Dearest friends, before the World Cup kicks off in less than 3 hours, and we get sucked into it and re-emerge in a month, let us tell you about our weekend in the Gower Peninsula, in South Wales.
View Gower, May 2010 in a larger map
Friday
It’s been a refreshing and much needed weekend. We left London on the Friday morning before the last Bank Holiday, with our friend Andrea, who was visiting us from Italy, and my cousin Diego, who lives in London. We hired a car from Heathrow, to avoid the mess of exiting central London, and drove some 180 miles along the M4. As we left the car hire to almost the very last minute, the company “only” had an estate Volvo V50 2.0 diesel, which suited us really nicely and made the motorway trip very enjoyable thanks to the cruise control.
We stopped at a Sainsbuy’s in Swansea to do some shopping for the next couple of days, and for some petrol as well. Unfortunately we got a flat tyre right there but were lucky enough to find a Kwik-Fit just round the corner, so we were off as if nothing had happened! The last few miles were a great drive along A and tiny B roads, often requiring slow speed and even stopping at wider spots to allow for cars coming in the opposite direction to get through. It’s been like that for the following two days!
We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the beach at Port Eynon.
In the evening we went for dinner at a nearby pub, where we had fantastic pies, “a few” drinks and some games of pool. Gioia became friends with a loon from Swansea and eventually we spent the evening with her, her boyfriend an another friend of theirs. We also sneaked into the landlady’s 60th bithday party!
Saturday
The following day the weather was the most horrible we could possibly find, but we knew it and weren’t stopped by it. We spent the morning at the Rosshili bay, a fantastic place that I am sure would be much nicer on a sunny day.
We then went for lunch by a nearby farm, where we tried a Welsh breakfast (with cockles and some black-ish algae, I think) and a typical Gower Breakfast, with local bacon, sausages, chips, everything much needed after the previous night drinks.
In the afternoon we started our castles tour, visiting the ruins of Weobley castle, towards the northern coast of the peninsula.
We got a bit lost later in the afternoon, and were not able to find another castle (shame on us) so we ended up at Tesco to sort the desserts for the evening, and on our way back we stopped at Mumbles to check out Oystemouth castle.
Sunday
The following day was already time for us to leave, so we packed and headed towards nearby Oxwich, to visit the castle and the beach.
From there we drove to Southgate, where we parked the car and walked across the Pennard Golf Club (with a high risk of being hit by flying golf balls and one gentleman’s club as well, as we apparently left the “marked” path) to reach Pennard Castle and the stunning view you get from the top of the hill where its ruins stand.
It was great to stop at Mumbles again to walk along the seaside area towards the Mumbles Pier, where we stoppeed for an icecream, and the lighthouse, before heading back to the M4.
The journey back to Heatrow on Sunday afternoon was as smooth as the way there, with no significant traffic on the M4 and with the car that allowed us to drive over 450 miles in three days with a single full tank, which didn’t seem bad at all.
Highly recommended
We do recommend the area for a short break. The Gower Peninsula is a lovely rural place, with some great beaches and a lot of history. For a longer period, like a week or so, I’m sure it’s a great place for cycling and walking around, too. There are many camping areas for tents, campers and so on, as well as many bungalow complexes (like the one we stayed at) that are all reasonably affordable. It all adds up for a fantastic break.
For all sorts of info, please do ask us, and the best website to check out is Gower Holidays.
