Into Swansea, and we parked outside the St Mary's Church, close to the major shopping centres, including the covered Market Square, which used to be the markets of old. Lots of interesting goods to purchase, including a selection of pork and liver rissoles, called Faggots. No political correctness here, that is their name and it shall remain!
There used to be a huge town wall, and some is still in evidence today.
Swansea was the first place with a railway, and it was settled by the Vikings, who sheltered here, and built several castles.
One of the prettiest spots in the area is the Gower Peninsula, running to the west of Swansea so after a short walk around the town, we found the tourist office and then got some information on the Pensinula. The drive to Oxwich Point near Oxwich was quite pretty, lovely old homes, tree covered lanes, and then we found a wedding car driver waiting for the bride. But not your average driver, this one had control of two Hungarian horses, and a carriage.
What a lovely touch for any bride.
A bit further along we came across an old castle ruin, that somebody was living in. Despite the signs, John decided to park inside while I got into trouble for wanting to take a photo of the "fake" castle, as the original one was further down the road. Oh well, I did tell him not to park there and no photo.
Down we drove to Oxwich Point, but you had to pay to park the car to walk to the beach just to take a photo, so we drove on to Port Eynon. To get there, we had to go through the most narrow roads, in one case I could have pulled a crows nest fern off the side of the hill, but the worst thing was we met a bus, and that bus was not going back for anyone, he literally barged ahead, and pushed us backwards up the winding laneway until we could get to a pull over area, and we were much further down the laneway than he was! This was a better area to navigate, and we once again had to pay to park, and we decided to have lunch there.
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| He pushed us all the way back up the narrow laneway |
The area is so popular with trampers, with caravans and motor homes, holiday makers and being a sunny day and 20 degrees, many people were turning a darker shade of pink!
At lunch, a chip batty for me! boring old sandwiches for the driver, we met Dave.
Now Dave was with his mum, and he had the most large piece of cod that we had ever seen. He enjoyed a chat with us about some of the scenery around the peninsula, and the damages caused by the huge storms in February where they had 40 ft waves. But most of all he enjoyed a chat about the Falkland Islands. Not every day he meets a couple of Aussies who have been there. He spent 6 months in cabins that we knew, as he was in the Army for 21 years. We reckoned he needed a bit of a break from his elderly mum!
This place was a well known smuggling haunt in the past, as the following information mentions, even used the church for a smuggling store!
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| Headstone! He was a coxwain as mentioned in the panels above |
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| The cars are in the carpark |
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| This farmer chose well, ocean frontage and no body in sight, have no idea how he gets in and out! |
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| Worm head cape |
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| Old Coastguard station, wouldn't want to have to rescue anyone, goodness knows how they would launch a boat. |
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| Because this is the height of the hill! Surfers have to park up here then walk down! |
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| Paragliders on the top |
Then we went up to Llanmadoc not much to see there, because we couldn't get through to the headlands but further along the road we were able to share the view across the river estuary with the sheep.
We managed to see one of the 600 castles in Wales, only this one really was in ruins.
Next stop Penclawdd, this town used to be sited on the edge of the river, only the mud and tides have silted up the estuary, as has happened in many English seaside ports. Some boats are submerged in the green grasslands.
The local restaurants were rather busy tonight, so we ventured into town, and parked wait for it - in Salubrious Square. Sounds a bit dicey so I thought I had better look it up.
Salubrious place leading to Salubrious passage and then Wind Street
Today it is quite anonymous, devoid of interesting buildings and of no architectural merit.
A helpful young man directed us to park in his work grounds, as the parking area was usually the choice of the patrons of the rather noisy pub.
So down through the alley, and into Eating Street, there were so many restaurants, but mostly the menus catered for student styled meals, burger, ribs etc. The local talent was rather interesting though, as it looks like it is nearly summer, the girls were out in force in mini dresses, heaps shorter than we would have worn 40 years ago! Not a good look when the black stocking tops are lower than the dresses. And bouncers, they were in front of so many pubs.
We checked out all the menus and decided to try LaBrasierie, it had 3 bouncers on the doors. After going through two thick doors, we were shown our table, and the maitre-de explained that we went to the butcher counter, chose our meat, and then it would be cooked.
Different, but nice. Turns out we were in a sort of Spanish restaurant that didn't offer paella or other Spanish dishes. My chicken was really delicious and John chose the steak.
Then the traffic wardens put up bollards to make the road pedestrian mall, and when we went outside there were police everywhere. Being a nosey tourist I asked whether this was a bit of a lively place after dark.
Yes he said usually on Wednesday and Saturday! There are so many clubs, and the students get vouchers on a Wednesday, and Saturday is Saturday!! We would have hated to been there on Saturday, as Friday was bad enough.
Feel sorry for them having to cope with the huge student population of the town, and the inherent problems that are associated with that.
Tomorrow we head up the valley to Brecon
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