7:30 am
This morning we ate a typical Welsh breakfast---black pudding (pig's blood), cockles, laverbread (seaweed), tomatoes, mushrooms, potato cakes, herb sausage and bacon. Some of it was good----
The waiter wouldn't tell us what was what until we finished!
After breakfast we visited a market across the street. Nice local market with typical Welsh food and wares.
We were picked up by the rental company where we got our car for the next few weeks. Sally took the first driving shift to Carmenthanshire.
We drove to a few churches and cemeteries and actually found some Dyers.
Went to a little country store to ask where Rose Cottage might be. This was where my grandmother visited when she visited in 1926. The owner asked who we were looking for. When we said the Dyers he picked up the phone an called a friend, Audrey Dyer.
Audrey met us and took us to the Rose Cottage.
Her husband, Peter Dyer, came by and in talking we discovered both our Dyer families lived on the same farm in the area. What a coincidence!
Sian, our new Canadian friend, joined us for dinner and then Sally and I drove back to Neath. We proceeded to get lost and came upon the old ruins of the Abbey Neath. Too dark for pictures. Fantastic!
Back at the hotel we were talking to the desk clerk who is from Swansea. She volunteered to take us to Swansea tomorrow afternoon after she gets off work. While talking with her a group of four ladies came by---very inebriated and very funny. There were celebrating a birthday. They were so excited to see us, hugging us and saying how they love Americans! We were immediate celebrities!
Meanwhile the restaurant manager, who is Spanish wanted us to meet his "lady friend", Irene, who is Welsh. He phoned her and she came right up to the restaurant to talk with us. They took all of us (Sally and I and the hotel clerk, Kelly) back to their house to hear a CD of a famous Welsh singer sing a song about the "Welsh knot". Very sad! Apparently, years ago Welsh children were forced to learn English. If they spoke Welsh the teachers put a rope around their necks and pulled. Some of the children actually died but nothing was done to protect them.
The singer advocated putting modern day signs in Welsh as well as English, which they now have. Today students must take classes in the original Welsh language.
In spite of gloomy weather today, the scenery was lovely. The fields are bordered in hedges and lots of sheep. Sally did a good job driving---only ran over a few curbs. Tomorrow is my turn. Yikes!
It is now 1:15am so I better get to sleep. (8:15 at home. Just talked to Jim)
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