We're off to Pontybodkin!

It's a clear day in Liverpool! Newsworthy enough, you say, but the real news is that
we're off to Pontybodkin just over the Wirral peninsula in the shire
of Flint and the neighborhood of Mold.

We'll stop by Pontybodkin- we think it is
known for its pottery - but really, our goal is the village of
Llanarmon-yn-ial (there's a circumflex over that 'a') to stretch our
legs on Offa's Dyke the 8th century, 177-mile berm built by good(ish)
King Offa to keep out the Welsh. King Offa required every vassal and helot to contribute a tenth of a meter of wall, which we didn't think was such a bad deal, until it was noted that the dyke is 27 feet wide and about ten feet tall, with a big ditch in front to make it seem even taller. Evidently, the vassals and helots were displeased with the prospect of contributing even a tenth of a meter, so the requirement was changed to either building a tenth of a meter of wall, or - you'll like this - bring lunch.

The good(ish) folks at National Train hooted and guffawed and loped
around in their glass cage when I showed them where we wanted to go
(showed them, principally because I can't pronounce 'Llanarmon-yn-ial'), and said,
"Naw loof. It's a non-stationed town, ye see." In fact, according to
the National Train people, Llanarmon-yn-ial can only be gotten at by
taking the train to Rhyl twenty miles away and then taking a bus for
70 minutes. Twenty miles in 70 minutes, eh.


We learned a lot from the web site www.unforgettablelanguage.com. It seems that the Welsh word for 'cheese' is 'caws' and the word for 'Welsh' is 'Cymru' since 'Welsh' means 'foreigner' in Welsh.