Celebrating the Holidays: Welsh Style

Happy New Year everyone! We just returned from a wonderful visit with my Aunt Mary, Uncle Ken, and cousins Helen and Kathryn in Swansea, Wales. They were extremely kind to us and let us spend Christmas and the New Year with them and we really had a great time. This was Nick's first visit to this area of the country so now he can claim to be the first Moeckel in Wales. And I don't think he was disappointed.

First of all, we had gorgeous weather most of the time we were there. And it never rained during the 10 days we were there. That's right...NEVER! For anyone familiar with Wales, this is unheard of. Luckily we have proof of all the sunshine we had through all the photos that Nick and the Owenses took. I'm still not sure if my dad believes me (he grew up in Swansea).

Because of all the nice weather, we did a lot of hiking along the beautiful Gower coast. On our first hike, Nick was able to capture the dignified beauty of Welsh sheep with the photo shown above. The photo below was taken on the same hike.

Christmas with the Owenses was a treat and since I'm such a gracious guest, I complied with the rule of everyone eating at least one brussel sprout. Here is the proof.

We also had the pleasure of trying a Welsh delicacy: laverbread and cockles. Laverbread is basically boiled seaweed. Cockles are small clams. Don't they sound like they would be delicious together? It's usually served for breakfast with bacon (bacon usually makes everything taste better) but we had it as a starter before one of our meals last week. Here is Nick looking excited to sample the dish.

I think I'd rather eat brussel sprouts.

We've posted pictures here but I want to point out one of the highlights of the trip: hiking out to the end of the Worm's Head. The Worm's Head is an outcrop of rocks in Rhossili Bay that you can only hike out to during low tide. People have died when they were stranded on the rock after low tide and thinking they could swim back, have been swept away by the currents. Nothing like the fear of death (or spending the night outside in the middle of winter) to hurry you along the hike! Nick took this spectacular picture at the end of the Worm's Head looking back towards Rhossili. Click on the picture for a bigger version.