March 1st - St David's Day

 The flag of Wales has the symbol of the red dragon against green and white.

March 1st is St David's Day. St David is the patron saint of Wales.

Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales, visited Wales, held yellow daffodils, the national flower, and spoke in Welsh.

In Wales

A parade of people dressed as dragons or wearing Welsh costume, is held in the capital, Cardiff.

The day is celebrated in Wales by people wearing daffodils, or leeks. Eating Welsh cakes - which are like think small pancakes or thin scones, yummy when served hot with butter melting on top.

What to do in Wales? 

1 Visit castles. Stay in a castle hotel or a hotel with a view of the castle. 

2 Eat Welsh food. Lamb and Welsh cakes. 

3 Visit Museums In Wales.

4 Learn Welsh. Start with words on trains from Paddington, in London, to Cardiff. Notice signs on stations. Learn Welsh on Duolingo.

5 Hear Welsh music. Welsh male voice choirs, singing in Welsh and English. Harpists who also sing. Esteddfod festivals.

Visits

Welsh museums 

My favourites are 

1 The Roman Museum near Caerleon. 

2 The tapestry in the library at Fishguard.

3 The free museum in Cardiff, the capital.

In summer you might visit an open air museum, go down a mine. 

Trails

Dylan Thomas

Fun Photos In Wales

Castles. 

Yourself and a castle. 

Yourself wearing a Welsh hat.

Souvenirs Of Wales To Buy Before Returning Home

You might buy Welsh souvenirs such as 

1 Carved love spoons. 

2 Welsh dragon or flag symbol 

On tee shirts or aprons or tea towels.

3 Welsh Words

I bought a book on Welsh words in a supermarket. 

4 Welsh Cakes

I bought Welsh cakes on the train home to London from Wales, but ate them cold which was not as nice. I should have saved them for later and heated them up.

Welsh Music

Land of my fathers

Men of Harlech 

Calon Lan (sung at Rugby matches)

Welsh Male Voice Choirs.

Solo artists such as Sir Tom Jones - singing Green Green Grass of Home). Dame Shirley Bassey.

Recordings sold in souvenir shops.

Welsh Food and Drink

1 Welsh cakes containing currants or dried fruit

2 Bara brith - speckled bread, a fruit cake

3 Lava bread (seaweed)

4 Lamb Casserole, with vegetables, (called cawl)

5 Leeks

Factory tours and tasting shops

Beer

Honey

Whisky

Wine

Words in Welsh-English

Dewi Sant - saint David (adjective second after the noun, like Spanish and French)

Do the little things in life. (Quote from St David.)

gwnewch y pethau bychain

 Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi    Happy birthday to you

Words in English - Welsh

Do the little things in life = gwnewch y pethau bychain

Happy birthday to you -   Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi

Welsh Words - English

aber - estuary

allanfa - exit 

bara brith - speckled bread bara-bread brith-speckled

bore - morning

bws - bus

car - car

cath - cat

croeso - welcome

diolch - thanks

eglwys - church

fach - small

felin - mill

fferi - ferry

llan - church

mawr - big (I think of more or magnificent)

o - of

plas - mansion (not just a place, a mansion)

pont - bridge

toiled - toilet

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

twr - tower

tywel - towel

y - the

English - Welsh

A- D

big - mawr (I think of more or magnificent)

bridge - pont

bus - bws 

car - car

cat - cath

church - eglwys / Llan

E - K

estuary - aber

exit - allanfa

ferry - fferi

good - da

Good morning.

Bore da. (BOR-eh dah) (The adjective is after the noun, literally morning good.)

Good night.

