We Made it to Wales! Hay on Wye
It was getting towards the end of February and Jane and I were a tad bored. Our usual Saturday routine of heading down to the high street/market and getting a coffee at Nero had lost it's shine and we were ready to do something! So we decided to take a bit of a road trip. The problem is, though, that we have effectively run out of places to go that are nearby. Part of the problem is that we have explored Northamptonshire quite well over the year-or-so that we've been here, but the other part of the problem is that we are in the Midlands. This is an area known in the UK for it's lack of natural beauty and general 'boringness' (though there are exceptions, Kenilworth in particular). Seriously, they even have a movie parody called 'Once Upon a Time in the Midlands' whose title is funny to brits precisely because of this cultural understanding of midlands boringness. In any case, the upshot is, if we want to go somewhere interesting, we have to drive. Alot. And this has greatly reduced our road trip frequency.
One possible target for our trip presented itself immediately. We had heard through Jane's work friends, and this was confirmed by conversations with Mira's Nick, that there was a mythical town in Wales called Hay-on-Wye where they only have book shops. In the village of Hay, everyone is so obsessed with books that people read instead of eating. They read until their eyes are sore, they read until they can read no more. They read their quintogles, they read their bindoggles, they read their pooktables, bimbayzles and grayzels... Bad Dr. Seuss imitations aside, this we had to see for ourselves. So we set off and drove straight there!
Well, actually we didn't drive straight there because, you know, this is england and we were committing the cardinal sin of heading west instead of towards London. Driving in any direction that is not towards (or away from) London in the UK is like sailing upwind. You kindof have to make a zigzag up and down pattern. So a trip that should have taken about 1.5 hrs took twice that. Still, we made it with no more serious an injury than slight cramped legs. Which we quickly worked off with a walk along the Wye, which is a pretty an relatively large river.
Hay itself is actually very small, and yes, there is a strange concentration of book stores, although there were also some restaurants and a very, very tempting old map store. The center of the village also has a late Norman castle, which is rather derelict and also rather more like a manor house. It now contains... wait for it... a book store! Jane and I spent a few hours wandering around the village, stopping in a few book shops and even buying some books (me 'The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich' by Phillip K. Dick and Jane... can't remember). We were sorely tempted in the map store when we found an 1650 'original' map of Northampton that included a number of recognisable streets (in particular, Gold street which is now home to cheap 'Biway' type stores). But we eventually managed to resist making the 60 pound investment. Can't say I don't regret it a bit, but we'll be glad of the extra cash when we are on our Eurotrip! (more on that later).
On the way back we took a circuitous route in the hopes of seeing some of the Welsh countryside. We weren't disappointed. Our route took us through Brecon Beacons national park and this (left) is what we saw. Hills covered in low clouds. I don't think this picture does it justice, but suffice it to say that it was almost as pretty as Ireland... Almost. Our trip back was a little longer than our trip to, but we made it back in time for a late supper at home. Not too shabby, but it made me wish that we had taken a bit more time to explore the Welsh countryside. Can't see that I'll be going back there anytime soon, more's the pity.
One possible target for our trip presented itself immediately. We had heard through Jane's work friends, and this was confirmed by conversations with Mira's Nick, that there was a mythical town in Wales called Hay-on-Wye where they only have book shops. In the village of Hay, everyone is so obsessed with books that people read instead of eating. They read until their eyes are sore, they read until they can read no more. They read their quintogles, they read their bindoggles, they read their pooktables, bimbayzles and grayzels... Bad Dr. Seuss imitations aside, this we had to see for ourselves. So we set off and drove straight there!
Well, actually we didn't drive straight there because, you know, this is england and we were committing the cardinal sin of heading west instead of towards London. Driving in any direction that is not towards (or away from) London in the UK is like sailing upwind. You kindof have to make a zigzag up and down pattern. So a trip that should have taken about 1.5 hrs took twice that. Still, we made it with no more serious an injury than slight cramped legs. Which we quickly worked off with a walk along the Wye, which is a pretty an relatively large river.
Hay itself is actually very small, and yes, there is a strange concentration of book stores, although there were also some restaurants and a very, very tempting old map store. The center of the village also has a late Norman castle, which is rather derelict and also rather more like a manor house. It now contains... wait for it... a book store! Jane and I spent a few hours wandering around the village, stopping in a few book shops and even buying some books (me 'The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich' by Phillip K. Dick and Jane... can't remember). We were sorely tempted in the map store when we found an 1650 'original' map of Northampton that included a number of recognisable streets (in particular, Gold street which is now home to cheap 'Biway' type stores). But we eventually managed to resist making the 60 pound investment. Can't say I don't regret it a bit, but we'll be glad of the extra cash when we are on our Eurotrip! (more on that later).
On the way back we took a circuitous route in the hopes of seeing some of the Welsh countryside. We weren't disappointed. Our route took us through Brecon Beacons national park and this (left) is what we saw. Hills covered in low clouds. I don't think this picture does it justice, but suffice it to say that it was almost as pretty as Ireland... Almost. Our trip back was a little longer than our trip to, but we made it back in time for a late supper at home. Not too shabby, but it made me wish that we had taken a bit more time to explore the Welsh countryside. Can't see that I'll be going back there anytime soon, more's the pity.
posted by Derek at 4:02 AM
1 Comments:
Very pretty... I think Nick's grandmother knows the guy who owns the Norman manor-like bookstore... Or something of the sort.
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