Home -> Europe -> Great Britain -> Travelogue 2005 -> Wednesday 7 September

King Arthur, Celtica and to Aberystwyth

Yesterday was a nice and warm day, but now we have to put on a sweater when we leave the hotel. First we drive towards Corris to visit the King Arthur's Labyrinth. By boat we first sail through a cave and then walk from room to room, accompanied by a sound and lightshow and the Welshe tales about the 'real' legend of koning Arthur who lived in Wales, undoubtedly. A very nice experience, even though the cave is not as spectacular as being said, but the ride certainly is.

At Machynlleth we take a break and see that the local bell tower (many villages have one) is in danger: 150,000 pounds funding is necessary to rescue it. Well, we think we have contributed enough to the British economy with all the high prices here!

Then we visit Celtica, the Celtic museum in Machynlleth. According to the leaflets a visit worth, but the museum is a pack of images and articles copied from all kinds of websites. There is indeed a lot of information, but the way it is presented is very chaotic and poorly organised. We walk through it quickly and don't find it very attractive to read the loose bits of information. It is easier (and cheaper) to do your own search on the internet. There is also a multimedia tour but we skip that because of the price. And here also signs asking for money since the museum is about to go bankrupt. Our advice: first lower the prices so more people come to visit and then hire some professionals to make it an attravtive place with better ordered information.

After this somewhat disappointing visit we drive on to Aberystwyth, the capital of northern Wales. Despite the cold weather there are a few brave people who dare to walk along the coast, but we find it too windy and too cold.

We park the car near the sea and walk through the castle ruins, with a stone circle stands in the middle, to the town center. In its original state this castle must have been quite impressive and as far as we could find out, an original Welsh castle. Most of the castles in Wales were build by the English king Edward I after he had conquered Wales, to keep the Welsh in check.

The town is not only a university town with an important library, but also a well known seaside resort. Today it is chilly and the beaches almost empty, but with nice weather it can be very crowded here. But in the center of the city it is very crowded, don't these people have to go to work?

After walking around for some while, we drive to the north side of the boulevard and take Cliff Railway, a small tramway, to the top of the Constitution Hill. Even with this cloudy weather the viw is quite nice and we also visit the largest camera obsura in the world (the entrance is free when you have a tramway ticket). But we don't stay outside very long and quickly return to the warmth of the car.

At night we watch televion for some time waiting for the weather forecast, but we have to wait for a very long time. And when it finally is there, it is told for the whole of Great Briatin within 90 seconds! We think it quite strange since the weather is one of the most favourite topics to talk about for the British, especially because it is so unstable. When you ever see a news broadcast on Dutch television, notice how much time is spend on the weather forecast. And on every tv station almost every hour! In Holland the weather has become big bussiness. Finally something the British could learn from us: tell about the weather in Machynlleth on the local radio and television station every hour, search some sponsors and the bell tower is saved in a couple of weeks!

I have to go down a few times, thinking of all sort of excuses, like having forgotten things from the car, trying to arrange something nice for the birthday of Elisabeth tomorrow. She really thinks I have forgotten it... But except a special birthday breakfast I can't arrange anything, even a breakfast in the castle is not possible.

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije