& Tenby
Below: looking down from the tower
Below: The view from St. Govan's over the Celtic Sea
... that's me in the corner, no spotlight
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Pembroke Castle, St. Govan's Head & Tenby |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sept. 1, 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Castel Benfro | |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Something I had yet to get used to was the abundance of history and heritage within 20 miles of where I am. They say there are 600 some odd castles in Wales alone, or at least pieces of castles. So when we first approached Pembroke castle, I should have probably said �ho-hum, another castle, that�s nice.� But I didn�t. I had only seen two thus far, one in downtown Swansea and one in Carmarthen, but both were in shambles, relatively small and not available for climbing about inside and out. I did show up to Pembroke with the assumption that we would ogle at it from afar, as we had done with the previous two, but I was mistaken. Instead we had a very enthusiastic tour guide who referred to me as gentleman� I think it�s the hair� and then had me pretend to be the castle gate that the Welsh would slam into before going to their death. In fact, we learned about 47 different ways to kill a Welshman. My favorite was hurling roast pigs over the wall at them, I kid you not. And after our tour, up and down the magic staircase (the number of steps changes every time you walk it � 21 of us climbed it and all got different counts), through caves and tunnels, walking about where the Henrys did, sitting where they did, wondering how on earth any guard could ever manage climbing 179 steps in mail everyday. Bet they had legs to kill. All good fun, but we didn�t hang around too long as we had an engagement in the middle of M.O.D. training ground. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Above: Gatehouse of Pembroke Castle Below: looking down from the tower |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| On the rocks... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hoping that the red flags were down, which meant no artillery practice for the day, we took our giant bus through the fields to a cliff with a rough hewn staircase leading down. This was St. Govan�s Head. In the 6th Century a monk named Govan was supposedly attacked here when the rocks came up all around him, protecting him from certain death. So he built a chapel at that spot stuck right smack dab into the clifface. You walk into the chapel, through all 10 simple square feet of it, then through the back door and, voila, you are on the other side of the cliff. The whole thing is still impervious to threat, as it was when it was built. It also has perhaps one of the most spectacular ocean views on earth, overlooking a bed of enormous limestone boulders that the waves crash upon, creeping ever closer with the tide. The tide was rather far still, so naturally I climbed down as far as I could, hopping over puddles and minding the slimy green moss, down to a small little cove and splashed a bit in the green Celtic sea. Slowly and grudgingly we retreated back up the slippery steps and tried to spot the resident gray seals and climbed back aboard for a ride to the seaside town of Tenby. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Above: St. Govan's chapel is built right into the cliffs Below: The view from St. Govan's over the Celtic Sea ... that's me in the corner, no spotlight |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Slice of paradise, or something... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tenby is a small resort town, popular for folks on holiday. And it very much looks like it too. It is an exact replica of every U.S. seaside resort town I�ve ever been too, with its plethora of used book stores and shoppes selling driftwood carvings of sea captains. I didn�t really mind this, but I did mind feeling like I wasn�t anywhere new anymore. I felt like I had seen this before, it wasn�t new and exciting. It was the postcard model for the Oregon Coast, I swear. Except for the sunshine, that was the only difference, which made it feel even less like Wales. Oh well, that�s why we do these things, for variety, or something like it... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| the beach at Tenby... I swear it's in Wales, really | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Day Trips | |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||