Thursday, 5th June                Saundersfoot - Tenby

Robyn writes: Had a lovely day today! We could tell things were on the up when we woke up to broad daylight this morning, so we got ourselves organised reasonably early and headed off to the nearby seaside town of Tenby at 9.30. It didn't take long to drive there, and we found a park right near the centre of the town quite easily (2 pounds for 2 hours - not exactly cheap). Tenby is an ancient walled city - essentially a town-shaped castle, really! Most of the original Norman wall is still there - built by the Normans in the 1300s to keep out the nasty, pesky local Welsh (who obviously weren't too thrilled with the whole Norman invasion thing....). We had a walk along the beachfront and it was quite high tide and COLD - about 14 degrees with a wind blowing, but there were all these Poms with T-shirts on and little sunfrocks. It's amazing what a sunny day will do! The beaches are big, sandy and beautiful, especially on a sunny day.

We had morning tea in the blue hotel on the corner

In front of the town wall at the "five arches"

Anyway, we found a lovely Victorian hotel right on the waterfront to have Welsh cakes and teacakes for morning tea, and by then it was a little warmer! We explored a bit more around the city area, then decided to go down to the harbour. This proved a bit difficult....we got back into our car as our two hours were nearly up, drove around, found the harbour....right near where our car had been parked anyway! By that stage our previous carpark was full, so we drove along a bit and parked in a highrise car park (worked out well; it was actually much cheaper than the one we'd been in previously.) With long term parking assured, we headed for the harbour to find out about cruises.

 Waiting for the boat

 Our boat coming into Tenby harbour

 

There were quite a few to choose from, and we selected one which went out and around Caldey and nearby Islands for 75 minutes for 10 pounds, which sounded like good value - and a much bigger, more comfortable boat than the other day! We had a bit of time to look around the area then at 12.20 we were at the quay waiting for our boat. The cruise was really enjoyable - there was a bit of swell but not too much, and it was a beautiful day to be on the water. We saw lots of seabirds nesting on the island, but sadly they have very few puffins, as Caldey Island has rats on it which eat the poor little nestlings :( We were lucky enough to see two seals - one swimming but the other one sunning itself unconcernedly and happy to pose for photos! (Two cruises - I now have one good puffin photo; one good seal photo!) The scenery as usual was very dramatic and rugged along the coastline and I'm sure it would be a geologist's dream with the rock formations you can see!

 

 Cormorants

My smiling seal photo  :)

After the cruise, we had a lovely late lunch in "Ocean", a cafe in a Victorian building overlooking the harbour. Lovely food, lovely views! Lex had the Cajun chicken and I had the leek and potato soup (figured I'd better have leek in Wales.) Then we walked up to the top of the hill to the Tudor Merchant's house there. This is National Trust so our entry was free, and it was fascinating to look around. It was built by a prosperous merchant on top of a single story 1200s house in the 1400s, and further remodelled in the 1500s. They have it furnished so that you can touch things, pick them up and work out how they were used, so it was really interesting. By the time we came out of it, we were amazed to see that the tide in the harbour had quickly gone right out and all of the boats were lying on the sand.

 Tudor merchant's house

 

 The tide's gone out!

 Albert the Good

 We'd hoped to climb up to the gunfort but the gate was locked

We walked around the harbour and up the hill overlooking the bay to the statue built in memory of Queen Victoria's husband, Albert the Good. It was built in 1865 as the official Welsh memorial to him, and is very impressive. Then we walked down onto the (now huge) expanse of beach with the aim of climbing the staircase we could see to the Victorian gunfort on the little ex-island which was now joined to the mainland. Unfortunately we got there to discover that the stairs are gated and locked and it's not yet open to the public, so we contented ourselves with scrambling around on the rocks, then I had a Pembrokeshire icecream. (When in Wales, do as the Welsh do!)

We walked up and around the shops in the city centre, which are just lovely, then as it was getting on for 5, decided to head off. We drove home via two little villages which may be ancestral localities of mine - Carew and Begelly, to find and photograph the churches there (will put full report onto a special family history blog so I don't bore everyone who's not a Jones or Griffith descendent to tears!), then finally home by 6 o'clock. Lex went for a walk down to Saundersfoot while I cooked tea. We've now had tea (spag bol) and it's currently just after half past 8 and still very light! And we're not to the longest day yet....

Lex took this photo outside at 8.35 and still daylight. It's now 9.20 and it's still quite light!