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Heide and Mark Adventuring until the money runs out.... |
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Bookstores, Bookstores & More Bookstores!
Wales. The last "Country" in the UK I had yet to visit... that is if you don't count Northern Ireland as a separate country. (Is Northern Ireland a Country? I honestly have no idea.)To be honest, I don't completely understand why England, Scotland, and Wales are considered separate countries anyway. With the exception of sporting events like when Scotland play England in rugby or football, the UK just seems to be one big place. There is no border patrol between the separate "Countries." Shops and pubs are the same throughout and the currency is all the same. It seems to me that the UK is just one big country with 3 different "states." The people in Scotland are different than the people in England in the same way that people from Texas are different than people from Iowa. And the Texans certainly wouldn't be allowed to have a separate team competing in the Olympics.
On the other hand, those things that identify "separate," "unique" countries are changing. In Europe, if you look at the EU, they are trading the same currency, have no border control within the union, and are becoming more and more similar as fast food chains like McDonalds and multinational companies take over small family restaurants and Mom & Pop grocery stores. Aside from the intangible of "culture," language seems to be one of the last obvious differentiators... and I suppose Wales has that... as Welsh is taught side-by-side with English is schools.
With all these questions about countries and soverignty in my head, Mark, George and I made our way over the English border to the small town of Hay on Wye in Wales. (Agnes opted to do a bit of shopping in Solihull with Clare.) What a lovely place! The countryside is gorgeous. After a cup ofcoffee we did a few miles walking along the Offers Dyke Path - the original boundry between the kingdom of Mercia and Wales in about 600AD. We could've gone further except it was starting to get dark and we still wanted to explore some of the town's legendary bookstores. Hay isn't a big place, but it is full of independant bookstores - some large, some small, but all great for browsing. In one store we found some "used" 1930 boys magazines (no, not that... they were children's magazines!) and other childrens books. They had the most wonderful inscriptions having been given as gifts. Before heading back to Solihull, we stopped at a cozy country pub for dinner. There isn't much that tastes better after a day out than some good pub grub and a pint of beer.
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