Tha Laugharne CastleCan you please pronounce the name of the above city for me? Remember, we are not in England anymore, but are now in Wales. For months we have been calling it “laugh – are – knee”. Wrong! It is pronounced Larn as in the rhyming word with yarn.
When we got to our condo, I was so let down – we had just spent a week living in a castle right? Now we had a sad, miserable, gloomy little old condo that looked like it had not been remodeled since 1965. I was disappointed the minute I walked through the front door – but I wasn’t going to let that deter me or sway my attitude one bit – if there was hot and cold running water, a bathroom and a bed I was going to be content. (The hot water did not work in any sink and we did have to call maintenance) One redeeming aspect about this condo – (or should I say negative aspect) was that it was right down the lane from a magnificent smelling bakery. We made up our mind that if the condo sucked we could at least be happy eating fresh baked scones in the morning with our coffee – and that is what we did for a week – scones, tea cakes, whole wheat bread, Welsh cakes, crumpets, honey buns and cherry cakes. I went in one morning for some wheat bread and a man was in there picking up twelve honey buns for his daughter – I asked him if they were especially good – He said that his daughter Nan loved them he was there to pick them up for her to bring to work. He then yelled to the bakery woman “Love, would you please show this lady my Nan’s honey buns to have a look at”? I almost burst out laughing at the prospect of looking at his daughters “honey buns” – so, in my embarrassment and shock and also not wanting to offend either of them I promptly ordered six. Apparently so popular are these honey buns I had to come back the next morning to pick mine up – who knew? I telephoned my brother and I said the condo is in a dangerous location – he didn’t ask “is it on a cliff” or “is it on a busy street” or “is the neighborhood unsafe” He knew all too well what I meant and replied – “Is it near a bakery”? I said – “How did you ever guess that”? – He said “well, I would call a bakery dangerous”. I love my brother – he gets me.
So what do you do in Wales for a week? You buy a castle pass, program your GPS with their locations and head out each day to see as many as you possibly can. Each morning I packed a lunch to bring with us so we could picnic at the various castles – Dave was in charge of programming the GPS and we left shortly after breakfast. Some castles were in complete ruin with only a prayer of luck holding them together – while others were furnished with era pieces and gave detailed descriptions about the families who once lived there. I will say one thing about being tall – the sign that says “Mind your head” is to be taken seriously. There are winding stone stairways that spiral downwards with little or no room for the tall to escape bumping their heads – I walked with one hand against the wall and one hand with my palm facing out while on the stairs and going through doorways. I took solemn photos and silly photos – I took a photo of a school class fieldtrip where three little boys were sword fighting in the courtyard with wooden swords – I would love to have known what they were thinking as they clicked their swords against each other’s and yelled triumphant cries of victory. We went to the castle in Laurgne, we climbed into small spaces, we hiked up high hills, went into castle rooms so enormous, stood in kitchens used 100’s of years ago, climbed to the top of castle towers and looked down onto motes that once guarded the castle from intruders. We saw ivy sprouting through brick and mold growing on the walls. Can I say I got castle’ed out? And if all of these castles were not enough – we went to a stone museum. Why? Because it was part of our castle pass.
Wales is similar to England, but they have their own language – it is printed on the freeway signs right under the English word. In the grocery stores the Welsh names are on the directional overhead signs –it is nothing closely related to English at all – it made no sense to us, so we didn’t even try. The British, Welsh, Irish and Scottish have all capitalized on a souvenir that I find simply irresistibly quaint and charming- they all sell Tea Towels. I truly believe I must now own one for each week of the year (a joke – but I have bought my fair share)
I would be remiss if I did not mention our favorite place in Laugharne and that is “The Green Room” a Café`. We had absolute no Internet connection at all – we asked the owner if she had Wi-Fi for customers – she gave us the total hook-up. Needless to say, just about every day we went to “The Green Room” for a good pot of hot Welsh tea – and the goat cheese pizza is wonderful too! So here is a big shout out to “The Green Room “in Laugharne Wales – “You All Rock – Thank You”!
Also, I really must mention driving in Wales – It is quite a bit more rural and country like especially on the way to some of the castles we went to. Now we never questioned our GPS - she had been a faithful gal – but she did direct us down some roads where the hedges were so full and bushy that they brushed along both sides of the car while driving. Now, after that being said – what the heck would you do if you happen to meet an oncoming car on this road? We wondered about this a lot – then one day it happened – we met a car – we both stopped - grill to grill – then they backed up. Simple! Now when you’re in town, the roads are so narrow that if anyone parks it creates a hazardous situation of a two lane road now becoming a one lane road – so when a car sees another car coming towards them, they pull onto the curb and give you the high bright flash which means “okay, comm’on – you can go now” so you eek by looking out of your side view mirrors and just shrug your shoulders – I forgot to mention that when you do park your car you flip your side view mirrors in towards your car – that is only if you value them. Saying the roads are tight is truly a gross understatement – they are unbelievably narrow – Just go there and see for yourself – I dare you.
