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I should be ashamed. I started this particular post on September 13, 2009, and never finished it. Nick asked me if I wouldn't do a Wales post for him to look at the pictures, and get his mind off of studying for his oral exams and of course I said, "Sure, baby, anything for you."
Of course, we will be returning to Wales in just a few short weeks, so this is a nice time to revisit for me, too. We won't be traveling the same places of course, but we do hope to get a car for a couple of days and visit that particular beach Nick fancies, and head back into the Brecon Beacons for a day. With a picnic lunch maybe!
Gwbert, our next destination, was hands-down my favorite place that we visited. It was brief, the landscape stark compared to some that we saw, but standing on the edge of the cliffs and looking out onto the Atlantic ocean for the first time in my life was, without doubt, one of those moments for me that belong under the header "awe". I suppose it was perhaps technically was Cardigan Bay, with the Irish Sea starting somewhere to the North...I'm not certain where the dividing line is. Whichever, it was stunning, an amazing panorama of green and blues and ocean and clouds and the brown of the cliffs, the quiet breeze, the sheep sleeping and calmly grazing. It was heavenly!
For reference's sake, here's the map again of our first car adventure day in Wales.
Travel Map
After we left Swansea behind (and quite gratefully so) our goal was to reach somewhere on the Northern shore of Wales. Well, NW shore, more or less. And Nick chose Gwbert as the best place to go.
Back onto the M4 we went...until it literally runs out. All of a sudden you find yourself off the M4 and on the A48. This was still a nice road...the fun was ahead. Since Nick had of course mapped all this out ahead of time (more or less...he had the map spread over his lap, with a pen marking the chosen way and would tell me where to go, sometimes figuring it out just right then) we knew exactly what to do at this point. It did get a little crazy...the A48 to the roundabout that led to Pensam which was on the A40, then North a ways until we got to another roundabout from which we headed onto the A485, hooked back south on that for a split-second, then hopped onto the Northbound A484, which would take us through crazy winding roads to Cardigan.
This is an example of why I was so glad to have Nick navigate:
We stopped in Cardigan at a Tescos and if I remember correctly. Nick just reminded me that we got lots of stares in that Tesco...really, I guess we kinda stood out. Guess they don't get many adventurous tourists in those parts. Grin. We were rather hungry still I think after the fiasco in Swansea so we got some food at last and Swansea no longer seemed too bad. Maybe we should visit there again--maybe we'd like it better. LOL. Anyway, after stopping in Cardigan, we found Gwbert Road and headed up. Beside the road there was a whole area full of stranded boats...or seemingly so. Tide was out, leaving the tethered boats leaning this way and that along a shallow ribbon of water, waiting for the tide to return. We found a place to park and with cameras in hand took a few pictures:
Goofy me:
We got back into the car and drove up the road a little further...and encountered sheeps!! My user pic is from this group.
Just beautiful, isn't it?
Up ahead was a hotel, The Cliff Hotel. To the right as we walked up Gwbert Road was a line of vacation homes with enormous glass windows. All the houses were mostly white, I remember that...and expensive-looking. The colors were so vivid! The white so white, the blue so blue, the green so very green...just gorgeous. And cool.
We reached the hotel and walked around it, having spied the amazing cliffs, attracted by the roar of the water crashing against them. I wanted to get closer so we got closer!
And, my absolute favorite picture (taken standing on the golf course). Be sure to click it and make it big. I want this as a header, I think, for this lj.
I doubt I ever go back there--too many other things to see--but I am glad we took the time to drive to Gwbert and walk around.
Believe it or not--there's still lots to share, more pictures, and (if I can remember them) more tales to tell, including how we ended up on a C road and somehow went in a huge circle.... If you missed previous posts on the trip, just choose the tag 'Wales' and you'll find the previous pictures.
I can't believe we'll be back soon. Just a few more weeks! Happy sigh....
Of course, we will be returning to Wales in just a few short weeks, so this is a nice time to revisit for me, too. We won't be traveling the same places of course, but we do hope to get a car for a couple of days and visit that particular beach Nick fancies, and head back into the Brecon Beacons for a day. With a picnic lunch maybe!
Gwbert, our next destination, was hands-down my favorite place that we visited. It was brief, the landscape stark compared to some that we saw, but standing on the edge of the cliffs and looking out onto the Atlantic ocean for the first time in my life was, without doubt, one of those moments for me that belong under the header "awe". I suppose it was perhaps technically was Cardigan Bay, with the Irish Sea starting somewhere to the North...I'm not certain where the dividing line is. Whichever, it was stunning, an amazing panorama of green and blues and ocean and clouds and the brown of the cliffs, the quiet breeze, the sheep sleeping and calmly grazing. It was heavenly!
For reference's sake, here's the map again of our first car adventure day in Wales.
Travel Map
After we left Swansea behind (and quite gratefully so) our goal was to reach somewhere on the Northern shore of Wales. Well, NW shore, more or less. And Nick chose Gwbert as the best place to go.
Back onto the M4 we went...until it literally runs out. All of a sudden you find yourself off the M4 and on the A48. This was still a nice road...the fun was ahead. Since Nick had of course mapped all this out ahead of time (more or less...he had the map spread over his lap, with a pen marking the chosen way and would tell me where to go, sometimes figuring it out just right then) we knew exactly what to do at this point. It did get a little crazy...the A48 to the roundabout that led to Pensam which was on the A40, then North a ways until we got to another roundabout from which we headed onto the A485, hooked back south on that for a split-second, then hopped onto the Northbound A484, which would take us through crazy winding roads to Cardigan.
This is an example of why I was so glad to have Nick navigate:
We stopped in Cardigan at a Tescos and if I remember correctly. Nick just reminded me that we got lots of stares in that Tesco...really, I guess we kinda stood out. Guess they don't get many adventurous tourists in those parts. Grin. We were rather hungry still I think after the fiasco in Swansea so we got some food at last and Swansea no longer seemed too bad. Maybe we should visit there again--maybe we'd like it better. LOL. Anyway, after stopping in Cardigan, we found Gwbert Road and headed up. Beside the road there was a whole area full of stranded boats...or seemingly so. Tide was out, leaving the tethered boats leaning this way and that along a shallow ribbon of water, waiting for the tide to return. We found a place to park and with cameras in hand took a few pictures:
Goofy me:
We got back into the car and drove up the road a little further...and encountered sheeps!! My user pic is from this group.
Just beautiful, isn't it?
Up ahead was a hotel, The Cliff Hotel. To the right as we walked up Gwbert Road was a line of vacation homes with enormous glass windows. All the houses were mostly white, I remember that...and expensive-looking. The colors were so vivid! The white so white, the blue so blue, the green so very green...just gorgeous. And cool.
We reached the hotel and walked around it, having spied the amazing cliffs, attracted by the roar of the water crashing against them. I wanted to get closer so we got closer!
And, my absolute favorite picture (taken standing on the golf course). Be sure to click it and make it big. I want this as a header, I think, for this lj.
I doubt I ever go back there--too many other things to see--but I am glad we took the time to drive to Gwbert and walk around.
Believe it or not--there's still lots to share, more pictures, and (if I can remember them) more tales to tell, including how we ended up on a C road and somehow went in a huge circle.... If you missed previous posts on the trip, just choose the tag 'Wales' and you'll find the previous pictures.
I can't believe we'll be back soon. Just a few more weeks! Happy sigh....
