St David's Cathedral

Backblipped for 12th April

Woke to thick mist but a fair forecast so up to St David's cathedral. Paid our entry plus small donation then stung for a £2 permit to take photographs, so I took plenty! It's a very impressive cathedral, with fine Norman arches, many variedly patterned floor tiles and a wonderful array of misericords (extra of that on the Royal Stall). I should have liked a background of church music, with pop so prevalent everywhere else but the hymn-tune-needlepoint kneelers in the choir made up for this (extra 2 for Cynthia). Lunch in the modern refectory cafe then a walk around the town before visiting the Bishop's Palace - a fine building considering it was inexpensively built, with many stairs to attain a unique view of cathedral and gatehouse (main picture).

We planned to walk to St David's Head but the carpark charging a flatrate of £5 meant we, like several other cars, turned round; we  drove on to Abereiddy Bay for our beach-and-rock wander, then to the Blue Lagoon, a disused slate quarry with ingress from the sea, so now a huge, but extremely deep, rockpool. One intrepid irresponsible man decided to ignore the warning notices and strip off for a swim, shouting out how cold it was (so much for 'peaceful') I forbad Mr Flum to rescue him if he was in difficulty, even tough his wife and baby were watching (what? callous? me?) - Mr Flum confined himself to excellent stone-skiffing, I to selecting one souvenir stone among so many...

Looked in on Porthgain, once a hive of industry including brickworks and harbour, now a quiet backwater.