We are in Swansea, Wales today, we arrived here last night around 9. Yesterday we took the Mad Max tour from Bath. It took us first to Castle Coombe, a Cotswold village built between the 13th and 17th centuries and, according to our guide Dave, virtually unchanged since the 17th century. It is just one street, with a stream and a lovely old church. It was the site of the movies Stardust and Dr. Doolittle (the original with Rex Harrison). After walking around there, we went on to Avebury, which is an ancient stone circle site. It is far larger than Stonehenge, and rather different in layout. There is an outer circle which is approximately 1 mile in circumference with inner designs as well. The stones are in more rough form than Stonehenge. It is a far less commercial site, in fact the stones lie in a sheep meadow, well populated by friendly fat sheep (and their residue which makes walking around somewhat interesting).
Then to Lacock Village, another Cotswold village which was the site of some scenes from several Harry Potter movies, including Harry's parents house (where they were killed by Voldemort) and Pride and Prejudice -- a number of others as well. We ate lunch in a pub there, then walked around the village. Along the way we saw a chalk horse, Sandy End which is a village of thatch roof cottages and a village called Tiddley Wink as well as Silbury Hill which is a large mound structure.
Our last stop of the day was Stonehenge, which far exceeded my expectations. Although I expected to be impressed, I found that it felt like a very holy site. I could easily envision priests from an ancient religion processing through the mist. We were told that it was built 4,500 years ago and faithfully maintained for 1,500 years then abandoned..... it is intriguing to think about what its purpose was, what caused all that care then why was it abandoned. Of course we will never know.
We took the train to Swansea last night, and spent today exploring. We spent the morning at the Waterfront Museum, which uses lots of technology to provide some really nice interactive exhibits and gave us a lot of information about Wales. I particularly enjoyed seeing the exhibits (bilingual by the way) and learning a lot more about Wales than I had known before. In addition, there was a lot of information on renewable energy sources, which was really interesting.
After that we went to the Dylan Thomas Center which had a good exhibit with many chances to learn about Dylan Thomas and to hear his work, much of it read by him. I found myself listening to 'Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night' over and over, having it read by the author who wrote it as his father was dying really made it that much more meaningful, and it has been a favorite of mine. The exhibit gave a really balanced view of Thomas, who like so many artists was both hugely talented and flawed.
Then we walked around Swansea, passing the ruins of the Swansea Castle which just sit in the middle of the City Centre, we stopped at the Swansea Market which is the largest market in Wales. Lots of baked goods, meat, purses, furniture .. all the things you expect to see at a market. We had an outstanding Thai dinner just a few doors from our B&B, surprising for Wales.
Tomorrow we will catch a train to Edinburgh, spending most of the day traveling. We are prepared with books, iPods, puzzles and other entertainments.
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