![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/photos\/wales\/images\/hay-on-wye-005.jpg\" "\\"Hay")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A photo diary from a weekend in Hay on Wye.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thursday: <\/strong> Thanks to Dr Beeching and his railway axe in the 1960s, the journey took ages: train from Paddington to Hereford and then a one hour coach trip to Hay, with a bus driver from Barry at the wheel.<\/p>\n We took a stroll around the picturesque streets of Hay, and checked out the half-ruined castle.<\/p>\n The town is famous for its bookstores and there were plenty to be found (apparently there’s one bookstore for every 30 residents!).<\/p>\n Later this month, Hay plays host to the internationally famous Book Festival, where the town’s population swells from 1,500 to 150,000!<\/p>\n Popped into a deserted Rose and Crown for pint of Merrie England before moving on to the far livelier – and very friendly – Wine Vaults where everyone seemed to be dropping their pints with gusto.<\/p>\n Maybe it was a curious Welsh custom. Or maybe it’s because everyone was absolutely hammered.<\/p>\n Come the end of the night it was pissing down, but some kind local gave us a lift the mile home to our lovely B&B.;<\/p>\n Friday<\/strong> After walking into Hay, we headed north along the banks of the wide and fast-flowing River Wye.<\/p>\n A nifty bit of map reading took us along the overgrown embankment of the former Hay railway before arriving at the Old toll bridge at Whitney.<\/p>\n Had a chat with the flute-playing man working the toll gate who pointed out a huge two foot trout resting at the base of the bridge.<\/p>\n Had a quick paddle in the Wye before walking past Rhydspace to pick up the Offa’s Dyke walk.<\/p>\n Back in Hay, we stopped off for tea, sandwiches and ice cream at Shepherd’s as a well-earned reward for our eleven mile walk.<\/p>\n Then walked the mile or so back to our guest house in Lower Cusop, grabbed a quick nap and then back into town via the Offa’s Dyke path which runs right behind the house.<\/p>\n Grabbed a couple of pints of ale of Wye Valley Ale at the Kilvert and then on to the local laaaad’s hotspot, the Wheatsheaf (aka 38@).<\/p>\n Left early as I felt a bit rough – and things got a lot worse as I spent most of the night being sick and feverish.<\/p>\n Saturday<\/strong> Checked out some bookstores and had tea and cakes at the Granary Cafe (my stomach felt well enough to risk a carrot cake).<\/p>\n Walked back for a lie down and then back into the throbbing metropolis of Hay to grab a half in the Blue Boar and another in the Wine Vaults (now our fave bar in town).<\/p>\n Still not feeling 100%, so home early to watch the brilliant Green Wing.<\/p>\n Sunday<\/strong> Walked into Hay, grabbed a big Shepherd’s ice cream and then picked up the Wye Valley Walk, heading west.<\/p>\n Things were going splendidly until I got a text message, “Problem with the bulletin boards: please call.”<\/p>\n This turned out to be something of an understatement.<\/p>\n I’ll keep the full story for another day, but it involved me shouting and screaming into my phone while a field of sheep looked on, baffled…<\/p>\n Then walked along a B road before walking along a strip of the old Brecon – Hay railway like which has been turned into a small nature reserve, Glasbury Cutting.<\/p>\n Walking into Glasbury we stopped off at the River Cafe for a coffee before crossing the Wye and heading east back towards Hay along the footpath.<\/p>\n Managed to discover how powerful the electric fences for cattle are after I inadvertently leaned right into one to take a picture.<\/p>\n Net result: a sharp, tingling burst on my thigh and a blurry pic.<\/p>\n Took a late lunch in the delightful church graveyard at Llowes and had a wander about inside the ancient church (heavily restored by Victorians) which houses the 1,300 year old stone cross of St Meilig.<\/p>\n Suitably fortified by our local organic bread, cheese, crisps and apples, we strode into the fading sunshine, arriving back in Hay feeling surprisingly dapper after our 12 mile walk.<\/p>\n Back home for a bath and out again to hit Hay’s beyond mellow Sunday nightlife.<\/p>\n Had a few pints in the Wine Vaults and then home in the pitch-black of a country lane…<\/p>\n (more photos to come soon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A photo diary from a weekend in Hay on Wye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[193,16],"tags":[233,1194,21],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-places","category-wales","tag-hay-on-wye","tag-wales","tag-walks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/hay-on-wye-005.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sQI7P-576","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13662,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/13662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTravelled up to the lovely border town of Hay on Wye, staying in a fantastic old higgledly-piggedly house in the hills.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/photos\/wales\/images\/hay-on-wye-003.jpg\" "\\"Hay")
<\/p>\n
\nAfter an enormous fried breakfast, we headed out into the glorious sunshine.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/photos\/wales\/images\/hay-on-wye-002.jpg\" "\\"Hay")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/photos\/wales\/images\/hay-on-wye-001.jpg\" "\\"Hay")
<\/p>\n
\nAfter a spectacularly awful night, stayed in bed till 1pm but felt well enough to stumble into town to meet Em.<\/p>\n
\nWoohoo! Feeling grand and the sun’s out.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/photos\/wales\/images\/hay-on-wye-004.jpg\" "\\"Hay")
<\/p>\n