The big mistake of the day came early, as we ate the fried toast for breakfast. There was enough grease in them to lube my cars! We made up for our early error by going to the local market across the street to get some cheese for lunch on the train. We took a cab back to the train station, and asked for a route to our destination for the day, Llantwrytd Wells, or something like that. Prompty ignoring the routing, we caught the first train and headed for Wales. Eventually, we stopped in Llandano, and had to wait for the train which goes thru central Wales every 6 hours or so. We wandered out of the rail station, and into the nearest pub, The Apple Tree. Worthington Shield on the had pump was great real ale, to quench a very real thirst. McEwans’ Export had its usual grainy aftertaste on draught. Caffery’s Irish Ale, very nice for the less adventurous. The locals are very chatty, Mike was very interested in the fate of Deon Sanders. Prime time is everywhere.
Just after dark, we arrived at Llanwrtyd Wells. We hiked half a mile in the dark to town, to our final destination, the Neuadd Arms, home of the central Wales Real Ale Festival every November. We headed directly for the restaurant in search of food before the kitchen closed. Even though the dining room food was expensive, it was a welcome site. During dinner, I had to go check into our room so they could put the check on the room bill. Very strange. After dinner, we checked out the bar. The locals weren’t very chatty, but the beers were nice. We tried HB Bitter, Bass on a hand pump, Double Dragon, and Gold Label Barley Wine from a bottle. There is a resident’s lounge of to the side of the bar, which we sat in for a few minutes. No one in the room spoke English while we were there. Presumably they were speaking Welsh, although it sounded very German to me.