You have to be careful when you go to Wales. Firstly, the signs are in Welsh. This is an odd language where they have names like Pwlllmaddgggogogdodddddd, or something. Secondly, if you take the wrong road they charge you a fiver to get in. I'm surprised that anyone bothers going to a country where there's an entrance fee. They don't charge people to get out, though. I'm not sure why that is.
Anyway, we managed to dodge the toll fee by taking one of the less congested roads. This was built by someone who obviously didn't have a spirit level. Or maybe it's just because Wales has hills and valleys and stuff. In any case, we probably travelled as far vertically as horizontally, if you see what I mean.
When we got there, the natives were friendly. They let us have a look at their houses:
They weren't all this old-fashioned. Here's the farmhouse:
There is a small "village" with some shops:
And I had to take this picture for Tracy:
We travelled on a cart similar to this one. It was surprisingly quick and comfortable:
There was a house of the future, but it was too ugly for me to post pictures up. It had grass growing on the roof. This seems like a great idea, except that the roof was curved. How are you supposed to mow it? It also had solar panels, and heat pumps. It didn't actually look too bad. As long as you stayed inside it.
Anyway, we had a great time. Helena and I stopped and had a meal at Frankie and Benny's on the way back, before I hastily put together this post (my two-hundredth). If you ever find yourself on the wrong side of the Welsh/English border, I'd recommend heading for this museum. It's a great day out. Even in the rain.
11 comments:
FIRST!
The pictures are lovely. I’m glad you guys had fun even with the rain. I hope Tracy charges a fee when she starts her own country. Since I’m to be her vice president, I need to look stylish.
I very rarely have cash on me, so this clearly means I'll have to sneak into Wales by cover of darkness!
Oh Brian!!! You thought of me!!! I love that picture! It's a shame you couldn't have fit it into your car and then mailed it to me. I'm sure I have the perfect spot in my house for it.
I didn't know that Wales had such a strange language. I thought that they spoke English. Well, the British form anyways.
I mean, I can understand everything that Christian Bale says and he's from Wales.
Oh and wasn't Princess Diana from Wales too? I never really cared enough to understand what she said, though, so I don't know if I would have understood her or not.
And Bee, I think we should put Brian in charge of the fees for entering our country. You're right, we both do need to look good and he does have all of those books about numbers so I'm sure he would be able to figure out a reasonable system to keep us in the life that we're going to become accostumed to.
Congrats on your 200th. They charge five quid to get into Wales? Why? Is that a new national tariff? I wasn't informed of this, and frankly I think the government needs to phone me up when they're considering shit like that and get my permission. Otherwise they can kiss my arse.
I haven't been to Wales in years, or at least, deliberately. I passed through the last time I went to Ireland, but that's because somebody can careless put the ferry port in Wales. I've been meaning to speak to them about that.
Bee:
I think that you should consult that other fashionable former Vice President, Al Gore. Or at least get the name of his hair stylist.
FADKOG:
You should be fine. Just go disguised as a sheep.
Tracy:
I think they all speak English these days, but they're desperately trying to keep Welsh alive. I'm not sure if it's the language that's strange or the spellings. They have whole sentences with no visible vowels.
Diana was not from Wales. She was the Princess of Wales, because she was married to the Prince of Wales. But he's not Welsh, either. I've got a feeling that our Royal Family are German ultimately. Except for the Queen's husband, who's Greek.
I'll gladly collect the fees. These days, they sell decent clothes in supermarkets, so the amount you get after I've deducted my commission, expenses, etc, should be quite adequate.
Chris:
Now they've got their own parliament they think they own the place... I'm sure it's wrong to have to pay to go there, though. I suspect that there's much more to be made charging people to leave. I suspect that little has changed since you were last there.
The Welsh have their own parliament? No-one tells me anything!
Chris:
I suppose now the pits are closed, the rest of the country is happy to leave Wales to the Welsh...
I only hope that they're footing the bill (unlike the Scots). All those politicians, erm, I mean, all that extra democracy, costs serious money...
I hear the Welsh Wasps are especially annoying
Jean Knee:
They were certainly very interested in our lunch. Personally I wouldn't have chosen to take a packed lunch on a sunny day, never mind during a week where it's not stopped raining, but it worked out okay.
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