Nos da. (NOHS dah)

L - R

mill - felin

 morning - bore

mansion - plas  (not just a place, a mansion of - o

S - Z

small - fach the - y

toiledau dynion - men's toilets

toiledau merched - ladies toilets

tower - twr 

towel - tywel 

toilet - toiled

welcome - croeso 

Useful Websites On Welsh Souvenirs and Subjects

Languages

duolingo.com

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Welsh_phrasebook

translate google

Saint David - Dewi Sant

Dylan Thomas

Useful Websites About Wales and St David's Day

Report of the royal visit on Sunday March 1st 2026

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70n99e396jo

Music

https://tirglas.co.uk/pages/portal-famous-welsh-songs-and-anthems

Calon Lan hymn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calon_L%C3%A2n

We Are Still Here recording in Welsh, solo with chorus

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0179/9045/files/21_-_Yma_O_Hyd.mp3?v=1654767520

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Wonderful Wales: Fishguard's Last Invasion Tapestry, Elizabeth Taylor's Hotel, Honey, bugs and more

Welsh Dragon

Fishguard
The two big attractions, outdoors and indoors.

Indoors
The Last Invasion Embroidery
On the main square in Fishgaurd is the Town Hall contianing the tourist office with leflats and souvenirs on the ground floor, and the library with the gallery displaying the embrodiery, Wales' answer to the Bayeux tapestry.

The Last Invasion, written in text and pcitures on a long cloth like a cartoon, with colour and humour, tells the local story of how the women in red and black outfits and high hats, scared off the invading French and captured them. (Sort of reverse Bayeux tapestry, because in the Bayeux tapestry the invading French won, under William the Conqueror. He told his story, and gave us the valuable historic Domesday book, but is still remembered as the anti-hero in Hastings.

The Under Milk Wood Trail
Dylan Thomes wrote Under Milk Wood based on two places in Wales you can visit. However, many people are equally or more familiar with the places in Fishguard shown in the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. You can walk around the upper town, near the Town Hall and Embrodiery, then walk down or bus down to Lower Fishguard, walk along past the boats and tiny hosues, admiring the sculptures.

Sit by the sea on the benches and shelter your sandwiches from marauding seagulls which hop hopefull towards your feet, hoping from crumbs or donations. Then pop into the pub for a drink and read the cuttings and pictures and posters on the walls.  Plenty of photo opportunities, you against the sea, or the parked boats, or the wave of boats as a backdrop.

Other Wishlist Places Around Wales
Bug Farm
Has a Grub Kitchen, tel 07986 698169.
14.5 miles from Fishguard and 17 miles from Haverfordwest.
Glass
Honey
Winery

Fishguard Bay Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Up on the clifftop above the Fishguard and Goodwyck station is the Fishguard Bay Hotel where Liz and Richard stayed whilst filming. Enjoy the fine view.

One of the bedrooms was where they stayed. The hotel has a honeymoon suite.

Much of the building is, by accident rather than design, stuck in a time warp. All the more delightful.

This is the real thing. Old Wales. It's windy, wet and miles away. (From London.)  Love it or hate it. I love it.

Useful Websites
facebook.com.GWRUK
www.thebugfarm.co.uk

More later.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts. 

See Marina Bay South MRT station's Tiled 'Tapestry'

In many of Singapore's MRT stations I wish for more decoration featuring the local area. Here at Marina Bay South is my dream come true. A long 'tapestry' of tiles shows features of Marina Bay South including fish.

On the far right is a white pier. Walk along the mural and check on the individual tiles and you will be rewarded by lots of amusing pictures. Funny faces.  

It was created to celebrate the 50 year celebration of Singapore, and it's huge.

Two rows up is a palm tree tile. Above that five fish, and sun over the water with more fish. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

On the far left is an explanation of who the artist is and how the work was created, each tile of raw clay imprinted by Singaporean citizens, and then fired by the artist. 

The artist, born in Romania and studied in the capital, Bucharest, later lived in Belgrade in what was then Yugoslavia, is now a Singapore Citizen.

Mural 'tapestry' of tiles, featuring HDB. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

One resident has chosen to feature MY HDB, Housing Development Board state housing in which the majority of Singaporeans live.

