Weekend Retreat

To celebrate our tenth anniversary and to see more of our host country before we leave, we spent a weekend at St. David's, a former pilgrimage site on Wales west coast. Today the pilgrims are tourists who come to enjoy the well-preserved heritage in this tiny village. The biggest bit of heritage is the functioning cathedral which was started in 1181 and built on the site of St David's monastery. I don't know much about him but they say he lived to be 147 years old and became the patron saint of Wales. Bet he had a lot of wrinkles.

Beside the functioning cathedral is the no-longer-functioning palace. It was built by bishop Gower in the mid 14th century to augment his other real estate holdings and was financed by the 'donations' from the steady stream of pilgrims. Kinda like having the parking concession to Niagra Falls or something. Apparently two trips to St David's was equal to one trip to Rome. The remnants of a huge stone wall surround the cathedral, palace and grounds and was meant to keep out the ne'er-do-wells (those that couldn't pay the pilgrimage fee) and the Vikings. Not so successful at stopping Vikings, though, it got sacked a couple of times.

A beautiful place for a walk

But it wasn't the Vikings that did the place in, it was that damn Reformation. People started to be able to read and interpreted the bible for themselves, and in a local context. They began to doubt what the learned clergy were telling them and couldn't help but notice their accumulation of wealth. Going on pilgrimages became less fashionable and pretty soon the lead roof was peeled off for scrap.

Restoration has been ongoing for the last few hundred years. They've most recently added 'cloisters' for the education of new priests and a gaggle were being ordained when we visited.

Downtown St David's


The Grove. Our funky-fabulous hotel in St David's


On our way home we decided to take the backcountry roads and stopped at Newgale beach. Nice, huh?

From the trail above Newgale

We happened across Tenby, a very popular tourist spot for boating...

...and beaching...

...and strolling.

We also happened across Pembroke which, like any self-respecting medeaval town, has its own castle.

Pembroke in B&W

In all, a great weekend of great food, great scenery and great company. But our time here is ticking down, we fly to warmer climes (Croatia) in less than two weeks...better start packing.