Blogs from St Davids, Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

Sunday, 30 July 2023 and a day of rest in St Davids. St David is the patron saint of Wales. Wikipedia has some information on this fifth or sixth century religious leader of Wales. The link below relates to his mother https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Non The story of his birth is above but his mother, St Non, was thought to have been raped and gave birth in a severe thunderstorm. Her hands gripped a rock so intensely that it cracked while she was giving birth. Some of the thoughts about St David are here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David Yesterday we visited the Cathedral so most of the photos are from this viewing. I enjoyed this poem posted in the cathedral "The Accidental Pilgrim I don't know why you've arrived, whether just because we're there, or out of faith's determination, like the myriads ... read more

Thursday 27 July 2023. Day 11 on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. We have now walked just over 100 miles of the 180. Alltrails app: 4 hours 50 minutes walking. 10.06 miles, 1050 feet elevation gain. Garmin forerunner 25. 4 hours 47 minutes walking. 9.89 miles. 1042 elevation gain. We had a great breakfast in the Castle. It is a HIGHend BnB. Jones Coastal Taxi picked us up at 0900 and drove the 25 minutes to St Bride's to begin the walk today. Possible rain but we are hoping the fog and mist will clear. We walked through Little Haven then Broad Haven and end in Nolten Haven today. We were at high tide so no beach walks. We had to do all the steep climbs. It started with a rather long climb then undulated through the ... read more

So let's talk about a quiz question? Where is the smallest city in the United Kingdom? Answer - Thanks to Pembrokeshire council Gabby is currently parked up on a leafy almost empty car park. Out of the front windscreen we can see the ruined but impressive Bishops Palace and the small cathedral of St David. St Davids has a cathedral. a bishop who sits upon his throne and a population at the last census in 2011 of 1,841 . It was originally granted its city status due to having a cathedral but this was lost and only restored in 1955. St Davids appears to be a one man street. Probably it has a High Street or a Main Street, a Church Street and a Chapel Street but little else. Am I being a little unkind now? ... read more

You may tire of my superlatives when I describe the sights here, but let me tell you: I don’t tire of seeing them! Wales is truly wondrous; they must have invented green. Yes, I know, there’s Ireland ahead (I go Saturday), so emerald is the color of October for me this year... One problem in showing you all this is that, as I drive through all this gorgeous scenery, there’s a dearth of places for me to pull over to photograph them. Along the highways, there are “lay-bys” (pulloffs), but each one is heavily thicketed, blocking the view. And out in the country, there is virtually no hope, as locals ride my bumper if I dare to slow for a driveway or turnoff. So, I’m cheating, sort of - I’ve found some good photos online of ... read more

Waking up this morning and looking out the window there was some blue sky visible! Something we hadn't seen for a few days! Down to a delicious breakfast and then off to start our day at St David's. On our way through Solva, we noticed that the harbour had water in, so stopped to take as photo . Then on to St David's. We parked the car in the cathedral carpark, and went first to the ruins of the Bishops palace. This was quite a grand building- amazing considering the bishop at St David's had a budget of 350 pounds per year, while the one in Durham had 3000! ( this was a few hundred years ago!) There was good descriptions in each of the rooms, and we spent a while looking over the buildings. We ... read more