Moving on to Pembrokeshire

---

Up early to talk to our girls before breakfast. It was 5pm in Melbourne , and they were off to celebrate my brother's birthday. We had breakfast, after our chat, then packed and moved on from Tudor Lodge. The weather again was unfavourable, and as we travelled, we went through patches of heavy rain. We were aiming to find the Tal-y-Lynn Railway on our way to Solva and thought we needed to go to Tywyn, where the railway begins. This railway was the first to open as a conservation railway. The Rev. W.A. Awdry (who wrote the Thomas the Tank engine books) wrote about the Lititle engines on this railway, Skarloey and Rheneus. As we were travelling to Tywyn, we came across a sign pointing us to the railway (one of the stations along the line) at Abergynolwyn. They had a tea room where we got a cup of coffee and waited the 10 minutes for the train to come in. I went to take a picture of the train, and the driver and fireman posed for pictures and had a chat. They were delighted that we had stopped to see the trains, and knew about the stories. The driver then took a picture of Peter and me next to the engine. We ended up also stopping at Tywyn station, but had only the chance to take a photo as the train rolled out of the station. We then went on towards Pembrokeshire. We kept our eyes open for a cafe for lunch, but we didn't see much open at all in the country. We eventually found a cafe in Cardigan, close to the castle. We had a lovely seafood chowder with a couple of rolls. Just what we needed on a cold grey day. We kept travelling towards Solva - our final destination for the day. The gps took us up and down by small roads, and we did wonder if we would ever get there. Luckily we did! We knew that our booked accomodation was unavailable at the last minute, and so needed to find the alternative that had been arranged. We had also booked to have dinner at the same place a few days ago. Our new accomodation is in the Cambrian Hotel, at the lower end of Solva, near the harbour. Having been in the car all day, we walked around the area. The tide was a long way out. The boats were lying on the sand, and the sea was a long way away. We enjoyed the walk , and exploring the area. Evensong at St David's Cathedral ( about 10 minutes away in the car) was what we had planned before dinner. The service was interesting, with parts in English and other parts in Welsh. The music was lovely, and this time we were even able to sing too! Back to our hotel for dinner. It was a delicious meal. (Starters- calamari and Brie and mango parcels, Main local lobster Thermidor, and dessert- strawberry cheesecake and triple chocolate tart)

---

Photos

The houses in Solva
The green building is the Cambrian Hotel