Gorgeous Gardens And Wonderful Walks In Wales

Problem
If you want to walk along coastal paths, clamber up and down, for free, you have coastal paths galore to explore in all weathers.

Answers
1 Portmeirion
The big attraction in Wales is Portmeirion, Italian style buildings in a tropical setting. The site was used as a film set for the TV series The Prisoner. There's a charge to enter. In high season it's quite crowded.

Portmeirion central piazza from Wikipedia photo by Chris Jones. Jones is a popular surname in Wales.

Fishguard from the window of Fishguard Bay hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

2 Fishguard
In the far north west is Fishguard, last stop on the train from Paddington, where at Fishguard-Goodwick you catch the ferry to Ireland. You can walk along the coastal paths, and downhill from Fishguard to the Lower Harbour, fresh sea air, and all for free. The bay was used as a setting for Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood filmed starring Welsh Richard Burton who stayed at the Fishguard Bay Hotel. The Bay was also in Moby Dick.

The main sound is the seagulls. In February the hotel is host to Writers Holiday, a weekend event which starts with a Welsh male voice choir and a harpist on the Friday night. They sing in English and Welsh.

Walks from Fishguard Bay hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Path down to the Fishguard Fort. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Fishguard Fort. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

If you are looking for tea and cakes, postcards and pictures and souvenirs, flowers in pots, labelled plants and chats to local people, what then?

Portmeirion
https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/

3 Dyffryn Fernant Garden
(Dyffryn means valley)
 Plants for sale.
Indoor library with floor to ceiling shelves, drinks machine and honesty box.

I was intrigued by their leaflet in the rack at the Fishguard Bay hotel. It gave a guide to where to find plants and some of their history.
Bamboo, which you see in the courtyard, is a quick-growing plant and the symbol of long life in China.
Lily, also in the courtyard and front garden, is the symbol of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Meadowsweet is in the Bog Garden and Waun Fach.
Myrtle, in the Rickyard, is the symbol of new life and rebirth in Europe.
Also in the Rickyard is Holly, which the Romans used for saturnalia, celebrating the God Saturn in December, pre-dating Christmas, a jolly festival when masters and slaves swapped places for a day.

See reviews and photos in TripAdvisor.

4 Penlau Uchaf
Tea room on a hillside farm between Fishguard and Newport (East of Fishguard along the north coast) overlooking Gwaun valley. Farm shop sells lamb. Tea room serves Welsh cakes (like small round pancakes) and sponge cakes. Garden has herbs and flowers. You might hear people speaking in Welsh.
Penlau Uchaf, Gwaun Valley, Fishguard / Newport, SA65 9UA. Tel: +44 1348 881388.
http://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/explore-pembrokeshire/towns-and-villages/gwaun-valley/

From Fishguard you could take the bus down to St David's with its small cathedral. Buses are at long intervals and don't run every day.

Glossary
Welsh-English
dyffryn - valley
Fach - little, small
gärdn - garden

English - Welsh
garden - gärdn
little/ small - fach
valley - dyffryn

Dyffryn Fernant Garden
Christina@dyffrynfernanat.co.uk
www.dyffrynfernant.co.uk
Signed from A487 between Fishguard and Dinas SA65 9SP
Open from the end of March, 12-6 pm, 7 days a week.
£6 per adult in honesty box.

You can buy day tickets for Portmeirion on line, about £6-8.
WALES
https://www.portmeirion-village.com/visit/day-guests/
http://visitwales.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g552012-Portmeirion_Gwynedd_North_Wales_Wales-Hotels.html

BRITAIN
https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/

Trains from Paddington, London, to Fishguard/Fishguard and Goodwick, Wales, on Great Western Railway:
gwr.com
writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Fishguard Wishlist: Art Holiday, Canon, Fort, Pub, Tapestry

Problem
However long I spend in Fishguard, it is never quite long enough.

Answer
I am now making a careful wishlist.

1 The Tapestry
It took me three years to get to see the Last Invasion Tapestry. I have now seen it twice. It gets better every time. I read more of the panels. I listen to more of the video about how they planned and embroidered it.

2 The Shop
This year I managed to get into the shop next door to the town hall, run by volunteers. I brought back a lot of leaflets about the area. So much to see and do. Honey. Chocolate.

3 Writers' And Artists' Holiday
I went to Writer's Holiday springtime event in February. We were lucky with the weather. But the weather didn't matter because my painting course kept me happily involved with an excellent teacher, Susan Alison. Next year I shall do more caricatures and animals and tiny figures of humans in every landscape. I should practise all year.

