Day 1
Machynlleth to Machynlleth: 0 miles
Food of the day: Spanish Tortilla
Reason: Because I decided to stay home today, this was the last meal I had the pleasure of P making for me in Aberdyfi.
Machynlleth
Later in the afternoon P drove me to the hostel I'd booked in Machynlleth, and I thanked my lucky stars I'd walked yesterday rather than today, because it was pouring buckets.
Taking advantage of the car one last time, I had P drive me to the grocery store, then to the bank, then to the Owain Glyndwr Parliament House. This was the site of the last native Welsh parliament (and the last direct parliament Wales had prior for 600 years, as the Welsh Assembly was instituted only in 1999). Although the ancient Welsh Parliament was last held here, in 1404, today's building was built later in the 15th century which still makes it one of the oldest halls in Wales - not the original building, but possibly using the same stones.
If you're wondering what business an ancient Parliament had being in Machynlleth - for a period of time, this was the Welsh capital. To be more specific - in the 14th century a wealthy landowner of Welsh descent named Owain Glyndwr got into a property dispute with his English neighbors. One thing led to another, yada yada yada, and while the King of England was away in Scotland, Glyndwr got some Welsh friends together to sack English-held North Wales towns. As one does. Then began a cycle of English persecution, followed by even more angry Welshmen sacking even more castles - including Harlech and Cardiff.
By 1404 the English had lost nearly all of Wales to Glyndwr's rebellion. And so in that year, Glyndwr summoned a Parliament in Machynlleth, allied with France, and named himself Prince of Wales. He was the last native Welshman to hold that title, as after 1404 his independence movement fell apart, he lost control of most of Wales to the English, and he disappeared and is believed to have died in 1417.
And so today, with Machynlleth no longer a capital city, the largest monument in town isn't the parliament building. Instead it's the giant baroque clock tower in the middle of town, built in 1873 to commemorate the coming of age of Viscount Castlereagh, heir to the 5th Marquess of Londonderry (having worked on enough Northern Ireland issues in the past, I'm going to qualify that with a 'or Marquess of Derry if you prefer').
Anyway, all I did in Machynlleth after that was find the hostel behind the gas station where I met two lovely people, one of whom is hiking the Wales Coast Path north to south and allayed my camping fears, and the other who is an older Australian woman who frankly puts me to shame in her long distance hiking capabilities. I'd originally planned on having dinner with P at a restaurant called 'Number 24' which I'd been past many times and looked delicious - but when P went to make a booking we found out they were only open Wednesday to Saturday. So instead, we went there last week, and while it was great, I started to get the feeling that I was doing everything I'd planned on this hike backwards.
Not bad for a rainy day - but I do hope it lets up soon.
