in Scotland. But St. David’s holds its own, as you can see from the pictures. It has a singular feature — a wooden ceiling rather than one constructed with stone rib vaults — because the weight of stone was too hefty for the walls to carry. The cathedral is built on the side of a steep hill. One side of it is sliding down. The weight of a stone ceiling and roof would further contribute to the structural instability. Yikes. I saw nothing moving while I wandered about but wouldn’t have been surprised if I had. Definitely a case of build it and then consider the siting afterwords… Fantastic carving, archways, tracery, detail work, etc.

I have to stop here, unfortunately. Time to take the dog and the sister out for a walk. I’ll explain that later.

In the meantime, I’d like to leave you with a picture of this sign. Remember in the 80s, there was a character on MTv called Max Headroom? He was partly computerized animation? I never thought twice about his name. Not ever. Until I saw this sign in Cardiff. Um… I finally get the joke. Only about thirty years later.

More of Wales ahead, including sheep (surprise!), some lovely landscape, a funicular ride and an actual sunny day. Cheers!