10 Sep. - Wales

 

Image: View across Conwy from the town walls

It's all about the journey?

A bus and three trains - all proceeded smoothly to plan + as ever, it is quite wonderful to simply sit + watch the gradual transformation of the landscape + built environment as it unscrolls beyond the carriage windows.

Fells + dales dotted with sheep + scattered farms + villages - to the flat midlands with hedgerows + larger, brick-built towns - on to highrise, crowded Manchester + then out once more to the coastal expanses of sand + sea to Conwy ...

Magic Conwy ... Inside its walls, all clustered, tall + narrow + full of names + sounds both strange but familiar.
A castle town.
A coastal town.
A town so new to my experience - yet so known since youth from stories, tales, fiction + fact.

Such an exciting arrival!

Notes: My family name, Wale, is most likely derived from the Germanic wahla, meaning stranger or foreigner. This was how the invading Anglo-Saxon tribes referred to the pre-existing British Romano-Celtic populace, who were progressively pushed westward into Wales, land of the strangers. I feel a strong emotional bond with this land despite never having been here until now. We were fortunate to stay in the terrace cottage at bottom centre of the image above.