Birdsong's Trip to the UK and Ireland

At Shrewsbury Museum, learned the town’s history. Like so many UK towns, it was originally inhabited by early Neolithic farming people who lived in round houses of wood, sticks and straw. Later settled by the Romans due to its natural protection as a hill town, who stayed 400 years. They introduced water power and the first mills. When they left around 410 AD, the Church struggled to keep the Roman way of life alive. They succeeded in preventing Dark Ages in this area. Later, the mills made weaving a big industry, first using wool from Wales and later linen. In the next valley iron ore and coal were plentiful. 1709, Darby discovered the use of coke to smelt iron, making possible much bigger iron beams for building bridges and buildings. There were many generations of the rich Darby family.

Charles Darwin was born is Shrewsbury and went to a prestigious Boys’ School where he was a poor student. His parents wanted him to be a priest, but he was interested in plants, animals, and chemistry.

There are many Tudor era buildings here, built with pegs, no nails. All extant (still surviving) have been rebuilt.

In the square stands Old Market Hall, commissioned by Elizabeth I. The large meeting hall is on the second floor, leaving an open, colonnaded covered space for market day. The streets are narrow, pedestrian-only paths (two people wide) with the upper story of the Tudor buildings nearly meeting overhead. In those days, slops would be dumped from the windows onto the path. Street names: Fish Street, Butcher Street, Grope Street (for prostitutes). Short streets are called “shuts” because the street was gated and shut at night for safety.

Leaving the old hotel in Shrewbury, dragging suitcases from the third floor down winding staircases, we decided we want hotels with elevators.

The last night we ate at Loch Fyne and had Scottish Mussels.

Trying to book where to go next. When we were in the UK nine years ago, the Tourist Office would help you book rooms. No more – on your own. We wanted to go to Bath, but could not get rooms. Larry had Rick Steve’s online as a source, and I had a copy of Lonely Plant, England. Once we found a room we wanted, Larry would call to book. Still no rooms in Bath, even mid-week. Okay, we are near Wales. Let’s go to Cardiff next!

Oct. 4 - Cardiff

Train to Cardiff. Rain! 11th day in UK and our first day of rain since Manchester. We had seats facing a table and two seats on the other side, one occupied by a guy from Basel whose accent was so strong we could barely understand him. His method of travel was to purchase a ticket to and from, and hitch-hiked to get around. Often he did not have enough to eat. He complained that he was in South Texas near El Paso and could not get anyone to stop and give him a ride… for over ten hours. He was incensed, as if it is local’s duty to transport him. Looking at him now he looked like a bum. I would never give him a ride…

In Cardiff, staying at Novotel, with elevators! The modern hotel was build up against and incorporating an old brick warehouse, now the dining room. We could see the huge iron beams. The old building was in a warehouse district here, and at that time the wharf reached this area, where now it is over a mile away, Cardiff is a big, modern seaport city. Formerly, it was a huge shipping port, with rail cars bringing in coal and shipping it out. There is NO coal mined or shipped today.

We walked to town, where several old downtown streets had been made into pedestrian only. The main, middle street was lined with old hotels and buildings, now shops and restaurants. The next street over had huge modern office buildings and department stores, rebuilt after heavy bombing in WWII.

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The city was very crowded. There was a big ½ marathon the next day with runners from all over the world. Even at 4:30 in the afternoon, we couldn’t get a dinner table at any of the nicer restaurants. So we had a burger at a modern bar.

Sunday morning: light rain, and thousands of marathon runners running right by our hotel as viewed from our 3rd story window. Runners went by for three hours! Then the rain stopped and we walked back to town and visited the Norman Castle. It is beautifully preserved. The surrounding walls all still stand intact (restored, of course) surrounding a very large open courtyard with the small old Norman castle on a small hill at the far end. The site was first a small Roman fort. Soon after the 1066 Norman invasion of England, Cardiff was GIVEN to the Anglo-Norman ___, who built the fort to protect himself and invading countrymen from the angry local Welsh. Along a side was an ornate, opulent palace, remodeled in the ---. We took a tour, and the enthusiastic tour guy seemed delighted to have a blind person to take around, allowing Larry to touch surfaces and enter rooms off limits to most tourists. The Guide was probably trained to help the blind and rarely had an opportunity to do so. He was very enthusiastic! The palace rooms looked like they belonged to royalty, but the owner was a wealthy merchant who held a high position in the military.

Had dinner downtown at Ask Italian. The owner was from the same town as Valentino. Coached soccer on USA East coast. Had a great wine: I MURI Primativo.

Where to go next? Wanted to go to Bath, but still no rooms available. Booked Bristol, city close to Bath. Then to Penzance, Cornwall, sister city to Nevada City Where to go for the remainder of our time? Eastern & Southern England? More of Wales? Decided to go to North Wales briefly and then return to Ireland to “do” the counties north of Galway we missed last trip: Mayo, Sligo,Leith, Donegal, etc.

Oct. 7 - Bristol

Next to our Bristol hotel was St. Mary’s Cathedral – wonderful, musical. It played a whole hour one evening. Learned from a city bus tour: Bristol is another shipping port like Cardiff. And like Cardiff, its boom ended when they stopped shipping coal. They were involved in the slave trade, but are proud to point out slaves were not TRADED here. I imagine the slaves chained down in the holds while the crew partied before taking them on to Liverpool…1/5 of slaves died en route to US. This was deemed a reasonable cost of business. Less cost than tossing the rum or tobacco overboard…

Bristol is on the Avon, and ships sailed in on the high tide into the river/sea estuary. One big industry was and still is glassmaking, learned from the Romans. The area has the right earth for glass, and had plenty of coal. Bristol made the first clear glass. Our hotel was built onto an old brick warehouse-sized kiln, a big room with two story circular brick furnace-kiln in the center.

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