We had good weather on Tuesday for sightseeing, and I had to take my family round Hay Castle. They hadn't seen the renovations before, and they were very impressed.
As an engineer, Peter wanted to know where the grey bricks came from, that are used in the modern rebuild part of the renovation. They also rather enjoyed the little film in the old wine cellar - we arrived just as it started. They also enjoyed the costumes - especially trying on the crown!
Life drawing was going on in the educational room on the first floor, and the exhibition space at the top of the building is hosting a free exhibition of Printing Art. There are some famous names among the artists - Picasso, Lucien Freud, Bridget Riley - but my sister's family are not fans of contemporary art, and we were taking it rather less seriously than we might have done. One lady who was obviously taking it very seriously looked quite disapprovingly at us! We were all fascinated by the Tube map near the door, though - where the stations had been replaced by philosophers, comedians, Chinese leaders, and people like King Zog of Albania!
Unfortunately, building work was still taking place at the top of the Castle, so we couldn't go up to the viewing platform this time.
Then it was off to Hereford, and I got to see the road that isn't the bus route for a change! We parked at the leisure centre and walked into the centre from there.
I intended to take them to the Koffie Pot for a coffee before we started walking round, but it's completely changed since I was last there. It's become a noodle and sushi bar! It was also still using a lockdown method of ordering and paying, by scanning a QR code, which none of us felt like working out how to use. Peter (engineer) noticed the new pumps that had been put in after the last big flood came right over the wall and flooded the Koffie Pot and the courtyard, and the slots for extra hoarding to be put up to raise the height of the wall if it was needed.
We didn't fancy noodles, so we went on to the Cloister Cafe at the cathedral and sat in the sunshine to eat sandwiches and drink coffee, which was very pleasant. Then we wandered round the cathedral itself. I showed my sister the Treherne stained glass, and the SAS window, but - not a big fan of contemporary art. She was fascinated by the deeply carved gravestones round the back of the high altar, though, which were similar to ones she had seen on holiday in Holland, and they liked the bright colours of the shrine to St Thomas Cantilupe. There was an art exhibition there, too, of pictures inspired by the Holocaust, and although it was modern art again, those pictures were very powerful, and were appreciated. They also liked the knight with three legs!
Our last visit of the afternoon was the Old House, which costs £3.50 to get in, apart from the teenager, who got in free as a student. This has been renovated since my last visit, and they have done a wonderful job. There are cloth wall hangings in the bedrooms, including one set that tells the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, and as you go round you can pick anything up, and sit on the beds. They had a lot of costumes to try on, too, and they had great fun with the seventeenth century hats! One of the beds has newly embroidered hangings, and a sampler gave the names of all the embroiderers, and how many hours they'd spent on the work.
On the way back to Hay we drove along the Golden Valley, and tried to find Arthur's Stone, but we missed the side turn and ended up in Bredwardine instead (to be fair, we were being quite optimistic in thinking the camper van could make it up those back roads).
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