St. Davids

After leaving Carrig Cennen, we pretty soon found a pub for lunch. And got another lesson in Welsh: F's, in Welsh, are pronounced as a V.



Therefore, this brewery is 'VelinVoel'... NOT Feeling Foul. A good thing to know when visiting Wales. ;-D Also, it's a pretty good brew!



This dog is clearly a resident of the pub - it didn't take us long to learn his name was Alex. Actually we learned this before he'd even com into the pub - returning from his walk. Returning, the owner hooked him up to one of the leash hooks and he... proceeded to make himself very comfortable.



Later that afternoon we made it to the coast!



Breaking off of the A-40 road for the first time, we took a smaller road on the way to St. David's. This was our first glimpse of the Irish Sea. (or the Celtic Sea -- I'm not sure which one it is here.)

Just around the corner was this very touristy, but very attractive town, Salvo.







Stopped there for an hour and did some shopping. Then on down the coast.

St. David is the patron saint of Wales. St. David's cathedral claims to be on the site of where religious ceremonies have been held daily for over 1500 years. It's quite an impressive cathedral - funny enough one of the best views of it is just when you are leaving the parking lot. Driving down you don't see it unless you know to look over your shoulder (which we didn't). Walking out, around a wall, and you are presented with this:







Gorgeous stone and wood work through out, of course.



David saw on the sign that evensong would be in about 45 minutes, so we took our time wandering around the cathral. This ceiling was absolutely stunning.





There are ruins of 'the Bishops Palace' next door, but unfortunately they were closed.



So we went back into the Cathedral.



I started to study the heraldry around. I liked the Sun devices on these.





It was really interesting to observe a lot of examples of heralds that were literally the merge of two others. Sometimes even three or four distinct patterns were recognizeable. Both those above are examples of this. Obviously they share the blue design on the right. The left side of the shield, the gold cross with black flowers I think is the device of St. David, so there were many examples of that design combined with others. It would be fun to take some time to study the different familial alliances and what not represented in there.

I'm still a bit baffled by just who gets to be entomed within these great cathedrals. Obviously its an incredible honor - to be so publically interred. Not out in the grave yard and left to the open elements. I mean - 1500 years and there are a few or several dozen? I just don't understand how one makes the cut..

We did stay for evensong. For much of the time we were wandering in the cathedral the organist was practicing, and the choir was even more amazing.

This was Wednesday evening and we had to be back in the London area the next night, to fly out Friday. So we were a bit antsy to head back east. But we explored out to the end of two little local lanes. The first ended at what turned out to be a lifeboat station.





There was a little coast path that we walked along a little ways - but frankly it was still so windy, even more so than that morning at the castle though at least the sun was out, that we didn't walk far. But we did go far enough to run into this fellow!



We have no idea who or what he is.. undoutedly there is some story to him!

Back tracking we took another spur road and found this beach.





The antsy finally got the better of us and we turned back towards West Haverford. At 8:30 found lodging that had availablity and a pub still serving food near by - score!