Sherlock Holmes and his palm pilot rode with us by train to Aberystwyth

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Helo from Wales! We arrived here on Monday afternoon after a fantastic train ride via Birmingham and then to Aberystwyth where my friend Daf lives. Daf and I met in Grenada last summer on our mission trip. Throughout the countryside we saw many sheep (defaid), some even running up hill... silly sheep! As soon as you cross over into Wales the geography changes quite significantly into rolling hills and small mounts. The sky was so blue and the weather was phenomenal. At one stop an elderly gentlemen dressed complete with a brown trenchcoat and Sherlock Holmes hat boarded our car; I broke out into silent laughter as this appeared to have been out of a movie. The strangest thing was, no sooner than a couple of minutes later he was typing away on his palm pilot. I felt like I was in a bit of a time warp whereby Holmes was integrating himself into the 21st century. We got photos.

Daf was there to meet us at the train and walked with us to the guest house that he lives in... it's no longer run as such, but there are over 6 rooms in the house. All the houses here have names... this one being Bryn y Don which essentially translates to wave by the sea. The actual street name is Bridge Street or (Pont) street. Note all the words in brackets are the Welsh words we are learning. We went for lunch at the Blue Creek Cafe and then went for a beautiful but windy walk along the prom. The houses are pained in different colours as they face the sea. There are remains of the old Castle (Castell) that we walked through-it always amazes me how old the history is here on this side of the world, as Canadian history seems so young. We passed the marina and then headed back to chat over tea (panad)-Daf loves panad. 12 cups daily. Sounds good to me. Mom, you would love that. In the evening we went to walk back to the Prom and watched the sun set, as it faded what appeared to be literally in the water, we followed its descent. Far better sunsets on the sea. Dafydd's father was passing through town in the evening and we went out for pizza upon his arrival. Here is the meal description for this blog: Hollywood special pizza topped with ground beef, ham, onions, peppers and corn, with cheese of course--- music to my mouth! Like having nachos on pizza bread. It tasted so good. Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without a pint so we headed down to the Bellevue Hotel (BV) and drank some local brew. Jenn had a Hancock's and I had an S.A., Daf had Brains and his dad of course Guinness. A perfect end to our first day in Wales.
Favourite line: that's just a bunch of pagan twattle. --Mr. Tudur.

Loving it here very much... more to come in part 2.
love Katy

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