Brian and Ruth on holiday: Mid and South Wales

We've had a busy few days so there's quite a bit of catching up to do....

We set off from Wyn's place, again reluctantly (we could easily spend at least a week in each of these places as there's so much to see and the people are so friendly) but reasonably early as we were keen to stop off at Corris, a few miles down the road where there's a craft centre, and walks through slate mines. We were in time to get on the first tour of King Arthur's Labyrinth but, as it was Sunday, not many shops in the craft centre were open. Luckily one that was open specialised in woodwork and Fair Trade items from South America. So we had a look around the workshop and storeroom and Ruth splurged on an alpaca bedspread. The tour was through a slate mine and included King Arthur's activities in Wales - very good value, especially for Ruth who has always been a keen reader of King Arthur's stories and Welsh mythology.

We drove south through Llandrindod Wells, and stopped off for Sunday roast with a good number of locals doing the same (yummy!!!), Builth Wells and on to Hay-on-Wye. We made straight for Booth's Bookstore to see if Julia Robson (a cousin of Ruth's colleague John Robson) was at work. Unfortunately, she wasn't but her colleagues were very helpful and Ruth was soon chatting to her on the phone. We spent a few hours scouring the shops in this amazing town of 2nd hand bookstores for our favourite authors and came away with carry bags, planning how we'd make up for the extra weight in our suitcases when we take to the skies.

Brecon was our choice for the night. We wondered how we were going to find a place to stay as the Information Centres were all closedon Sunday, and so were most of the pubs we'd passed. So as soon as we entered the township and found a clutch of B&Bs, we parked and set off on foot. The first one we went into had off street parking, a room at ground level (by now we were getting a little tired of lugging our bags up narrow flights of stairs) and a very friendly proprietor, as we found everywhere in Wales. It turned out to be one of the oldest buildings in Brecon (built in 1640) and it took 2 of us to guide Brian safely through the archway that was built for horse-drawn coaches rather than modern cars with wing mirrors on both sides. After a few recommendations and one warning from our hostess, we set off to explore and find somewhere for dinner.

As we walked up past an old, and very ornate church, we overheard a taxi driver of a smart black car saying to his colleague, "I'm going to spray this thing silver. I've only had it 3 weeks and I'm already sick of cleaning it". After a bit more walking, we found the George Hotel staffed by a youthful but very sad looking barman who told us that the locals couldn't afford to drink anymore. It turned out they'd had a very busy lunchtime and this was just a quiet night. Before long, we had company - a chap who'd lived in NZ for a while in the 70s and had played in the Ponsonby 3rd Grade rugby team. Needless to say, he and Brian were soon reminiscing and shortly afterwards another local who'd visited NZ back in those days also arrived. So we had quite a good time drinking the local ales and chatting before they left and we sat down for dinner.

Next day, we went first to the Information Centre for advice on where to go on our last 1.5 days in Wales and then to the Mountain Information Centre for information about and good views of the Brecon Beacons. We had so much advice by then that we couldn't go wrong - yeah right! By the end of our time in Wales we learned that the peole are so friendly and helpful that you need to focus very carefully on exactly what the directions are. Anyway, we had an amazing time and travelled through a wide range of scenery, managing to find all the places we'd hoped to. We drove down through the Rhondda valley, including Trelochy, to Pontypridd, then on a scenic route around the back of the Brecon Beacons. At this stage we took a few wrong turns and asked a few very helpful people for directions. We stopped for lunch at The Red Cow pub where Ruth had a Welsh dish, Faggots and Peas - a bit like a Welsh version of haggis in a rich beef gravy with mushy peas. We were quite close to the Brecon Beacons at times, took a walk to some waterfalls and drove along a section of the Brecon-Abergavenny canal to Abergavenn.

We spent our last night in the UK at the Park Guest House in Abergavenny, which was perfect for us. It was run by a young, very well-organised couple who had returned that day from a holiday in Bath and our plan was to clean out the car and organise our bags ready for a quick getaway to Heathrow from the rental car drop off.

The lady at the Information Centre had warned us that many restaurants are closed on Monday evenings but she knew the Angel Hotel would be open for meals. So, after sorting out the car and our bags, we set off on foot to explore the town. This was the most cosmopolitan place we stayed in in Wales and we wondered what occasion the very well-dressed people were going to in the town centre as we searched out somewhere to eat. We decided The Angel was a bit over-pricedby our standards and settled on a pub with an attached restaurant that was filled with a bus tour - we started with an ale each and the barman said we could move into the restaurant when the people returned to their bus. We chatted to a few locals and learned that the event of the evening was the mayor's inauguration - all the "right" people were going along dressed to the nines. It was a short evening as they all (including a couple of visiting mayors) trooped back down the street while we were eating - Brian had an excellent rib eye steak and Ruth, who was determined to try the Welsh lamb, had a lovely lamb tagiine. We had a short chat with a young Welshman, sitting at the next table, who was extensively tattooed. We recognised some Maori designs which he told us came from the Internet but he had carefully planned his tattoos and they all had meanings for him.