4 Fishguard Fort
A walk with a few and history and ruins.

5 Under Milk Wood and Moby Dick
Read account in the bar at Fishguard Bay hotel.

6 The Canon
See the canon on the clifftop

7 The Ferry
Take the ferry to Rosslare in Ireland. Or walk down to photograph the ferry.

8 Janes Craft Shop and Teashop
Visit Janes for tea and the craft shop. Look for the twins.

9 Royal Oak Pub
See inside The Royal Oak pub where the French surrendered

Lower Harbour. 

All photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

10 Lower Harbour
Drive down to the lower harbour. No car? Walk around lower town harbour. If you don't like walking and certainy not uphill, walk to the cafe on the corner (get map and directions from the tourist office ground floor of the town hall) and look down from the clifftop of the upper town.

Useful Websites
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g2067430-d320230-Reviews-Fishguard_Bay_Hotel-Goodwick_Fishguard_Pembrokeshire_Wales.html
https://www.facebook.com/susanalisonart/posts/10156259308051757?notif_id=1519725629285509&notif_t=mention&ref=notif
writersholiday.net
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g316015-d1551810-Reviews-The_Last_Invasion_Tapestry_Gallery-Fishguard_Pembrokeshire_Wales.html

More Welsh Word For You To Recognize And Learn

Parking sign in Welsh and English at Fishguard Fort, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Notice the word welcome.

Problem
How can I learn Welsh easily? How can I teach Welsh to children and adults?

Answer
Just read the signs all around you in Wales. If you like, make an alphabetical list of the words in Welsh-English and English - Welsh. Or photograph the sign and stick it on your fridge door. Underline or highlight the easy words in green or yellow; underline or highlight the difficult ones, the next day, (or next week after you have learned the easy ones) in red.

Here are a few:

Welsh - English 
(Spaces are inserted because the spell checker is threatening to change the word. Spaces have a second advantage, that they draw your attention to the letters which are similar to and different from the English.)
awr - hour (both words have the vowel then r)
croeso - welcome (co as in come and croeso, e in both words)
p a r k i o - parking (the first five letters are the same, not just park but parki)
yn - in (almost the same)

English - Welsh

hour - awr
in - yn
parking - p a r c i o
welcome - croeso

I am editing this. Come back later for more.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, blogger and author, and teacher of languages.

Photos of the Fishguard Fort, Canons, and Resolute Defence of Wales

Problem
After all those filling Welsh cakes in Fishguard, how do you burn a couple of calories and feel virtuous and ready for some more food?

A surprising number of people have been through Fishguard on their way from Wales to Ireland by ferry, yet have not enjoyed the delights of Fishguard.

Answer
For exercise, family fun, walk to the Napoleonic fort. What is a Napoleonic fort?  It was a defence against Napoleon's Bonaparte's well-known plan to invade England. He had already invaded Ireland in 1796.

Welcome to Fishguard Fort sign. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Where is the fort? Below. Down the path. "Only two minutes."

It's two minutes from me to the lady with the dog.

Another two minutes down the path towards the sea.

Now I can see it. In the distance. Another two minutes?

 Looking at the photo, with the fort enlarged, I can see four canons. How much fort? A bit of a wall. A nice archway for framing photos.

Back up again. Now we know what's down there. Take a picture. Rain is forecast for tomorrow. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Welsh man David is driving. That decorative, dangling item in the middle of the screen is very colourful, but right now in the way of my view of signs and any potential photos. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

History
The area had eight canons, which were installed when the fort was built in the late 1700s (between 1779 and 1981). The nine pounder guns were fired as a warning to the French ships approaching about twenty years later. On reflection the guns did not have much effect because the French landed in 1797. Maybe the guns frightened the French troops.

Some of the French soldiers (after losing an earlier battle to British troops) then surrendered to local heroine Jemima who reputedly marched about in a circle. I am not sure whether she intended to deceive or just had that effect by good luck. It appeared to onlookers at a distance as if she (and a few female friends), wearing red coats, visible from a distance, and tall black hats which gave them added height, were line after line of never-ending defending soldiers. Certainly the repeated marching was a sign of the marchers' resolution.

(They were only women. However, if that was the courage of the women, what would the men be like!)

More information from:
Historical information:
http://www.ecastles.co.uk/fishguard.html

Aerial view from Google maps:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.001142,-4.970037,198m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Directions
A40 / A487 junction north Pembrokeshire.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer,  author and speaker. I have previous posts on the Fishguard Fort, walks and sights and the Invasion Tapestry Museum in Fishguard, Welsh cakes, speaking Welsh. Please share links to your favourite posts.