Pembrokeshire Holiday and Beowulf.

    In early June, our pal Trudi came to stay for the weekend. On the Friday evening, we were joined by another friend, Toria, and we all drove over to Pailton village hall to see a live rendition of "Beowulf", the famous Anglo-Saxon tale. The actor reading the story, Hugh Lupton (together with his musical support Rick Wilson) did this wonderfully. It was very atmospheric and remarkably funny in places, as well as very dramatic. Great voice that man has! We also got a light snack from the organisers afterwards, so not bad for £9 each entry fee! Good little venue they have there as well. We may go there again for some classic film shows they are planning over the coming year.

    The next morning we made the short drive up to Tamworth Castle and had a look around. It is a magnificent (if smallish) medieval castle. Lovely place to walk around, as there are some very pleasant surrounding gardens, and the weather wasn't bad. We had a quick walk around the town afterwards, and had lunch at Subway. Afterwards, Trudi and I went to see "Prometheus" at our local Odeon in the afternoon, a screening we both thoroughly enjoyed. After three goes at it, I finally 'got' the film, can't wait to see the extended version on dvd/blu-ray. In the evening we watched "The Incredible Hulk" on disc as Trudi hadn't seen it and is a bit of a Marvel fan following on from the recent cinema hits they've had.
 

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    For our second little holiday break this year, we went down to Pembrokeshire (a county located at the extreme tip of S.W. Wales) as we enjoyed it there so much two years ago - it really is a beautiful part of the world. On the way over, we stopped off for a leg stretch and snack in Chepstow, a town on the river Wye, just into Wales. The castle there is very impressive and we felt worth a visit, especially as the weather was very sunny and warm that day. The views over the river from the castle were astounding, and as usual it was great to explore the rooms, corridors and interesting 'nooks' of the castle buildings. The town was interesting to wander around as well, and I found the first of three old cinemas on this holiday there.

Exploring Chepstow Castle.

    After a long but uneventful drive across South Wales, and after a quick stop off at Haverford West for fuel, we arrived at our place in  Pembrokeshire. We based ourselves in a very nice converted old post office in the middle of Marloes, a small village not far from the south side of St. Brides Bay. Once we got in and got settled a bit, we had a quick walk down to the coast which was only a few minutes away, and were treated to some breathtaking views of the wide bay - St.Brides - in the glorious sunshine.

The Pembrokeshire Coast Path, looking North, and the beautiful St. Brides Bay.

A stick for walking!

   On the second day, we did a seven mile walk around the nearby St. Anns's Head, starting and ending where we parked at the small village of Dale. Once again, we were able to take in lovely views of the dramatic coast and see some beautiful countryside, and on this walk, not get worried by cows for once! It was interesting to find the sheltered Mill Bay, where Henry Tudor and his troops landed in August 1485 (to take the kingdom by defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire only three weeks later.) Also evident along the trail were the remains of some World War II defences located at this important part of the coastline.

 

On the trail, near the start of the walk.

Looking over Mill Bay.

Building a cairn...I wonder if other walkers will add to it?

    On the third day, we did a long walk in the gorgeous sunshine, starting from our accommodation all the way round the peninsula and back, first walking west along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, past the lovely little bay of Martin's Haven and onto the end of the peninsular, Wooltack Point, where we could see Skomer and Stockholm Islands, famous for their large populations of seabirds such as puffins. From that exposed point, we noticed the small ferry taking day-trippers out to the island. Carrying on, we walked S.E. along the path, seeing more more tall cliffs and soaring seagulls against the washed out blue sky. We passed Gateholm Island and arrived at Marloes Sands, a very long and wide sandy beach, which served as our attractive lunch spot.....although sitting on that rock was a bad decision!

Looking West along the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, with the blue of St. Brides Bay beyond.

 

On the coast path around the peninsula. The vast curve of Marloes Sands is in the distance.

    After getting back to the accommodation for little rest, we went off to Milford Haven to get some provisions and have a look around to finish the day. Milford is one of the few large towns in the area, and is located on the North side of the vast expanse of the haven. It serves as a busy port for small private vessels and large oil tankers. The various oil terminals in the area spoil the view in some ways (although the lights on the towers looks amazing against the night sky), but I suppose they brought wide employment to the region. It was unfortunate that it started to rain while we were there, but it was good to see the clifftop gardens that look over look the river.

The attractive Hamilton Gardens overlooking the wide estuary at Milford Haven.

    On our last full day, we drove over to Tenby, a popular seaside holiday town and fishing port. The town is made up of interesting little sloping streets high above the beach. The roads feature some classic architecture, and are packed with little curio shops set amongst the usual chain stores, selling a wide variety of what my Mrs. calls 'tourist tat'. There is also the remains of a castle on small island just off the beach, although we couldn't work out if it was open to the public. One thing I thought was really attractive were the gardens and viewpoints up and down the cliffs on the castle side of the town. That was a great place to sit, eat a sandwich, throw some crumbs to the blackbirds, and look over the bay.
    A little way off the coast from Tenby, we spotted Caldey Island, a small island inhabited by some Benedictine monks. In the town, the Abbey has a small shop that sells various merchandise. I had to buy some of the monk's dark chocolate, which was rather nice!

Overlooking the small port at Tenby.

    Just as we were leaving, the rain came on hard, but on our way back we still took a slight detour and drove by the Manobier Castle. Shame it was too wet to get out and have a look...oh well, another time!

    Whilst at our accommodation, we plowed through series 3 of "The Big Bang Theory" over the nights we were  Brilliant to watch these in large chunks - the show is so funny!

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I enjoyed the Euro 2012 football competition (this time it was held in Poland and Ukraine), even though England's performance in the matches were average, and against Italy in the quarter final match there was a lack of possession of our part and of course, the dreaded penalties thing happened again. The semi-finals and final were very good to watch, I think the standout game was Germany v Italy, and Spain were deserved winners. Still, I'm looking forward to World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

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