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

What Would You Want From Cardiff Airport Development? Read My Exciting Ideas

CROESO - Welcome

I've never been to Cardiff airport. I didn't even know they had an airport. It's not in Cardiff, airports normally aren't - you occasionally get helicopters alanding in cities but mostly airports are outside.

Cardiff Airport is about 30 minutes away from the city centre. Every twenty minutes the Cardiff Airport Express bus sets off from the airport to the city centre.

If you are travelling by car, on the M4 from London, or further into Wales, it is 13 miles from Junction 33. The area is the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cardiff from the train. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I take the train through Cardiff about twice a year (into Wales and out), and have done for at least ten years.

To get me to visit Cardiff airport from London, paying for a flight, would mean I would need
1 quick check-in with hand baggage; cheaper price than the train from Paddington.

However, many people do fly in, about a million a year. From Cardiff Airport you can connect by direct flight to Dublin and many other cities for a city break. It's not all hops. Their website tells you that you can also do an indirect flight with a stopover, going on to as far away as the Middle East, and Malaysia.

I would like to see an Aviation Museum with quizzes; some interactive activities on a Welsh theme with a huge model of Wales and lots of photos and quotations and life stories of Welsh people such as Dylan Thomas. Add signs to transport to attractions all over Wales. Show photos of events involving the airport: NATO Wales Summit, Rugby World Cup and UEFA Champions League final. (UEFA stand for Union of European Football Associations.)

Conference Centre
I would like to see a conference center at the airport, part of the big hotel or beside it. The conference centre could be underground, like the conference centre I went to at a hotel in Brighton, England.

Changi airport, Singapore, is full of flowering plants. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Changi's Award-Winning Attractions
The airport could be a kind of theme park. Go and look at the website of Changi airport's current terminals (which include a butterfly garden). The butterfly garden is stunning. Giant butterflies are attracted to huge cut tree stamps. Detailed descriptions explain everything you would like to know about butterflies.

Butterfly Garden at Changi Airport. See Wikipedia.

Changi Airport terminal building with indoor gardens. From Wikipedia.

The plan for Changi airport's next terminal.

A proposed new Changi terminal includes a giant fountain and waterfall. I've seen the outside started, as I drive past.

In Cardiff, build at least two storeys underground to make more space; and a safe refuge area - with an escape tunnel.

Airport Hotel Or Hotels!
The Draft Masterplan says the Cardiff development organizers are considering building a hotel, implying just one hotel.

However, Wales on line talks about a four-star hotel plus a budget hotel, which sounds a better option, pleasing more passengers.

My view is, don't just have one hotel, but two or three, at different prices. Better still, six types of accommodation, 1 to 5 star. Also have short term bunks, like the Japanese hotels, with alarms for people who want to sleep, rest, or hide away and shut eyes with their belongings secure, between flights.

Activities
Have a masterplan of connections with other airports so that people can plan a two centre holiday, staying at both airports in the airport hotels.

Run a Welsh language course at the airport, or even a three hour or one day course for business people, those relocating, or a weekend away.

Have an underground garden of things which can grow in the dark, such as mushrooms and potatoes, and serve them in the restaurants or export them freshly picked on flights to other countries, or as Welsh airline meals. Plus leeks.

How about a mascot, the flying sheep.

Welsh Music
I would hope to hear some recordings of Welsh music.
A Welsh male voice choir.
A Welsh harp.

This lady performed at Writers' Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, where I have seen her several years running.

I would like to hear a specially commissioned Welsh song - in English and Welsh so everybody can sing along. Something along the lines of Men of Harlech, Que Viva Espana or Take me back to Sorrento.

Bilingual Signs
I'm delighted to hear that all the signs are bilingual. The same applies to the motorway signs and the railway station signs. Before you reach your destination, as soon as the train or car crosses the border, you start to see the Welsh words. You think: I'm in another country, another language, I'm on holiday!

Welsh Food
See my posts on destinations in Wales, Welsh food and drink, learning the Welsh language. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Wales has Welsh cakes.