When we got to our condo, I was so let down – we had just spent a week living in a castle right? Now we had a sad, miserable, gloomy little old condo that looked like it had not been remodeled since 1965. I was disappointed the minute I walked through the front door – but I wasn’t going to let that deter me or sway my attitude one bit – if there was hot and cold running water, a bathroom and a bed I was going to be content. (The hot water did not work in any sink and we did have to call maintenance) One redeeming aspect about this condo – (or should I say negative aspect) was that it was right down the lane from a magnificent smelling bakery. We made up our mind that if the condo sucked we could at least be happy eating fresh baked scones in the morning with our coffee – and that is what we did for a week – scones, tea cakes, whole wheat bread, Welsh cakes, crumpets, honey buns and cherry cakes. I went in one morning for some wheat bread and a man was in there picking up twelve honey buns for his daughter – I asked him if they were especially good – He said that his daughter Nan loved them he was there to pick them up for her to bring to work. He then yelled to the bakery woman “Love, would you please show this lady my Nan’s honey buns to have a look at”? I almost burst out laughing at the prospect of looking at his daughters “honey buns” – so, in my embarrassment and shock and also not wanting to offend either of them I promptly ordered six. Apparently so popular are these honey buns I had to come back the next morning to pick mine up – who knew? I telephoned my brother and I said the condo is in a dangerous location – he didn’t ask “is it on a cliff” or “is it on a busy street” or “is the neighborhood unsafe” He knew all too well what I meant and replied – “Is it near a bakery”? I said – “How did you ever guess that”? – He said “well, I would call a bakery dangerous”. I love my brother – he gets me.
So what do you do in Wales for a week? You buy a castle pass, program your GPS with their locations and head out each day to see as many as you possibly can. Each morning I packed a lunch to bring with us so we could picnic at the various castles – Dave was in charge of programming the GPS and we left shortly after breakfast. Some castles were in complete ruin with only a prayer of luck holding them together – while others were furnished with era pieces and gave detailed descriptions about the families who once lived there. I will say one thing about being tall – the sign that says “Mind your head” is to be taken seriously. There are winding stone stairways that spiral downwards with little or no room for the tall to escape bumping their heads – I walked with one hand against the wall and one hand with my palm facing out while on the stairs and going through doorways. I took solemn photos and silly photos – I took a photo of a school class fieldtrip where three little boys were sword fighting in the courtyard with wooden swords – I would love to have known what they were thinking as they clicked their swords against each other’s and yelled triumphant cries of victory. We went to the castle in Laurgne, we climbed into small spaces, we hiked up high hills, went into castle rooms so enormous, stood in kitchens used 100’s of years ago, climbed to the top of castle towers and looked down onto motes that once guarded the castle from intruders. We saw ivy sprouting through brick and mold growing on the walls. Can I say I got castle’ed out? And if all of these castles were not enough – we went to a stone museum. Why? Because it was part of our castle pass.
Wales is similar to England, but they have their own language – it is printed on the freeway signs right under the English word. In the grocery stores the Welsh names are on the directional overhead signs –it is nothing closely related to English at all – it made no sense to us, so we didn’t even try. The British, Welsh, Irish and Scottish have all capitalized on a souvenir that I find simply irresistibly quaint and charming- they all sell Tea Towels. I truly believe I must now own one for each week of the year (a joke – but I have bought my fair share)
I would be remiss if I did not mention our favorite place in Laugharne and that is “The Green Room” a Café`. We had absolute no Internet connection at all – we asked the owner if she had Wi-Fi for customers – she gave us the total hook-up. Needless to say, just about every day we went to “The Green Room” for a good pot of hot Welsh tea – and the goat cheese pizza is wonderful too! So here is a big shout out to “The Green Room “in Laugharne Wales – “You All Rock – Thank You”!
Also, I really must mention driving in Wales – It is quite a bit more rural and country like especially on the way to some of the castles we went to. Now we never questioned our GPS - she had been a faithful gal – but she did direct us down some roads where the hedges were so full and bushy that they brushed along both sides of the car while driving. Now, after that being said – what the heck would you do if you happen to meet an oncoming car on this road? We wondered about this a lot – then one day it happened – we met a car – we both stopped - grill to grill – then they backed up. Simple! Now when you’re in town, the roads are so narrow that if anyone parks it creates a hazardous situation of a two lane road now becoming a one lane road – so when a car sees another car coming towards them, they pull onto the curb and give you the high bright flash which means “okay, comm’on – you can go now” so you eek by looking out of your side view mirrors and just shrug your shoulders – I forgot to mention that when you do park your car you flip your side view mirrors in towards your car – that is only if you value them. Saying the roads are tight is truly a gross understatement – they are unbelievably narrow – Just go there and see for yourself – I dare you.
1 comment:
I knew that Wales had its own language, but I kind of guessed it wasn't really used anymore-like a dying language like Latin or Hawaiian.
And forgive my ignorance, but isn't a tea towel just a dish towel? Are they prettier?
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