Sphinx's · Temple

Well, we've made it to Worcester! It's been a wonderful trip so far, we've seen lots of glorious things.

The convention in Glasgow was a lot of fun, though we didn't end up going to as many panels as we could have. The hotel was very posh, I looked over one morning while sitting in the lounge waiting for a taxi, and saw Steven Berkoff, the weird and wonderful playwright and actor having a sandwich. He gave me a rather hunted look, but I didn't press the matter. I don't usually. I find the whole hounding celebrities thing to be a little rude and disrespectful. I think I smiled at him and resolutely looked the other way.

Anyway, having restrained myself thus far, I also got to shake hands with the great illustrator and artist Alan Lee, who was signing his Lord of the Rings Sketchbook at the convention. A very soft-spoken and nice man. And Lija and I sat in on a Kaffeeklatsch with Jo Walton, who is a joy to talk to and such a wonderful author. Everyone who likes dragons and/or Anthony Trollope should read her book Tooth and Claw. It's basically Trollope with cannibalistic dragons.

Then we went on down to Chester, which I'd seen before but Lija hadn't and stayed in a very posh hotel indeed, and I walked halfway round the city walls the first afternoon we were there, about a mile's distance. I was very proud of myself! I love the mixture of architectures in Chester, Georgian, Victorian, Victorian Elizabethan (or Victoribethan, as I like to call myself!), and the most gorgeous Cathedral. I took huge amounts of pics, some of which actually came out quite well.

Then we went on to the town of Conwy in Wales, and visited the most fascinating house there, called Plas Mawr, or Great House. It's an Elizabethan townhouse that, through the centuries for various reasons, was hardly changed at all. Eventually it was taken over by Cadw, the Welsh National Trust, and restored lovingly to show it as it would have been in the early 1600's. I took oodles of pictures of both the inside and the out, to show to my Ren Faire friends, and fell in love with the place. It had such a homey and real atmosphere, I loved it. We also went around the castle and took a city tour on a bus, which also included the nearby seaside town of Llandudno (pronounced ThlanDIDno, in case you're wondering).

Then it was on down to the Village, Portmeirion that is. I actually got to stay in the Village! It was amazing. It's a lovely place, and to be there after all the daytime tourists have gone feels really special. It was a very nice suite of rooms, and we were very comfortable. We took the old steam Ffestiniog railway up into Snowdonia to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and took a tour of a disused underground slate mine (they quarry slate these days, no more underground mining work, thank goodness!) It was quite interesting and really gave one a good sense of what a dangerous and horrific job any kind of mining was.

Then it was on down the Pembrokeshire coast to St. Davids, which was a lovely drive. This was the one place that we didn't do a heck of a lot. We drove down and looked around the old Cathedral, which was very beautiful, made out of purplish Cambrian sandstone. There is also an immense bishop's palace, in ruins, next to it. Both buildings clearly show the use of polychromy in their stonework, which made me feel rather vindicated, as I had an argument with my art history professor on the point that the Victorians had invented the idea of polychromy in stonework, especially in sacred buildings. I am so happy to be proved right!!

Then it was off to Cardiff, where we very nearly got lost finding the hotel, but found it eventually and it was a very nice, if very modern, hotel. We spent most of our full day at the National Gallery and Museum of Wales. They have some wonderful Pre-Raph holdings, most especially a chest painted by Edward Burne-Jones the week before his wedding to Georgiana, which was one of the furnishings in their house, the Grange. It was so exciting to see close up something that Georgiana saw every day of her married life. There was also a beautiful Renoir painting that I had not seen before, La Parisienne or the Girl in the Blue Dress. Lovely thing. I also got to see many of Augustus John's works up close, including a couple of portraits of Dorelia McNeill, his mistress and second wife. It gave me a much better sense of the sort of clothes she wore, since the Holroyd John biography doesn't show many pictures of her.

We also went up to the Llandaff Cathedral, which was small but beautiful. It has many windows by William Morris and Co. and a Rossetti triptych. Again, huge amounts of pictures were taken!

Next was Hay-on-Wye, where we visited 28 out of the 31 used bookstores in the small village. Lija is happy to say that we were, for us, fairly restrained, and didn't buy everything in sight. Also, she can now say, as can I, that she has stayed in a room over a pub. We stayed at the charming Old Black Lion Inn, and the food was fantastic. The room was spartan, the bed was rather lumpy, and the shower was a joke, but it was nice otherwise. Books bought include several books on costume, the exhibition catalogue from the first exhibition of Millais' works after his death, Mrs. Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, two Saint books, a book on Frederick Sandys, an ancient score for Gilbert and Sullivan's Yeoman of the Guard, and others too numerous to mention. Also several nice prints, a Dulac, and some costume illustrations. We were able to find at least one of the William Morris fantasies for V.

So then we drove over to Worcester this morning, and are happily ensconced in a nice suite, with internet, hurrah! And we will venture out to see the cathedral tomorrow and mail off our tons of books at Mailboxes Etc.

And then we'll be off to Iron Bridge Gorge tomorrow and Shrewbury after that and then Crewe and then London and then home. We're getting to the point where we miss home a little, so we're happy that we're most of the way through our trip.

More from London probably, since the next few places definitely won't have internet capabilities.