Cornwall and Wales- Page 2

Carlyn and Cari's Web Page Carlyn and Cari's Guest book Venice in November Spain with Lin and Monica The Louvre and Monet's House and Garden, September 2009 Disneyland Paris- The end to my month long 50th birthday celebration London Skyride- September 20, 2009 ARRAY(0xa5757f4) Switzerland- July 2009 Carlyn's Birthweek 2009- Fun, Food and Henry VIII Sailing Trip on the Solent of the English Channel, June 2009 Istanbul, Turkey- May 2009 Aberdeen with Jacky and Steve The Loire Valley with Mom and Sheri Budapest, April 2009 The German Christmas Markets with Joyce, December 2008 The Lord Mayor Show, November 8, 2008 Madrid and Andalucia, October 2008 Krakow, Poland- September 2008 Cari's Birthweek- Germany Dinner at Muspatts Farm celebrating Carlyn's Italy, June 2008 The Lake District- May 2008 York- May Day Holiday Weekend 2008 Cornwall and Wales- Page 1 Cornwall and Wales- Page 2 Hever Castle Blemhein Palace Hastings and Battle- 1066 Country Brighton German Christmas Market Fall in Provence Paris in a Day Visitors at Parliament Square Amsterdam and Kuekenhof The South West "Jurassic" Coast Cambridge Christmas and Canterbury Normandy Austria Prague, Czech Republic Belgium break ARRAY(0xa5757f4) Blog

Too much to share for one page! 

We were out of the cottage early to Cardigan where we shopped, ate warm Welsh Cakes and visited Cilgerran Castle with picturesque remains that include a pair of highly defensible round towers dating to the first half of the thirteenth century with earlier Norman origins.

Next we drove along the north Pembrokshire coast to St. David’s Cathedral and the Bishops palace. St. David is the patron saint of Wales. Legend claims he was born around 500 A.D. on the rugged Pembrokeshire coast of southwest Wales. He was the founder of a strict monastic order in the town that bears his name, and was the most influential clergyman in all Wales during the "Age of Saints." His place of birth and the cathedral built in his name became one of the most important shrines of medieval Christendom - two pilgrimages to St. David’s equaling one to Rome. Important sites at St. David’s include the cathedral and ruined Bishop's Palace. The large, cruciform cathedral dates from 1176. Inside the cathedral is the tomb of Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, father of King Henry VII, the founder of the Welsh-born Tudor dynasty.

Next to the cathedral is St David’s Bishop's Palace. The latter, even in ruin, still conveys the affluence and power of the medieval church. Unlike the frugal saint who founded this fountainhead of Christianity in the 6th century, the bishops of St David’s in the Middle Ages enjoyed all the trapping of wealth and influence.

Our last day in Wales was highlighted by Pembroke Castle.  The unsurpassed strength of this mighty Norman Castle, sited on a high ridge between two tidal inlets, gave it the distinction of never haven fallen to the Welsh. The strategic position, on a major route way, was chosen early in the first Norman incursions into south-west Wales, when the castle was founded by Roger of Montgomery in 1093 and it stood firm against Welsh counter-attacks in subsequent years.

The castle is built over a large cave called the Great Wogan Cave.

 Pembroke Castle impresses by its sheer size and dominance of location. Pembroke is a Norman stronghold dating to the time of William the Conqueror, however most of the present castle dates from the 13th century. Historically, the castle is probably most closely associated with two strong Welsh Marcher Lords, Richard de Clare and William Marshal, the powerful earls of Pembroke. The earl's ruthless suppression of the Welsh population caused great hatred among the local people. Pembroke is also famous as the birthplace of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII.

We had a stop in the unspoiled, typical Welsh Seaside town of Tinby before our last stop at the site of the ancient Carew Cross.  The cross is inlaid with fine Celtic knot-work and interlaced ribbon pattern, its two sides displaying different variations. The cross is a royal memorial commemorating Maredudd ap Edwin, who became joint ruler with his brother of Duheubarth, the kingdom of Southwest Wales, in 1033, only to be killed in battle two years later.

Our last evening we traveled down a one track, twisty road, with hedge rows on both sides to a lovely coastal town called Little Haven

The following morning we were off to home, but wait!  We stopped first at Tintern Abbey.  Tintern Abbey was Cistercian abbey, founded in 1131 in the beautiful Wye valley. The remarkably complete abbey church rebuilt in the later thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries features extensive remains of cloister and associated monastic buildings in some of the most beautiful surrounding in Wales.   

In Little Haven we feasted at The Nest Bistro where great quality Welsh coast seafood was consumed by all of us: Carlyn, the monkfish, Joyce, the Haddock, and I, a whole, cracked crab.  YUM!

Before getting home we had one more cathedral to visit; Gloucester Cathedral.  This has been a place of Christian worship continuously for over 1300 years, since Osric, an Anglo-Saxon prince, founded a religious house here in 678-9 AD.

At the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the monastery was not thriving and in 1072 King William I appointed Serlo, a monk from Mont St Michel in Normandy to be its Abbot. An energetic, charismatic and devout man, Serlo built up the wealth of the monastery to the point where in 1089 he was able to start building the magnificent abbey church which so impresses the visitor today.