Monday 25th August - Porlock Weir


I am now across the water from where I was this time yesterday. I saw in the Waterfront Museum that there used to be a ferry between Swansea and North Devon, but no more. So once again I have been driving.

I started the day in Newport and drove around the docks new and old. There is a lot of regeneration going on here and signs saying that there will be a new university and a business school. There are the usual tall thin town houses that look as if they have come from a child's story book. Here they are painted in seaside colours which adds to the story feel. It feels as if it is a town in layers - there is an old heart of the town, a huge civic centre, and suburbs from every decade of the past century, but it doesn't quite come together as a whole. On the east side of the city there are vast retail parks and leisure parks, avenues of car dealers and signs for the cattle market. This is also the home of the Llanwern steel works, I am sad to say I don't even know if it is still operating. Nothing is moving, but it is early on a Bank Holiday Monday.

From Newport I head north to Abergavenny, before heading south again. I am not sure where I am and so pull off the road to look at the map and find myself in the suburbs. Here there are prime examples of an architectural style I have not seen since my youth - the chalet bungalow - the height of cool in the late 60s/early 70s. I had forgotten all about them, they still look quite modern.

From here I head on through Cwmbran, another new town and so a town centre which is a shopping centre. Everything is closed so I still know little about it. That is probably my biggest concern with shops at the centre of a town, when the shops are closed the place seems forlorn. If there are also pubs and restaurants, places where people walk and chat then they stay alive through the day. I should probably be living in southern Europe and going out for an early evening stroll. Better weather would help.

Then on to Pontypool which seems to have new houses and cars and a car park but an extremely run down high street. Half the shops seem to be boarded up, always very depressing. Up the valley to Blaenavon which is now a World Heritage Site. There are museums and there seems to be an attempt to make it the book town of South Wales. It is a testament to the power of good shopfitting as part of regeneration. There is a street of small shops which have been done up. It is a mixture of books and practical shops, with the usual charity shops thrown in. But the smartly painted shop fronts give a real sense of optimism (or perhaps change). I see a notice saying that the BBC are going to be filming a programme set in the 1940s. So perhaps this also adds to the tourist potential for the town.

I carry on up the hill, not entirely sure where I am going and find myself on the hilltop with the most spectacular views out across the Black Mountains (or is the Brecon Beacons). It is raining but as I stand and admire the view a rainbow appears in the mist. This is the closest I have been to the end of the rainbow, but too steep to search for the end of the rainbow.

After this I travel through Abergavenny, Monmouth, Chepstow and by now my brain is spinning. I have now got to the point where my brain feels overloaded. I can no longer remember what my room number is on any given evening. 3, 7, 210, 14 - they have all been room numbers in the past week, but at any given moment ..... It begins to be the same with car parks, I have been to so many that it is sometimes difficult to remember where I left the car in this one.

It will soon be time to go home and back to work. But for now I am in north Devon and will travel along the coast then head south and east. But it's nice to see the sea again. I am glad to be heading south and looking at all the traffic heading north and back to work on the M5.

posted at 21:17 in /travel (permanent link)

Sunday 24th August - Newport


I've spent the day zigzagging my way across south Wales and have ended up not far from where I started this morning. Such are the delights and distractions of my travelling. I wandered into Hay-on-Wye this morning and wandered around (just about resisting the delights of the bookshops). There were also a number of galleries selling paintings, crafts and furniture. Lots of very lovely things. There were still lots of cyclists about, Gloucester City Cycling Club were out in force and having their photos taken.

I then went on to Brecon. It felt very different in the sunshine of this morning, there was more to the town than I had realised, the traffic is efficiently encouraged to drive through the edge of the town centre. There were still plenty of visitors but here there were walkers, many accompanied by their dogs. Here it was the outdoor shops that were attracting customers.

I headed south towards Swansea, via Merthyr Tydfil and Neath. Neath is not that far away from Hay, but a world apart. It has lots of building going on, there were signs talking about 'Objective one' which usually means regeneration money from the EU. Not entirely sure what it was funding. Like many small towns close to a large city it suffers from a vampire effect. People go to the city for much of their shopping and so it hard for smaller towns to fight for custom. The Rugby club seemed to be the smartest building in town.

Then on to Swansea and I went down to the docks to see what was going on. There was some sort of festival going on with music and dancers, food and funfair. As ever, the docks have been turned into a marina, smart apartments (maximising the water view) have been built. There is a museum which seemed to be the centrpiece of the area. An interesting museum with lots of interactive stuff and real people talking about their stories. There was also a section about the future, how Wales is transforming from old industry to new industries. First thing I've seen talking about the future. Swansea seems to be bright and cheery, people seem to be having a good time and there seems to be a balance between old and new. The waterside seems more balanced than many I have seen, not just swanky developer stuff on the waterfront and then deprivation two streets back.

