Sunday 9th May 2010 - Tenby

The site is an easy walk from the town and that was our destination today. The weather was lovely and the views clear as we walked passed the Park Hotel to the start of the promenade high above the vast expanse of golden sand. It was low tide so we decided to walk along the beach towards the harbour that is topped by pretty, multi-coloured houses. Low tide leaves the harbour dry and it was fun to be able to walk in amongst the moored boats. The tide was so far out that we were able to walk around the outside of the harbour and over to inspect, from underneath, the massive ramps for the old and new lifeboat stations. Walking up and around Castle Hill with its lovely open grassed areas and many benches we sat and admired the views over to Caldey Island.
We headed for the National Trust Tudor House and were very impressed by the enthusiasm of the staff who volunteered all sorts of interesting information about the history of the house and the life in Tudor times. The exciting news for them is that in the next two years all of the furnishings will be replaced with Tudor period ones. This will mean brightly painted furniture and brightly coloured wall-hangings. This will come as quite a shock to many visitors who expect a dark, rather gloomy house but it will be great to see the it as it would have been when the Tudor merchant owned it. Make a note to plan a return visit for 2012.
Across the road is a old-style bookshop that had thousands of books in massive piles many feet high with hardly any room to walk between them. Quite how you were supposed to inspect a book that was at the bottom of the piles, I don't know. Fortunately we only wanted to buy a £1 Town Trail leaflet and those were in a box just inside the door. We then used this as a guide to explore the rest of the town. And very pleasant it was too. We can thoroughly recommend Tenby as a place to visit with its interesting town and lovely beach. However, judging by the huge number of eating places and the many caravan parks (most with permanent pitches only) in the surrounding area, it is best visited outside high season.
Photos: Boats in Tenby harbour; The old and new lifeboat stations at Tenby.