Rosslare Harbour is a weird place. It's obviously an Irish community but with a decidedly strong British influence. It's hard to describe. Counties Wicklow and Wexford were developed by the Welsh then the English so both influences still remain. There are also a lot of British around waiting to catch their ferry home, or who landed on the last ferry in and staying over before getting on the road again the next day.

We were scheduled on the first ferry out on Wednesday the 8th at 9am. Check in was at 8am, which we met with plenty of time to spare since we were so close. We'd purchased tickets about 6 weeks earlier so we had them in hand when we arrived.

As I mentioned earlier, we were taking the superferry over. It's about a 3 and a half hour journey. We had very good weather so the trip was pleasant and we arrived just about 1230pm.

The superferry is pretty big. It carries cars, trucks and semi's. When they have a lot of cars the ceiling in the car section (left) actually drops down to about 7 feet so they can get another layer of cars onboard!

There are guest cabins as well as a big bar/lounge and a food hall, which is really just has a coffee shop and a cafeteria-like counter. Surprisingly, the food's not half bad. But I guess that means it's not

Fishguard Harbour

Looking toward Dina's Head and Cemaes Head

nor Wales, unfortunately. That was the only gripe we had at the end of the trip...smoky pubs and restaurants...that, and the trip ended too soon! But don't they all?

We arrived in Fishguard on time. You can barely see it in the top picture (left), but just behind the lighthouse is the ferry port. The ferry towers over the check-in building.

The weather was really great. As you can see from the first photos (left) the sky was really clear. The day warm too. It was like we'd left early winter in Ireland and arrived to summer in Wales. It was great! Dina's Head is the most prominent land mass and behind it in the far distance is Cemaes Head (Ka-maze). Both are part of the Pembrokeshire Coast.

The drive to Hay-On-Wye is only about 2 to 2 and a half hours so we decided to make a day trip out of it with a couple stops along the way. We took the A487 southwest to St David, Britain's smallest City. I've put up a page for St David's Cathedral, which is what we stopped to see here. The town itself is built in a hilly area. It's a market town, which means there is or has been a traditional town market every week, and the architecture lends a medieval feel to the place.

On the way to St David's we passed a sign for Pembrokeshire

Cottage in Newgale overlooking St Bride's Bay

Sheepdogs. Ineke on the Border Collie list on Yahoo Groups mentioned this place. Our intention was to stop here on our way back to Fishguard so we continued on to St David.

As I mentioned earlier, we thought the room in our B&B in Rosslare Harbour was the beginning of a very strange trip. Driving along this road solidified this thought as we passed by a unicorn crossing sign! In Ireland we have Leprechaun crossings so I guess a unicorn crossing is OK for Wales!

We stopped in Newgale for an ice cream and potty break, and to enjoy the scenery. This cottage (above) overlooks St Bride's Bay and a big sandy strand. The image doesn't quite capture it, but the hill was covered in bright yellow gorse and purple heather. It was quite striking. And the yellow moss growing on the cottage roof and the stony details made the cottage really blend into this colorful backdrop. The sky was so blue!

More strange stuff was witnessed as we passed a camp grounds with a teepee in the middle of it! And further along we realized we weren't in Kansas anymore as things just got stranger. In America, we "got milk" but in Wales they got "the white stuff."

The White Stuff

Once we reached Haverfordwest we joined the A40 for St Clear's. As we approached St Clear's I saw a sign that I could have sworn said Becke, but on checking the map I saw is was Backe. Wouldn't that have been gas if we'd found a town with mom's name?!

From St Clear's we continued on the A40 east for Carmarthen, Llandeilo (Clan-daylo) and Llandovery (Clan-dov-ree). The A40 forked here but we stayed on the A40 to drive through the famous Brecon area, famous for the Brecon Beacon Mountains. Midway is Sennybridge where we stopped again for a bottle of water and a good laugh at how weird things really were. It wasn't long before we passed a sign that said Chocolate Farm. And here I thought that you got chocolate from a bean and some processing. I didn't know it was grown on farms in Wales!!

Another weirdity -

Walkers in Ireland is Lays in the US and is Ireland's and Britain's #1 crisp maker...potato chips. The most popular flavors are cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, and lately barbecue and what's called ready-salted...plain flavor, just the salted chip.

But I think Walkers is taking things a little too far in Britain. They've come up with a line called Great British Dinners. Baked Ham & Mustard and Lamb & Mint Sauce (left) are just two of the flavors. They also make Roast Chicken flavor, Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding flavor and Spare Rib flavor! To me, the ham one smelled and tasted like vomit and I won't touch anything with lamb in it but it smelled rank. I think Peter liked the ham one. We didn't try the others. I think Walkers must be making their profit on these by people buying them just to try!

We also saw true plain crisps, which is a packet of unflavored, unsalted chips with a separate pack of salt that you can add as much of as you like, or not at all. Clever for those who like potato chips but have to watch their sodium intake!

Weirdness didn't end there. Read on.

We arrived in Hay just before 6pm. We'd prebooked a B&B called The Start. It's on the bridge into town and literally at "the start" of the town. We had the room for the 4 nights we'd planned to be in Wales. As we pulled into the driveway we were pleasantly surprised at what a find this place was. This is a stone two-story house with a lovely cottage garden in front. It's set on the banks of the River Wye. This photo (right) is the view from the room that we had, upstairs to the back of the house. Next door is a canoe rental place. The Wye is a popular place for water sports, such as canoeing, boating and fly fishing.

Anyway, as we step out of the car, a man in cutoff short shorts and a hand made tank top steps out of the side door, his hair hanging down his back and sporting a beard and no shoes. My first thought was "Oooh-kay, whatever." When his wife stepped out, dressed in a home made hand tie-dyed dress, barefoot and funky jewelry my next thought was that this pair would love Big Sur! And that was over an above all the chickens and ducks running around the side garden!

Dawn and Steve turned out to be a pair of the nicest people we'd met in Wales. They're laid back, funky and very interesting to talk to. Steve is originally from Hay but Dawn comes from Cardiff. They bought this run-down workman's cottage and restored it themselves. Some of it's been extended, but the whole place looks original. Inside the front door they're using the old parlor as the breakfast room. There is a low exposed timber ceiling and fireplace, and original doors lead to the back lounge (part of the extension) and the kitchen (probably also extended to some extent). The stairs lead to the second floor where there are 4 en suite bedrooms...en suite meaning a full bathroom in the suite/room. 3 are guest rooms and one is Dawn and Steve's.

The whole house is filled with antiques. In the breakfast room is a framed invoice hanging on the wall. When I asked Dawn about it she said that it was a bill of sale for some furniture that had been bought around the turn of the century, 1900, by Steve's 2nd great grandparents and given as a gift to their children on their marriage. Steve inherited those pieces, all of them, and the bill of sale and claim docket, which is also included in the frame. The main piece was the sideboard where Dawn served her morning juices and cereals, which was right under the invoice. The other pieces are scattered around the house. Pretty cool!

After settled into the weirdness of our first day in Wales, everything started to take on a strange normalness. I guess you could call this from the frying pan into the fire. After a while we got desensitized to the weirdness and found it all just a lot of fun. Including being asked in the morning "chicken or duck eggs for breakfast?" and being awakened by the roosters crowing that morning had arrived.

Peter took photos with the 35mm so as soon as those pictures are developed I'll put those up too.