This is truly a luxury day for us. Unlike the last “zero day” where we still walked 7 miles (George is still whining that non-trail miles should count–I’m holding firm; no pack, no miles). We got up to meet George and Karen for breakfast at 8:30. Steve is an excellent cook. I’m getting used to the Welsh breakfast except I usually give my chicken abortions away. Steve let’s me order it without the eggs, mushrooms, and blood pudding. The baked beans and grilled tomato have definitely grown on me.
After breakfast, we headed over to the St David’s Cathederal. Because of the cathederal, St David’s is the smallest “city” in all of Great Britain. The current cathederal only dates back to about 1180, but the first cathederal predates that by several hundred years. It was destroyed by the Vikings in the late 11th century.
The community of St David’s has been around and thriving since about 550. It prospered because it was not immediately on the coast yet was still in the line of trade with Ireland. St David is interred here as well as St Caradoc and Gerald of Wales. The church has been added on to over the centuries and is a magnificent maze of chapels, sanctuaries, and treasuries. Early churches often were used for safe keeping of treasures during attacks.
After touring St David’s (and stocking up some pilgrimage points for the hereafter–St Davids was a major pilgrimage during the Middle Ages; 2 trips here = 1 trip to Rome, 3 = Jerusalem. St David’s and the Camino de Santiago should put me in good standing come deathbed) we stopped in for a spot of tea in the refrectory. (Money spent in a church–I’m golden Pony Boy)
Next up was the Bishop’s Palace which has fallen into ruin. The blame for this can be placed on the bishop who took the roof with him to use for his 3 daughter’s dowries when he left–celibacy was more of a suggestion than a requirement in the early church.
All this piety leads to hunger so we stopped at the Chocolate Shop to curb our appetites. George ate pretty much a pound of chocolate before we made it a block down the street. Pam forced me to stop after only one piece–the price of marriage and restraint. We also did a little grocery shopping because the pubs tend to be less frequent to the north of us now.
After a little down time for Pam, George, and me (Karen practically has to be tied down to get her to stop moving and even that doesn’t work–she wakes up most morning with up to 2000 steps already on her fit bit. She can’t be sleep walking because we’d hear her tent zipper.) we headed to the Farmer’s Arms Pub for some supper.
We were still about 40 minutes early, so we ordered a pint and decided to play a little dominoes to pass the time. It was a pretty even match except for Pam who couldn’t quite get the hang of the math of the game. She gets bored if numbers are involved in something we are doing. When we got up to go to the bar to order, Chuck and Betsy had just walked in.
We invited them to join us for supper. We refreshed our pints and had a pleasant supper with our new friends. Chuck and Betsy are even staying at the same B&B that we are at so we’ll see them again in the morning at breakfast. That will probably be about the last time we see them because they are planning on finishing a day or two before we are so they will end up passing us and not looking back. Chuck is a pretty fast walker. He strikes me as the type of man that is constantly on the go and is very goal oriented. I’ll bet he was some kind of business exec.
