We have really enjoyed our stay at our little house in Llandeilo but we need to move on so we set our this morning heading Northeast across the top of the Brecon Becons National Park. It wasn’t until we reached the more easterly part that we could see the mountains rising up to the south.
we almost reached the border of Wales before we arrived at our first stop for the day, Hay-On-Wye, a small town famous the world over for . Its reputation is of a town packed with bookshops and as the venue for the annual Festival of Literature .
We parked and went through a wander through the streets.one of the first gems we found was to Honesty Bookshop at Hay Castle, tucked away behind a stone wall on the Main Street. Help yourself and leave 2 pounds per book.
We enjoyed a while meandering through the huge bookshop of Richard Booth. In the early 1970s, Booth opened a second-hand bookshop in Hay-on-Wye. He requested local Hay-on-Wye residents to buy and ship books back to Hay-on-Wye to be re-sold, other booksellers followed Booth, until the town became known as “Town of Books”. We dropped in to browse into various bookshops, some that really specialize such as “Muder and Mayhem” where the focus is on detective and crime stories. Adderly Books has piles of books on every surface including the floor!
From Wye we continued northwest for another hour until we reached Ludlow, a lovely little medieaval market town where the central market square is ringed by streets of lovely Tudor and Georgian buildings. Today just happened to be market day so we wandered around the market and treated ourselves to a selection from the licorice stalls, as well as lunch!
From Ludlow is wasn’t far to Much Wenlock, a lovely medieval town which played a major part in the 19th century revival of the Olympic Games. It is the home town of Dr William Penny Brookes, the inspiration for the modern Olympic Movement and founder of the Wenlock Olympian Society. In recognition of its sporting heritage, the 2012 London Olympic Games named one of their mascots Wenlock!
We walked through the pretty town and admired the ancient Guildhall on our way to see the ruins of Wenlock Priory. The huge Normand priory fell into ruin after Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries but the ruins are still very lovely today.
After that it took only another 15 minutes to reach our final stop for the day, Ironbridge Gorge. In 1986 the Ironbridge Gorge was one of the first locations to be designated as a World Heritage Site within the U.K. . This designation recognised the area’s unique and unrivalled contribution to the birth of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century; The world’s first iron bridge was erected over the River Severn here in Shropshire in 1779 and it is still here , gracefully arching across the river. We checked into the Best Western Valley Hotel,but It took us a while to get up to our room though, as it is tucked up under the eaves at the very top of the building, we even have to climb a small flight of steep stairs to reach the bathroom in our room! Then we walked down to see the famous bridge before heading back for a drink at the bar and dinner. The sun came out as we sat in the back garden under the gazebo and our dinner in the hotel restaurant was excellent. A lovely end to the day!
