I’d booked time off, and we’d been hoping I might have been driving again, but no dice (in fact, not a peep out of the DVLA), so the idea of going away, taking family members by car was off. Instead, my better half decided where we went, and convenient and cheap by train pushed Aberystwyth to the front (direct train from Wolverhampton at a decent price, affordable accomodation). Also: there’s a pier we hadn’t been to yet, the last time we managed that was 2019.

So then, a lift to Wolves, and on to a not-too-crowded train, and a surprisingly irritant-free journey later, we step off the train, and into our first pub for lunch.

Aberystwyth is a university town and it shows: many pubs are a bit studenty, and while there’s a few run down bits there’s affluence here too: new-agey lifestyle shops, delicatessens, and a cookware shop selling Le Creuset. There’s good restaurants, but also cheaper-end takeaways. The university obviously brings in money and also provides a decent supply of workers for the bars and restaurants now we’ve told a lot of non-student Europeans to fuck off.

Back to the pier: it’s not pretty, which is a shame as most of the seafront is quite attractive.

It took us 3 visits to be allowed out on the “sun deck” at the back, and sun was in short supply. Odd fake trees, too.

A bit of a sad image compared to times gone by, but then I suppose the changes give extra retail space that contribute to the upkeep, and to be fair, The Billiard Bar wasn’t unpleasant.

Other than the pier and all the pubs? Well, nice meals (Greek and Caribbean made a nice change), a nice view, a lovely trip out to Devil’s Bridge by steam train (no sign of the Devil’s doorbell 😉 ), and some well-needed R&R.

The return journey was pretty good too, and even the 529 didn’t completely foul things up…