Monday, 2nd June                          Saundersfoot & Pembroke

Robyn writes: The weather forecast was not-so-inspiring today - rain and a top of 16 degrees! After a chat with Cait on Skype, we decided to head for some of my ancestral villages to see what could be seen of my Griffiths and Jones ancestors. (Unfortunately two of the most common surnames in Wales...)

Our first port of call was Jeffreyston, a little village about 10 minutes drive from where we're staying. This is where Pa's great-grandmother, Mary Griffiths was born circa 1800. It's on the top of a hill, and the parish church is the centre of the town. It's a Norman church but was extensively remodelled in the mid 1800s so isn't as Mary would have known it. Of course any old gravestones are illegible (they usually are) but there were quite a few Griffiths graves from the 1900s so the family is obviously still in the area. I'll do a special blog for all of the family interested in our Welsh ancestry!

Outside the Jeffreyston church

From Jeffryeston we drove to Pembroke, which is, logically enough, the main town for Pembrokeshire (just an aside here - our much-loved Corgi Max was a Pembrokeshire Corgi, but we haven't seen a single Corgi since we arrived in the UK - is the Queen the only one who keeps them???) Here we looked for more family churches - we think that Pa's great-grandfather William Jones was christened in St Michael's circa 1803. We finally found that St Michael's is a disused church in the main street of Pembroke, which is fairly stuffed with churches! It's in very bad repair and sadly was locked, so we couldn't go inside. We walked down behind the town to the lake area there and could see the old town walls and a defensive tower leading right to the castle at the end of the wall. There were nesting swans and lots of other bird wildlife. A poster said there were otters, but just like yesterday, they stayed well hidden!

 Looking towards the castle along the waterway

By this stage it was lunchtime, so we headed for Pembroke Castle, which was just at the end of the main street. It cost us 5 pounds each to get in as it's owned by an independent charity. We had a lovely lunch in their cafe (baked potatoes with chicken tikka - yum!) then set off to explore with the aid of the castle guide book.

 The great tower and the dungeon tower

 Inside the chapel - looks like they must have modern weddings there! (I don't think the fairy lights are medieval....)

 Amazing views from the top of the great tower

 Bloody spiral stone staircases!

Pembroke is another Norman castle and a lot of it is in very good repair. We were able to climb to the very top of the "Great Tower" (98 spiral stone steps - we counted!) After yesterday's long hike, my leg muscles were not impressed and made their views clear! And you might say that the speciality of Pembroke Castle is spiral staircases - there are so many of them...anyway, the view from the top of the tower was amazing and well worth the effort. Although the day has stayed overcast, there's been little or no rain and we could see for miles. There is also a cave underneath the castle which in medieval times was used as a store area, so we climbed down to see that too.

 Lex coming down from looking at the Great Hall

 The huge cave under the castle

The room where Henry VII was supposedly born

Anyway, we had a really good look around over several hours. The castle is famous for being the birthplace of Henry Tudor who became Henry VII and founded the Tudor dynasty. It had several good displays of life at different times in the castle's history. The castle saw fighting during the Civil War when Oliver Cromwell himself beseiged it and after the eventual surrender (they were starved out) the commander was executed. Then, of course, Cromwell had a lot of the castle defences blown up. I can't remember if we've written this already, but we've realised that when you find a heritage building in ruins, it's usually down to:

a) Henry VIII b) Oliver Cromwell or c) Adolf Hitler! (and just occasionally, all three!)

By this stage (after 3) I was really tired, so after a walk up the main street, we headed for the big Tesco at Pembroke Dock (adjacent to Pembroke). We did our 'big' grocery shop for the week, and after a quick drive around the dock area to check it out (an Irish ferry leaves from there!) we headed home for a cuppa and to flop in a heap. Tea tonight: Tesco's "mini chicken roasts" (complete with little balls of stuffing and tiny chipolata sausages!) and a tray of baked veges. Yum, and so easy!