Cardiff and its castle

Cardiff is an exciting city with culture, an abundance of good restaurants and bars, lots of shopping. And it has a very historic castle. We we were impressed and really enjoyed the city.

A village of books

This town has more bookstores than pubs, by far. That's unusual in the UK. Hay-on-Wye is a charming medieval village in beautiful countryside on the river Wye near the English border. It has dozens of used bookstores, some specializing in rare books. Bookstores are in a castle, in old churches, in the many shops that line the hilly, winding streets of the town. Once a year it holds a 10-day book festival, drawing speakers and visitors from all over the world. There are nearly 500 exhibitors and speakers. A previous speaker was President Clinton; this year they will have David Frost, Sting, Hugh Masekela, Check out the Hay Festival.

Twenty Ten should be a very good year

The Twenty Ten course was built expressly for the Ryder Cup in 2010, of course. Although it isn't a links course, it takes advantage of the unique Wales landscape, winding through valleys, and up one big hill, around lakes and along a fast flowing river. The course was outstanding, but the facilities and the service were unbelievable. The locker room, set up for the two Ryder Cup teams, was waiting with lockers with our names on them. The clubhouse set up just for this course was extensive. Your clubs are waiting at the driving range, just next to the first tee.

Links golf at its best: Royal Porthcawl

It drizzled on and off during the mid day. We arrived at Royal Porthcawl apprehensively. But the sun came out and a beautiful afternoon, playing in the dunes, overlooking the sea was enjoyed. It's rated the best course in Wales, one of the best in Britain and Ireland. Ruth birdied the first hole. It started raining again just as we were finishing our round.

Not a theme pub

Plough and Harrow has not changed for over 700 years. Except pirates don't hide dead bodies there any more, or so they say. Still it has a roaring fire, many beers on draft, and ploughman's lunches. We enjoyed really good soup and bread in the cozy pub.

One lane roads; two way traffic

The Flybe ticket agent, obviously not Welsh, said, "We don't fly to Wales." We said we were on one to Wales at 7 am. He said, "The flight at 7 is to Cardiff." We got on. It was a clear day so we could see hundreds of green hills and vales of Wales from the air. On arrival our host, Mike with VisitWales, drove down lanes, er roads, just barely wider than the small car, pulling into tiny widenings when cars came the other way. It was through pretty rolling farmland to begin our first day's Welsh adventure.

East Lothian

On Sunday we headed to the East of Edinburgh to another beautiful area of Scotland, East Lothian. We played one of the best of the many golf courses in the area. It was nice and warm when dressed as shown (4 layers). Members' Club House in rear is Gullane Golf Club-we played #1.

Crail on the Trail

On the Fife Coastal Trail, from St Andrews, we found an artisan community with cobblestone alleys, a trail along the sea, a small fishing boat harbor with multi-colored lobster traps--the medieval village of Crail. We contemplated life whilst sitting on a bench beneath castle ruins. And then Ruth checked out property listings. [photo to come]
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The Old Course of course

You can watch the British Open (or the Open as they call it here), read about it, but one doesn't really get the Old Course at St Andrews until one plays it. With the help of caddies, we stayed fairly safe, only experienced a few bunkers between us, and enjoyed every hole on Saturday. Weather cooperated too; it was chilly, but low wind and bright, finishing with some sunshine.

Hotels, from funky inn to country inn

After last night's unique inn (last post), on Friday we stayed and dined at the beautiful Rufflets Country House Hotel. Very refined, surrounded by gardens and fields, with excellent service, and a very nice comfortable room.

Funky hotel, frightening fabulous course

It didn't rain. The wind died down (a bit). The sun even shone for a few holes. On Friday we played the beautiful Castle Course at St Andrews, just opened last summer. We heard it was too difficult, so they cut down some of the bumps in the fairways. You forget the difficulty as you look over the sea and down at the town and enjoy the setting of natural sand and grasses. The hotel last night was the historic Inn at the Lathones. Our room was "Danish Modern" according to Ruth, with a patio looking onto a field of sheep. We were in the Paul McCartney suite.

Raining at the "Home of Golf"

Drove in a drizzle to St Andrews this evening. We're playing the Castle course in the morning. We are prepared, but still hope for a bit of "partly cloudy."
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Bagpipes

Arrival night, Tuesday, was a welcome party by VisitScotland at Museum of Transport where we helped the welcoming bagpiper; then spent a full day Wednesday at VisitScotland Expo. Dinner was greatly enjoyed in a unique, stylish Scottish bar/restaurant in the Merchant City section of Glasgow, Café Gandolfi.

Canals and Cappuccino

We had reason to forget coats in Amsterdam. During a four hour layover, we took the train to city center–it was a glorious day–warm, sunny, and streets cram full of activity. We walked, visited stores, had a coffee, and made the airplane to Glasgow. By the way, we had cappuccino at the coffee shop, not what most other people buy in coffee shops. Clue: Zigzag man.

Lost coats in two airports

Wearing three layers and carrying coats we probably looked a little weird boarding in 90 degree weather at LAX. Wouldn’t have looked that way in Mpls. where we had a two hour lay-over…we read, ate, got ready to board when Ruth said, “Where is your sports coat? Whoops, where is my jacket?” Tom raced, bum knee and all, back to the arrival gate. A very nice Northwest ticket agent saved our coats from the plane about to head for Orlando (who would need a coat there?). We thought we wouldn’t do that again. We didn’t - until our next stop, Amsterdam AP: when departing to Glasgow we boarded the plane and Tom said, do you have my coat? Back up the airplane aisle, against traffic, down the ramp, Tom found the coat in the waiting room. How ‘bout that double luck.

Biking in California (on a cooler day)

Warm California to Layers

It’s 85 degrees in Simi Valley today. We bicycled to Target to get some last minute supplies. Wore shorts, short sleeves, typical summer dress (spring in California). We are preparing several layers of wear for Scotland and Wales, especially for golf.

St Andrews 2007

This was 2007 at St Andrews Old Course. We are looking forward to our return next week. Last time we didn't have time to play in Scotland, but this time we built in time.

Preparing to travel

Getting ready is a time of anticipation, excitement, and near panic. While we prepare for the details of the itinerary, the main thing we think about is "how do we get our jobs done here first?" The excitement wins out, though, and the coming departure time helps one to focus on the job to be done.