Castle #1

Llansteffan Castle is located just eight miles southwest of Carmarthen to the small village of Llansteffan which means “the church of Stephen.” This castle is where I went today for the class’s first day trip excursion. We drove for a bit in a huge bus that seemed to go down the narrowest streets and corners. We stopped at what appeared to be the base of the castle at a very white, sandy beach. From the beach we walked up the paths to the top of hill to see the ruins of the castle. Lucky for us today was when the rain showed up when we spent the majority of our afternoon outdoors. Everyone got quite cold and wet.
The towers of the ruins were extremely tall and full of history. The stone castle was originally a Norman possessed castle but would go back and forth between the Normans and the Welsh over its ownership constantly over its history. We were able to go up the very narrow staircases to the top of the castle. The view was amazing and I could see the green, rolling hills for miles.
Apparently this is the first of many castles that we will see on our stay here in Wales and once this program is over and my personal travelling begins into the rest of the UK and Paris I bet I can count on castles there too. I am very excited to see many, many castles.

Talk to you tomorrow,

Jessie