Farewell Aberystwyth, Hello Tenby

 First off, a warning to all us Americans out there that enjoy ice cream after dinner: All the places that serve ice cream close at 5 or 6 pm! Which is a problem if you don't get back for dinner from your tour group until 5! D:  It's tough to even find a convenience store with single-serve ice cream! Trust us, we've been going on long walks after dinner and it looks like we're enjoying the town and getting to know our way around. FALSE. We are looking for ice cream!

We didn't start our day looking for ice cream. Since we're staying at a B&B, we get B made for us when we get out of B in the morning! This was our last day in Aberystwyth so we checked out of the Helmsman B&B. It was a decent place. The bathroom was the best part, to be honest. It was nice and spacious! But I digress. We woke to the sound of wind and rain hitting the window, but by the time we were checked out and waiting for the Rabbies van at 9 am it was done raining and already a nice temperature outside.

On today's tour we started with a brief stop at Cardigan Bay.  I think I'm starting to see the trend here. Half hour stops in a village and then a 2 hour stop at some sight (usually a castle, since Wales has the most castles per square mile than anywhere in Europe), and maybe a sight or two that we will drive past.

Anyway, today's theme was the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Mr. "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night") since he had his grubby, drunkard, bohemian mitts on many places in Wales, as he grew up in Laugharne (pronounced laurn) and drank in literally all the pubs and created beatnik poetry. Not my scene at all but I was able to listen to my audiobook while our guide Nick played some examples of Dylan's poetry and writings. Small aside: apparently this is a Rabbies tour thing, which is to play the music of the area or from artists that came from the areas you will be touring. So far Wales has been male choirs, Dylan Thomas poetry, and Tom Jones. I have finished one audiobook.

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, Cardigan bay, where there are dolphin sightings but not by us. We did get a yummy Belgian waffle and a hot chocolate and looked out at the sea.

Or a Jammy Dodger instead of a waffle

Next stop was our 2 hour see something (usually a castle) and it was a manor house! ... built near a castle. BUT STILL. I've been wanting to see a posh country manor. It was pretty toned down and not dripping in Victorian or gothic glitz, but it was still fun to explore. Dinefwr Estate (pronounced dinnefar) is famous for it's White Park Cattle (which were in a field far far away) and its deer park (which was closed) and castle ruins (which were too far to walk to and tour the house) but it had a yummy cafe for lunch (we had welsh stew called cawl (caool)), a really nice tour lady who showed us the spooky paintings, and a mummified cat in the floors that apparently was put there to ward of evil spirits or some such mysticism. 

We did get to see a famous celebrity: a couch used in Downton Abbey! :O

Oh yeah, forgot to tell y'all, we bought this mansion in Wales and we live here now. Bye

Ghooooostly faaaaace! Or a previous painting painted over. You decide.

The ghost of the child that DID die. Apparently there were four children when this painting was commissioned, and then one died, so they painted over the child and just forgot about them. The rich were are callous.

Next stop was Laugharne, another short half hour to stretch our legs, wander about a small town, see castle ruins that aren't open on Wednesdays, and also see Dylan Thomas's boathouse. I walked the river path and looked for cool birds (nothing new for my E-bird pokedex), but it was the perfect temperature outside so it was a pleasant walk.

Now we're in our accommodations for Tenby, a B&B called Southcliff and there's a cool thunderstorm going on outside that I watched for a bit. It all held off until we were done traveling for the day! The weather really has been fantastic! Perfect pants, short sleeves and a jacket weather. We had some delicious and fresh seafood at Qube (CUBE). Seriously the best shrimp I've ever had in my life!

Okay, enough from me, I know you all want to hear Jeff's wisdom of the day:

Tenby has been gorgeous so far. I enjoy a good classically walled village. 

A man of few words I see, but we're both pretty tired! Night night!