Cornwall – Wales – Killarney

 

Photo 1: at the Roman Baths, Bath.
Photo 2: brass band in a park at Bath. A lovely tradition lives on here.
Photo 3: view of Millenium Stadium (scene of Australia's Rugby World Cup victory) from Cardiff Castle.
Photo 4: Blarney Castle. Note the very narrow windows. The winding staircase is so narrow and dark that anyone suffering claustraphobia could not use it.
Photo 5: as Sue is a Murphy we had to get this shot.

On Saturday we travelled through Cornwall to Glastonbury to see the ancient ruined Abbey which is one of the possible sites of King Arthur’s grave. From there we drove to Bath to see the Abbey and ancient Roman baths. The baths have undergone some restoration and are pretty impressive. As you travel through Europe you are frequently reminded of the extent of Roman power and influence on the history, government, language and culture of this continent.

Ian, our guide, told us the origin of the nursery rhyme ‘Little Jack Horner’. Like most nursery rhymes it was satirical. Thomas John Horner was steward to the Abbott of Glastonbury who owned 20 estates.  King Henry VIII was busy burning Catholic churches and seizing its property, so the Abbott thought he could save something by sending Horner to the King with the title deeds to 10 of his estates. But Horner took only nine to the King and kept the deeds to be best one – the ‘plum’ in the terminology of the time. The Abbott did not get away with his trick but somehow Horner managed to keep the estate he stole and it still belongs to his descendants.

We arrived in Wales that afternoon and had dinner at Cardiff Castle together with a show of Welsh singing in which we were encouraged to participate. The singers were amazed when they saw us singing Calon Lan with them word for word – no-one not Welsh had ever done that before, so we told them about The Gospel Folk when the show was over.  One of the girls sang a song about a girl’s many lovers and Phil, being front row, had the pleasure of having her sit on his knee and kiss him. He was smiling for days after.

On Sunday we travelled through the Welsh countryside to Fishguard and took the ferry to Rosslare in Ireland. From there we drove to Waterford. The countryside was very similar to that in Cornwall and Wales, being a patchwork of fields, woods, farmhouses, old churches and graveyards, and tree lined roads. However we noticed that the houses we passed seemed to be bigger and more modern than those in the UK, and the roads seemed to be in better shape – though mostly only two lane except for the motorway. But we also noticed that many houses in estates we passed were empty. Apparently huge amounts of EU money were poured into development in Ireland before the GFC, including grants to home owners of up to 70 per cent of the cost to rebuild their houses. So what looks like prosperity on the surface barely conceals Ireland’s plight of the past few years.

At Waterford we had hoped to be able to buy some crystal. However with the closure of the factory some years ago there is now only a shop that sells crystal made in the Czech Republic. Very sad.

On Monday we travelled to Killarney and visited Blarney Castle on the way. Phil walked the 100 plus steps up the tower to kiss the famous Blarney Stone – which requires a degree of flexibility he wasn’t sure he had. But he managed without putting his back out J.

That night we went to a pub called Murphy’s Bar and had the BEST time! It was a night of Irish singing – just the ticket for us. The singers noticed that we knew every word of the songs they were singing without reading the song sheets so they invited us to come up and help them sing Molly Malone. Trust the Knights to be ‘out there’. One of the songs they sang was Fields of Athenry, which made us think of Brian and Credo singing it so beautifully.

We have posted ANOTHER parcel home today – 5kgs again.  Not sure who all the stuff is for, but I think Lewis, Miss Sophie and Mr “Gizmo” had better have empty wardrobes!!!  It is such a joy to browse so many different shops – most of them are the size of a large shoebox, but have really interesting knick knacks.  The woollen shops over here are the “in” thing - but we are not carrying aran knit jumpers back despite their cheaper price.  And who wants to hand wash wool??