Wales - Carmarthen and Laugharne

Weather was again forecast to be variable and mostly rainy but we set off for Carmarthen as Christine had to deliver a birthday card.

We parked just on the edge of the river and walked through a pedestrian shopping area

which Christine said used to be little shops and houses on narrow winding streets.

We walked around and up the Carmarthen Castle gatehouse but half of it was all that was left (the other half had been knocked down to build a courthouse and now city hall)

One thing that Carmarthen had was lots of information boards. Often describing what had been on the location of the current parking lots or shopping malls.

It was market day but it didn't amount to much, only one butcher and a couple of produce stalls, the rest were cheap clothing and "dollar store" stalls.

Next stop was the village of Laugharne (pronounced Larn) to see the castle on the Taf estuary.

There was a car boot sale going on in the parking lot and Chris perused it for small glass bottles (she's a collector) but had no luck.

The tide was going out and it was actually getting quite warm as

we walked along the waterside path to Dylan Thomas' house (just on the left of this picture).

This is Thomas' writing shed where he wrote most of his later works including "Under Milkwood". It was built as the garage for his house.

You can't go in, but can see through the door how it would have been when he used it. The views are beautiful, I don't know how he concentrated.

Along a path and down some stairs and there was his house, known as "The Boathouse".

We didn't pay the fee to see the house but went in the front door and downstairs to the patio area where a tea room was run out of this tiny little kitchen.

We sat in the sun, coats off, and indulged in coffee with scones, with, of course, strawberry jam and clotted cream.

Just as we were leaving a very dark cloud (see top of photo) came over and dumped torrential rain on us. We were soaked to the skin and hurried home to get changed and warm.