We finished packing and loaded the car after our pancake breakfast and left for Aberaeron around midday. The roads weren't as busy as I'd expected and we did the journey along the M4 to Carmarthen, then north west into Ceredigion and much slower winding cross-country roads until we reached the coast near New Quay, then driving seven miles north to Aberaeron. It's a late 18th - early 19th century fishing port village, which saw early development as a coastal transport hub, with packet boats carrying mail and domestic goods between coastal towns before the advent of the railway line.
I remember passing through the town thirty five years ago on my way to Aberystwyth, when working for USPG. In those days most of the two centuries old buildings were the colour of the plain grey standstone of which they were made. Then the arrival of weatherproof colour paints on the domestic market let to a slow transformation of the town-scape just as happened in the Valleys after the demise of the coal industry. Now the facades are delightfully coloured in shades of blue, pink, yellow, and dark red, with the windows and their embellishments highlighted in white. Everywhere you look, the colours surprise and delight, set against the shades of green in surrounding woodland and fields.
We last visited here for a day trip while staying in a holiday cottage outside Cardigan in October 2008. It looked colourful even then, but continuing housing renovation has seen more brightly coloured facades grace the townscape. It's changed in another more significant way too, due to the pandemic. Restaurants and pubs which can have developed outdoor spaces for eating and drinking, some temporary but others looking as if they're here for the long term. This gives the streetscape a distinctly continental feel and it to my mind a real enhancement. Until the schools break up, it's not going to be frantically busy or crowded, beaches are empty, but outdoor hospitality venues have plenty of customers, mostly older people making the most of out-of-term holiday cottage bookings, like ours.
We're in an early nineteenth century grade two listed three storey terraced house with a loft conversion, divided into three apartments. Ours is up on the second floor with sea views through north and south facing windows, and the attic has a bedroom and bathroom with a north facing sea view. I don't think we realised it would be quite so amazing a place to stay. It's been beautifully modernised and decorated in sympathetic colours, with an overall maritime theme, and it's superbly equipped, lacking nothing on the domestic front, Mind you, there are two flights of stairs to the front door and another two up to the attic bedroom - extra fitness training, no gym needed here!
On one side we overlook the inner harbour, and there's a free first come first served car park on the quay opposite the house. It couldn't be better. Part of a car park is temporarily reserved for a beer garden and tent for the pub two doors down. It closes quite early, so noise is no problem. The streets were deserted by sunset. Sheer olde worlde bliss. What it'll be like in tourist high season is hard to imagine, and we won't be here to find out. It's just good to savour the moment.
Once unpacked we walked around to get our bearings, and I took my first batch of photos with my Sony Alpha 68 wide angled lens, to capture interesting views of the townscape. I'll revert to my cherished zoom lens tomorrow for a different range of views. After supper we watched the final of Cardiff Singer of the World. Five fantastic voices difficult to choose from, all destined already for top level operatic careers.
It was Korean baritone Gihoon Kim who won, much to his own astonishment again as when he won his first round. He was the only man alongside four women also, of outstanding quality. The audience/viewers prizewinning choice went to Clare Barnett-Jones, the substitute competitor brought in at a day's notice to fill a gap caused by a covid quarantine drop-out. It seemed clear that all five performers were there having a good time, loving the opportunity to perform live with an orchestra again, without much concern about winning. After such a horrible year for performing artists this was the blessing they all longed for.
After the programme I went for a walk along the shore path in the twilight, just for the pleasure of hearing the sea and feeling the mild scented breeze on my face. A perfect prelude to sweet sleep/
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