A Day Trip Through South-West Wales

After our lovely morning at Tintern Abbey, our wonderful chauffeur Jon took us on a whirlwind trip through South-West Wales. Our first stop was this lovely beach in Swansea where we acquired some of the best ice cream I've ever had at Joe's. I had mint chocolate and you can read all about the awesomeness here.

After a quick drive-through tour of Swansea (and a quick view of Oystermouth castle, founded in 1106), we continued on to the Gower.

The Gower is a penninsula (and park, really), in Wales. It is an official "area of outstanding natural beauty" and houses 6 castles and some amazing views. Oh, an a dormant volcano. Snap! On our brief walk we only saw a small percentage of the park, and there is much much more to explore at a later day.

This is Pennard Castle. And here's a building tip for you. If you're going to build a castle on a sand dune, keep in mind this castle will sink. Case in point: Pennard Castle. Jon told us that up to 2/3rd of the castle is now below the sand. The large 'door' you see above is actually the top of the once huge doors, and would've been the point that the draw bridge opened up to.

The present building has been there since the late 13th or 14th century. And it has one hell of a view over what I think is Mumbles beach:

Damn.

(And you cannot see in this photo, but there are cows on the beach. Yup. Cows. It was a hot day.)

Pretty impressive castle. And quite a picnic location.

Onto our next stop!

Our next stop was Rhossili beach and Worm's Head (the name of the island at the top of the picture).

This was the view from our pub-lunch stop. Could've stayed all day at this pub, with a view like that.

Jon also pointed out that this was apparently the ruins of a Spanish ship. All you can see now is the bit that sticks out of the sand, the rest is buried far beneath the beach. No gold, though.

And see that little white speck on the top right-hand side of the picture? That's a beach house. You can rent it for 500 quid a week, and it sleeps 8 people. Who is with me?!

Wouldn't be a bad view to wake up to every morning.

Unfortunately that was it for our whirlwind trip as we had to make the drive back to Cardiff to catch the bus back to London. There were so many things along the way that I'd love to go back and see, so this is definitely on my to-visit list for the future!