My friend in Wales couldn’t get rid of me. I hung around for a couple of weeks.

She heads the European branch of the Tumbl Trak UK Gymnastics equipment company. Moved from Michigan to Wales 3 years ago.

We had a number of excellent meals.

I’d been trying to find a time to visit the Wales office since she got there. When my laptop battery died in Morocco, I desperately wanted to get to an Apple Store for repair. Happily the Geniusesesss‘ at Apple Cardiff did a terrific job.

That took 5 days. I wasn’t bored.

The acclaimed outdoors Wales history museum is excellent. I learned that I knew nothing about what made Wales different than England.

Cardiff is just the right size. Population about 360,000. Small. But it has everything you could want.

The pedestrian downtown area is very walkable. In fact, the arena is just steps away from downtown. It’s easy to get to the biggest sporting events.

Architecture is very interesting.

I looped the harbour through wetlands. And saw the ocean locks.

I missed Snowdon while there, but got to the other two great hiking destinations:

Brecon Beacons (2 days)
Pembrokeshire Coast Path (5 days)

If you ever get the chance, visit Cardiff. And Bath which is nearby. Swansea … not so much.

Highly rated is the St Fagans National Museum of History. A short bus ride from the centre of Cardiff.

It chronicles the last 500 years of Welsh history with fun, interactive, mostly outdoor exhibits. I finally started to see the difference between Wales and England.

St Fagans consists of more than forty re-erected buildings from various locations in Wales, and is set in the grounds of St Fagans Castle, an Elizabethan manor house. In 2011 Which? magazine named the museum the United Kingdom’s favourite visitor attraction. …

Employees dress up in period costume.

Casten Abertefifi is the main landmark in Cardigan. It was first built 1176.

It was lived in continuously for 900 years, falling into disrepair from the 1940s with the last family.

It was finally restored 2015 and is now a great tourist attraction.

You can sit on a giant throne.

The Parish Church of St Mary is even more impressive than the restored castle. And it’s still being used after hundreds of years.

I got stuck in Cardigan on a Sunday in early October finishing a hike. Turns out there is no bus service in or out of town on a Sunday aside from summer months. It was 50£ by cab to the nearest train station. So I took a B&B room for 45£, taking a holiday from my hiking vacation.

An even bigger draw for birders is the wetlands refuge, Teifi Estuary Woodlands & Marshes.

The first badger I’ve ever seen in the wild.

By far the busiest restaurant is Crwst (Crust). For lunch I had slow cooked pork & eggs benedict. Excellent.

For dinner I got two pies. And sat by the river.

Cardigan is predominantly a Welsh language speaking community. At the 2001 census more than 69% of the residents were recorded as being able to speak or understand spoken Welsh, with 45% able to speak, read and write in the language …

I heard mothers and their children on the street using Welsh as a first language. It’s not a dying tongue. College classes in town are offered in both languages.

Tangier … (also called Tangiers in English)  … is located at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean …

In 1923, it was considered as having international status by foreign colonial powers, and became a destination for many European and American diplomats, spies, writers and businessmen. …

Pirates, outlaws and guys like  Paul Bowles, playwright Tennessee Williams, the beat writers William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac all hung out here. Matisse too.

Pre-1956 Tangier had a population of 40,000 Muslims, 31,000 Christians and 15,000 Jews. …

Tourist like Tangiers. With long walks along the ocean front, it feels more mellow than the other big cities.

Since it’s less than an hour from Spain by ferry, many (including me) pass through.

At my hostel I met an American diplomat who was assigned Rabat as part of his internship. He’d just arrived from his previous assignment – Paris.

I found it even more mellow than Casablanca. Fewer tourists. .

Rabat (Arabic: الرِّبَاط‎, al-ribāṭ; Berber languages: ⴰⵕⴱⴰⵟAṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco …

The city is located on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the river Bou Regreg.  …

Like Casablanca, the  Rabat-Salé tramway (opened 2011) is modern and works well.

Click PLAY or get a glimpse on YouTube.