Day 75

Day 75 Llantwit Major, Wales
Saturday 11th September
I can now undertsand why people can get excited about tracing family history. It wasn't even my family but I was blown away when we had a pint in The Old White Hart which was across the road from the Old Swan Inn and the Globe (now called the Tudor).

The owner of The Old White Hart, Graeme, was quite knowledgeable about the local history of the village and dug out a few books for us. Still not sure which inn belonged to Debbie's great grand father, I came across a page with an old photo of The Old White Hart and the text comfirmed we were indeed sitting in William Frederick Amos' inn! Graeme also told us that the Amoses owned many neighboring houses and that the Amos name was 'notorious'. Apparently the Amos family was mean and niggardly with their money - a genetic throw-back that seems to have eluded Debbie in shoe shops!!
We asked Graeme if we could stay the night in the pub and he found a room for us upstairs.

These small hotels date back to the 12th century, boasting large stone fireplaces, low roughly hewn timber ceilings and of course, the very stairs Debbie's grandmother sat on as a child (the stairs are just to the right of the dartboard).

We thought we'd better have a pint in the Tudor as well (this was called The Globe when Frederick's brother, Albert Amos owned it) Within minutes of ordering our drinks, a huge Welsh man appeared, "Your not from 'round 'ere are you?" Turned out he had toured Australia as a rugby player and sang in a Welsh male choir in the Opera House and regional centres. "D ya know where Ballarat is?" he asked. The world is shrinking!!

To spread our custom around, we had tea at the Old Swan Inn before retiring to our room above the disco at the Old White Hart. What a day!!

Took an afternoon stroll to the beach. Lots of round rocks 'as big as bowling balls' dividing the sea from the magnificent cliffs.

Views from the mountains as we travelled south through Wales.

Left:
Famous Welsh 'guard sheep' protecting the valeys.

Above: More hedge roads- all hell breaks loose when someone comes the other way.

The Dinas Mawddwy hotel we stayed in the previous two nights (near Aberystwyth). The hotel was set in luminous green hills bespeckled with sheep (with tails!). It was here that we met Mary and Michael who we clicked with and eventually visited in their home at Plymouth.