Welsh cake. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Welsh cake with butter. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Welsh Drink
Wales has wine and whisky.



















Penderyn whisky Distillery, Wales. Photo supplied by the Distillery. (I met the people who run it at an educational slide show at a wine and food show in Singapore.)

I've driven to Wales, I've taken the train from Paddington to Wales. Maybe it's time I took a flying visit.

What to See in Cardiff
Cardiff Castle.
Cardiff Museum - free!

Elsewhere around Wales -
If the Cardiff airport is not only a connection to Cardiff, but the gateway to Wales, you have lots to see. The Dylan Thomas boathouse and Dylan Thomas trails.

Fishguard's embroidery of the Last Invasion of Wales is fascinating. (A few feisty Welsh women in high black hats frightened off the French soldiers.)

Onward Train Connections
Heathrow and Changi airport both have underground railways into the capital city centre. Cardiff should have the same.

Instead of competing with the trains, the airlines and trains should co-operate on combined tickets. You could even do the travel equivalent of a triathlon. Fly into Cardiff. See Cardiff.

Take the train to Fishguard. See Fishguard.

Stay overnight at the old Fishguard Bay Hotel, where Liz Taylor and Richard Burton stayed, filming Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood.

Take the ferry from Fishguard to Ireland.

Bilingual sign on Cardiff Central railway station.

A million people fly into Cardiff, Wales. Now you know why.

Useful Websites
cardiff-airport.com
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/plans-new-hotels-cardiff-airport
http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/explore-changi/things-to-do-articles.html#recommend-4 (Shows the butterfly garden and giant sculpture and flower arrangements.)
visitwales.com
visitbritain.com
visitcardiff.com
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/04/where-to-find-welsh-whisky-and.html
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionwales/wales
https://www.duolingo.com/course/cy/en/Learn-Welsh-Online

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

Driving From London to walk in Cork in Ireland via The Fishguard Ferry, and back to London walks

Sculpture of Fish on Lower Harbour, Fishguard, N Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I go to Fishguard every year to Writers' Holiday. From the Fishguard Bay Hotel on the top of the cliff at Goodwick you see the trains arriving below, bringing passengers from London and cars driving up to catch the ferry going off to Ireland.

If you stay in Fishguard at a b and b, three things you should do:
1 See the museum on the upper floor of the town hall (a green building on the central square), featuring the tapestry of how the indomitable Welsh women wearing red coats and tall black hats fought off and captured the French would-be invaders. A proud moment in history.

Fighting Welsh Women In The Tapestry
Creating the tapestry is a modern achievement - see the video of how they commissioned somebody to do the drawings. First, they had to research. It is not a myth but a true story, well documented. Who was the lady who led the Welsh women to march around and frighten the French?

Whether your interest is Wales, history, motivation and morale, art, embroidery, women's achievements, or project management, or negotiating prices, the story of the embroidery creation will interest you. The designer researched suitable scenes, the buildings still standing, checked characters and colours described in historical accounts.

Then each scene was drawn to size, with enough action or background to each scene in the entire square. The drawings were converted into stitches. They had to source the hessian backing, find matching embroidery silks at the right price, find embroiderers to do each section. Finally, stitch together all the scenes. Then mount the embroidery.

Later, of course, display lighting, preservation, security, opening ceremony, publicity, and finally making the video - which had either be filmed, started earlier, or involved going back to find the people and places.

Check museum opening times which vary seasonally. You have a library and town hall and a shop on the ground floor. If you can't see the tapestry, or if you can, allow time for the shop which has tourist literature as well as postcards and souvenirs of the tapestry.

Drive or Walk to Lower Fishguard
Around the edge of the bay you can walk past the old cottages and a tea room and shop to the sculpture at the end. Seagulls will follow you. If you stop to sit on a bench and admire the boarts in the bay, while you eat a sandwich, the birds will hop around your feet, watching, hoping for a crumb or two or more. Look up and see Fishguard Bay Hotel. Check the opening times of the bar and restaurant in Fishguard Bay Hotel.

