Pembrokeshire with Steve and Suz

Steve and Suz came to visit in March for 10 days and we whisked them away to our favorite place, Wales, for a weekend.  We had been hearing for a while that the Pembrokeshire coast was a beautiful place, so we booked a house for two nights on the furthest western coast of Wales and set out on Friday afternoon.

Our first stop was the famous Tintern Abbey, popularized by William Wordsworth when he wrote a poem in 1798.  Here's  few lines from his poem written as he enjoyed the secluded scenery around the abbey.

Five years have past; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs

With a soft inland murmur.—Once again

Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,

That on a wild secluded scene impress

Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect

The landscape with the quiet of the sky.

We wandered around the majestic ruins as a gentle pitter patter of rain fell through the roofless structure.  Most of the walls and pillars still soared into the sky, eroded more than a normal church interior by centuries of elements.  The sandstone composition of the masonry was worn unevenly and endowed a beautiful texture to the pillars. 

It was plain to see how grand the abbey was once, before Henry VIII dissolved all the monasteries in the kingdom.  It was fun to imagine monks praying, working, worshiping and spending their whole lives in the secluded valley. 

The grass growing in the midst of the nave was such an unusual contrast with the stone, and it gave the ruins a much more organic and harmonious air about them. 

After spending an hour or so wandering, we left and had a spot of tea across the street in a tiny, but cosy, café.  We then had a few hours of driving ahead of us so we drove on through the quickly darkening night towards our house in Trefan.  After an abortive attempt to find the house with bad directions from the iPhone, we arrived to a very lovely home just a 1/2 mile from the coastal cliffs. 

The next morning we had a big breakfast and then ventured out for a quick walk on the cliffs.  It was bright and sunny all through breakfast but quickly became overcast as we approached the coast. 

After a few minutes of enjoying the view, it started to rain and gust...luckily we had rain gear!  We still ventured on until we came to a butte a hundred feet above the grey and stormy surf. 

After a quick change of clothes back at the house, we drove to St. David's, an ancient town with a truly ancient church.

We entered the close through a stone wall and beheld the church steeply below us next to a stream passing through. 

It was surrounded by vibrant green and manicured grass with tombstones littering the area.  Daffodils were blooming everywhere and provided a sensational yellow burst of color. 

We wandered down and then through the Romanesque church begun in 1182.  The wooden ceiling was elaborate, stunning and a very rare sight. 

Both Callum and Claire managed to walk away from us and get 'lost' and caused a little bit of nervousness from both Laura and Tyler before we found them (Claire dancing outside in the church yard and Callum deliberately being a sneaky spy and hiding from us in the nooks and crannies of the church).  It was about 1pm by then, so we ventured up the hill and ate at a cozy little pub. 

We then decided to drive to Sealyham Mansion to help Suz complete her trip to birthplace of the Sealyham breed.  Laura accompanied Steve and Suz as they wandered around the grounds of the once stately, but now dilapidated mansion.  Afterwards, we ventured to Fishguard and took a windy stroll along the harbor before realizing there was nowhere to eat dinner.  We then drove to the village next to Trefan for another nice meal. 

The next day, we took another quick walk.  This one was sunny, but incredibly windy.  So windy in fact that Claire was almost blown over a couple of times.  We found an abandoned set of ruins perched on the cliffs with a stunning view south along the coast.

We then checked out of the house and made haste for a castle along our route: Llansteffan.  On the map, it looked like a slight detour off the M4 along the way to Cardiff.  However, the iPhone made it an interesting detour as we wound our way down 1 lane roads and had to ask directions from a local on horseback. 

We then quickly stumbled upon a lovely sea side village with a ruined castle perched on a hill overlooking both the village, sea and inlet. 

While Steve and Suz marched up the hill, the kids took advantage of their wellies to play in the surf of a very flat and expansive beach.  Never before had we seen so many sea shells in one place...tens of thousands of scallop shells littered the sand. 

We frolicked for a while and even found a basketball sized jelly fish washed ashore.  When it started to drizzle, we found a small café and had melted ham and cheese sandwiches while we waited for Steve and Suz to come back down.  They were caught in a squall, but dried out quickly next to the fire. 

Tyler and Cal then decided to venture up since the rain had stopped.  The castle had a strategic position on a wooded hill on a triangular spit of land guarding the waterway inlet.  We climbed around a bit before sauntering back down to the village. 

On the recommendation of a local, we stopped at another castle just outside of Cardiff - Coch Castle.  It was a romantic reconstruction of an earlier ruined castle at the end of the 1800s, but it was still aesthetically pleasing and everyone had a nice time.  1.5 hours later and our weekend trip was finished - another great success in Wales!