Blogs from Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom, Europe

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Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea July 12th 2023

Wednesday, 12 July 2023 Our first full day in Wales. (Note to readers, scroll down to see all the photos) Cardiff, the capital of Wales with nearly 360,000 population, was a clean modern city with a university and wide pedestrian streets. Between the Cardiff Central Rail station and the Queen Premier Inn there were nice indoor malls and shopping streets. We visited the central market much like the central market in Budapest and other European cities. We sampled the Caerphilly cheese. This, " crumbly yet flavorful cheese that miners ate to replenish salt lost through perspiration in the coal pits - provides a savory Welsh response to the ubiquitous English cheddar." There is a two story carousel at the intersection of two of the pedestrian streets; a large stadium and the castle mention in the legends ... read more
Cardiff restaurant
Cardiff Central Market
Cardiff Central Market

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea » Gower Peninsula October 16th 2018

Sometimes I believe I’ve outlived my capacity to adapt, or at least to catch on... To explore Wales, I’ve rented another car. This is the third one I’ve driven in the seven weeks I’ve been here, and I was pretty excited to get a MiniCooper, since I’d not even sat in one, much less driven it. I got it in the rain, from a very busy agent named Charlotte. It may have been that she was getting wet standing beside me as I sat at the console, but she kept saying, “So, are you happy with the car?” And not in a good way - I think she was disguising impatience with solicitude. I had to go back into the office twice after signing all her forms, once to figure out how to get the SatNav ... read more
Parking is tight
We park where we can

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea July 17th 2018

My main reason for visiting south Wales was to immerse myself in the places important in the life of Dylan Thomas. On Monday morning, after a tasty breakfast near our hotel at Buon-Appetito, we walked back down Wind St and arrived at The Dylan Thomas Centre just after it opened at 10-30am. This contains an exhibition arranged around a chronoogical retelling of Dylan's short life. It is free to go in and contains many artefacts of his life. We spent over an hour here. Fletcher was pleased to discover that Dylan had won prizes for the handicap mile and cross-country running at his school, Swansea Grammar. We were able to listen to recordings made by Thomas himself, reading his own poems. In his youth he was a member of the Little Theatre in Swansea and acted ... read more
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Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea July 16th 2018

We had had 3 great days in London and it was now time to move on to the next part of our journey. Everyone whom I taught or who knows me well, knows of my love of the poetry of Dylan Thomas. His language and imagery lives on forever. I have not been to south Wales and especially Swansea and Laughaurne which were his birthplace and home so that's where we headed. We took a cab to Paddington Station, having bought our tickets the day before. Earlier we had breakfasted at Cafe Madeira. The train was scheduled for 10-30 and it was only at 10-20 that the board told us to go to Platform 2. There was a huge rush towards that platform and we walked to the fourth carriage and got on. It was packed. ... read more
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Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea » Gower Peninsula April 5th 2017

Woolly says – The sun was up but the females seemed intent on having a lie in, they just don’t seem to have the stamina these days! If he worked as hard as we do then he might understand! Woolly says – After what seemed like years of preparation and searching for all relevant items, car keys, camera’s and of course snacks for the journey our new car, Belle, was finally pounding along the tarmac and through the country lanes. First stop Swansea and one of Zoe’s suggestions for a day out at Planatasia. Having driven round the city several times I was about to suggest abandoning the car on the next car park and walking, as Jo drove the wrong way onto the next piece of road, I cringed and mimed that I was being ... read more
Posing
Beautiful birds
The pond

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea January 9th 2014

After a morning of work for Steve and me (well I went to work, I think steve pretend) mo picked me up so I could go to hers and change, steve arrived with the dogs as mo was doing the first few days of dog sitting. As usually we were running late so we set off for the airport the 3 of us (steve, cath and me) we picked dan up on the way at the turn off the motorway for porthcawl. Three hours later we arrived at Heathrow termimal 4, check in was relatively painless they checked to make sure we had our visa letters or we wouldnt be allowed to board. Next stop was security, yes we got our bag searched and so did dan ( the guy looked like he was going to ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea » Gower Peninsula February 23rd 2012

so not written in a while, been really busy with uni work, just got a fantastic work placement with a top fuel drag racing team, going to visit them in easter, will upload some pics of last years racing soon, cant wait. the weather was amazing last year! and i am now in a band, im the guitarsist even tho ive mainly learnt bass, but its punk music we will be playing so nobody will notice that i cant actually play... (in the words of sid vicious, "you pick a chord and go twang")... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea January 24th 2012

I am leaving for my round the world trip in 12 days, so I thought I would start an online blog so that my friends and family at home can follow my trip! All flights and major transportation are now organised as well as a few places of accommodation and I am starting to feel very excited! The next 12 days should go very quick as I will be rather busy seeing you all before I go :)... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea December 2nd 2011

so went for an optothomolgy appointment yesterday, (posh eye test) and it was the usual of the doctor looking at my eyes etc, then he puts some drops in my eyes so he can look at the back of my eyes, he then tells me to sit down and wait 15 mins. and slowly but surely as i was waiting my eyesight went blurrier and blurrier til i couldnt actually see anything, anyway he said it all looked ok, but i then had to walk to town, which was, erm, interesting, my pupils where the size of dinner plates which is quite wierd for me considering they are usually tiny!!!! they stayed like it for about 7 hours!!... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » Wales » Swansea November 29th 2011

yeah i thought to myself this morning..... i will walk to uni in ten when the rain calms down.... ten mins later...... the rain turned into a monsoon, so i walked for an hour in heavy rain and gail force wind, and i have no money to buy any food =( that will do for today...... read more




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