Go up to have a drink or meal,or Welsh cake for tea, admire the view from the terrace at the front. Read about the movies of Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (who visited and died in the USA) and about Liz Talyor and her husband (twice married to him) Welshman Richard Burton, who stayed at this hotel, and probably stood where you are standing, after they had filmed in the bay.

Fishguard Bay Hotel For Views and News Of History
2 Yes, go up to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where the terrace gives a lovely view on a fine day - longer hours of daylight in summer. From the bar or the tables by the window in the dining room you can look out over the bay. If you are in Fishguard just for one day or evening, go for a quick drink. If you are taking a holiday, go there for a birthday or celebration or first night or last night drink or meal.

Where do the passengers go? I've looked up Rosslare, and can't see much there.

Answer
I just spoke to a friend in London, whose family live in Cork. He said they used to drive regularly from London, along the M4 to Wales, up to Fishguard, stay overnight in a b and b. In the morning, they would catch the ferry across to Rosslare. They would not stop in Rosslare but drove straight across to Cork where they stayed at a b & b called Sea Breeze, nothing special about the decor, just friendly people who are their friends.

What is there to do in Cork? Mainly walks, rambles. The complete opposite to London.

You can imagine the walk around Cork. The crowds in Oxford Street in London. However, I must defend London. If you go to Cork and come back to London, looking for places for pleasant walks you will find them. The Japanese are impressed by London's parks. In the city centre, you have Green Park, Regents Park with the zoo and summer theatre in the park.

If you want to walk in London, there are many walks and the London Loop, which is signposted through parks and alleyways and pedestrian bridges and the old Grims's Dyke.

In Fishguard you can walk down from a car park to a promontory with ruins. See my previous posts on Fishguard for more information on places and more links.

Handy Websites
AA driving and routes
Ireland
Ferry
Wales
London

Britain
https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en

Fishguard Bay hotel
tapestry
Writers Holiday

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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Fishguard Bay - Setting For Under Milk Wood

A plaque on the little Harbour at Fishguard Bay tells you this was used as a setting for the film of Under Milk Wood, the poem written by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, in the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. You can happily while away an afternoon walking around the bay. Or watching or participating in the kayaking. You might like to take the bus around the bay to the Fishguard Bay hotel, on the hillside opposite, actually in Goodwick, with a view over Fishguard Bay. This was where Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole stayed when making the film.

Back down on Fishguard Bay, The Cafe on the Quay is a cheerful place for tea, with a small gift area. Proceedings are presided over by jolly Jo, who will tell you about local events, boat competitions and music festivals, and people, such as the twins and the police.

The houses around the bay and throughout Fishguard are painted in contrasting colours, creams and greens, and blues and plums and pinks and rust red. The Town Hall is green, and that's where you find the tapestry about the ladies with their black hats and red shawls who helped head off an invasion by the French.

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

Fishguard tapestry and more to do

Fishguard is famous for the Welsh ladies with tall black hats and red shawls who repelled an invasion by French militia who thought the black and red were uniforms and the pitchforks were weapons. When? 1797.

The story is told in The Last Invasion tapestry currently displayed in the Town Hall above the Council Offices. Unfortunately this means that the town's main tourist attraction is closed weekends, evenings and bank holidays.

Understandably the people of the town, especially those in the open seven days a week Ocean tourist centre think the tapestry should be moved somewhere more accessible to the tourists. I agree.

More ideas on what to see from the Pembroke tourist site or the handy page on the Writers Holiday website, compiled by Malcolm Chisholm. The listing is designed to help partners of those on the Writers Holiday but it's helpful to everybody. (And if you haven't yet been on  WRITERS HOLIDAY, which includes painting courses, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, check it out.)
writersholiday.net

http://www.fishguardartssociety.org.uk/The%20Last%20Invasion%20Tapestry.html

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer and photographer, speaker.
My latest book is Larry the talking labrador.