Sept 2-3 Tenby, Wales

September 04, 2024

We left Cardiff and stopped at St Fagans National Museum of history which is a collection if historical buildings from around Wales that have been reassembled on the land around St Fagans village. There are volunteers that tell the stories of the people that lived and worked in these buildings. This was a fascinating step back in history spread over many acres. Chris excused himself back to the car for a rest while the rest of us finished our exploration. We carried on to Tenby in the afternoon, one of the most picturesque and kindest little communities we have ever visited. We arrived to a beautiful B&B and found ourselves booked into the rafter rooms…you guessed it, up 3 flights of steep and bendy stairs! It would have been a good laugh except we were trying to decide which medical professional we needed to find to help Chris at that moment. He needed medical attention and quite frankly, we weren’t sure how to get it.

So here is where kindness trumped the day. A lovely couple, our B&B hosts Sharon and Andrew, greeted us and took our luggage and directed us to the local pharmacist who has some ability to assess and prescribe for a limited number of conditions. Sadly, this was not one of them. He said we needed the local doctor (at the surgery!) or attend the hospital 45 minutes away. We returned to the B&B to find all our luggage taken up to our rooms ( thank you Andrew) and Sharon began making phone calls on our behalf. Because it was end of day, she wasn’t getting lot of traction so she gave us her phone and the number of the local surgery (only a 5 minute walk away) and told us to start dialing them at 8:00 am and to keep dialing until we got through. The surgery holds a number of appointments each day for urgent cases. We did get through and the medical team was lovely!

So, at 8:15 am we headed to the clinic, filled out a temporary resident form so we could be seen by the doctor, saw the doctor, received the great news it was not pneumonia but a chest infection none-the-less, got a prescription, paid our £40, walked across to the pharmacist where we had the prescription filled in about 3 minutes for £3.60 and was back at the B&B for breakfast by 9:15am. Everyone here has been so very helpful! The same cannot be said for our medical insurance plan but that is a story for another time!

Chris popped his first antibiotic and we headed to the docks to catch the ferry to Caldey Island, a restricted access island that has a working monastery. We ferried to the island enjoying blue skies and calm seas, we explored the churches and listened to the noon service and then Chris and I headed back to the mainland while Don and Bev headed off on a hike to explore more of the island.

Back on the mainland, we further explored the beautiful beaches and the village of Tenby. Chris gets full marks for participation but I had to take him back to the room for a rest. That created an opening for a social hour on the front deck for the rest of us. I went in search of a place to buy a bottle of wine for us to share and stopped to ask a shop owner where one might find such a thing. “At the Post Office of course” was the reply. Well it turns out that most post offices in Wales are also general stores that sell alcohol. Oh, and they also have banks of washers and dryers in the parking lot of some gas stations so you can do your laundry. We could learn a thing or two from the Welsh!

A lovely dinner that night at a pub that has been around since the 1600s, then it was time to head back to the room. I will miss Tenby and wish we could have stayed longer!