I discover that Robert Owen, founder of New Lanark where I stayed a few days ago, was in fact a Welshman. There was an exhibition about him (150 years since his birth) and how his ideas led to the foundation of the co-operative movement. After the museums I end up on an extensive tour of the western suburbs of Swansea, the Mumbles and much of the Gower peninsula. As in many towns, the western suburbs seem rather smart - I guess because the prevailing winds are westerly, the west end will be the smart side of town with the east end catching the pollution from the west.

posted at 07:46 in /travel (permanent link)

Saturday 23rd August - Whitney-on-Wye


So much for the promise of summer, it is pouring with rain and feels more like November than August. I started my search for somewhere to stay early in the day - it is a Bank Holiday weekend and more than that, Madonna has her opening concert in Cardiff tonight. This means that most of south Wales is full. I called one hotel to be told they have nowhere vacant this side of Taunton (getting on for 100 miles away). So I headed north and have a nice hotel. Had planned to camp but the rain arrived sooner than I did and pitching a tent in the rain just too damp and depressing.

I started the day in mid Wales and a beautiful morning. I took the wrong road and ended up in a single track road, but it was a delightful distraction - the road was filled with birds - swallows sitting on the telephone wire, chaffinches and goldfinches, sheep safely grazing, the landscape rolling out in scenic fashion looking like a quilt in greens and the odd dash of purple heather. After this brief diversion, along with many, many caravans, I was on the road to the coast. North Wales seemed to be as busy as the south, but up here it was mainly holidaymakers.I went through the towns of mid Wales - Dolgellau, Tywyn, Machynlleth where I visited the Museum of Modern Art.

There are plenty of tourists around for the weekend, although they do seem to be concentrated close to the coast. Families with kids and grandparents. There seemed to be a lot of people with dogs. Perhaps those with dogs holiday in the UK. There was an impressive range of breeds and sizes and ages of dogs, including a three legged Jack Russell and only occasional snappy behaviour. There are even more bicycles than dogs. Some are being ridden up the hills, but far more are strapped onto cars and camper vans in various stages of dismemberment. Goodness knows what it does the fuel consumption.

I stopped briefly in Builth Wells where they was a Victorian fair, not quite sure what was going on but there were lots of people dressed up in period clothing. There seemed to be a rather liberal interpretation. Some had assumed that a long skirt would do it, others that it meant hats. Some seemed entirely convincing, their face seeming to fit with their costume. Others had modern faces which no amount of dressing up could cover.

posted at 07:46 in /travel (permanent link)

Friday 22nd August - Mallwydd


I found an inn on the way west through Wales. I started in Shrewsbury where I managed to meet up with my sister Sue. A pretty old town and filled with tourists and shoppers. Lots of lovely shops and an obviously affluent town. From there I decided to visit Telford. This was an altogether different kind of town. I followed signs to the town centre which seemed to be a shopping centre.

It was a shopping centre. The 'streets' of the shopping centre have street names, but this is all there is. I asked one of the tourist information ladies if there was another part of town and she patiently explained that Telford is a new town and this is the town. I later discovered signs for the Town Park and Wonderland, but no time to explore them. Like Milton Keynes, a sense of direction is a disadvantage in a new town, as everything has been designed in circles. I end up feeling slightly dizzy.

After a morning of old towns and new towns I spent the afternoon time travelling through the Industrial Revolution. I know I knew what happened when many years ago when I did history at school. Now my memory is rather less certain, but close to Telford is Ironbridge - the first iron bridge (spanning the River Severn which is rather muddily full of recently fallen rainwater) designed by Thomas Telford (or was it built?). I go to Coalbrookdale but sadly get to Blist Mills (Victorian town) too late to visit. This is a 'town' where people live (well work) as they would have lived in the 19th century. I hang around hoping to see the squatter girl drive off in a natty sports car, or the draper's assisant pull away in an estate car. There is of course, no sign of anyone in costume.

There are in the process of developing the site further and there is lots of building work going on. It seems a good idea to show people how life might have been lived, but it does sometimes seem as if Britain is more interested in the past than the future. Perhaps it's because the Victorian era was such a time of growth and confidence. Perhaps it is the apparent certainty that is so appealing. Something seems to hold us looking back rather than forward.

I am hours late in my plan to head west into Wales and so head off along with the rest of the country and the Bank Holiday rush to the coast/steam fair/festival/holiday. There are more caravans and camper vans than I have ever seen gathered together. I seem to circle endlessly around Telford, all roads seemed to be signed for Telford and/or Wonderland. Eventually I escpae and slowly make my way around the Shrewsbury ring road. I find a hotel completely by accident, but it's a delight and there is a room to spare.

posted at 07:45 in /travel (permanent link)