Friday 16th July: After a wild and windy night, a pleasant day in Tenby

Thursday night was stormy, with lashing rain and a high wind showering the caravans and cars with leaves and twigs, it was surprising in the morning that there was so little damage to the trees, which had thrashed like mad things all night.

It was still raining first thing, nevertheless we needed some shopping and we wanted to visit the "Tudor Merchants House" in Tenby, so that's what we did.

We got there in driving rain, so decided to shop at the Sainsbury's next door to the multi storey car park first.

The rain had eased by the time we got out, so we sallied down to the harbour and were rewarded with clearing skies and sunshine, so out came the cameras!

A panorama is the best way to capture such a wide view as there were so many boats in the harbour
We walked down to the harbour and then up the slope to the headland and spotted the gardeners "dead heading" the flowers
Pat spotted this youth who appeared to be rather foolhardy heading out into the bay, it was only later when we looked at the image that we could make out he was a lifeguard!

The Tudor House opened at 11 O clock so shortly thereafter we presented ourselves and visited the place.

It was fascinating, much lighter inside than we are accustomed to expect from properties of that age, it was a house that you felt could be lived in even today (it even had an indoor toilet of a sort)

This is the fireplace on the ground floor

And this is a table explaining the sort of diet the people had
The rooms were very airy and light with woven rush mats on the floor, they seemed comfortable underfoot and the guide remarked that they are hard wearing, too.
Here is the indoor loo, with lovely soft pieces of lambswool to serve as toilet paper.

The loo emptied out into the garden through a hole in the wall!

A small but very comfortable looking four poster bed, originally this room would have had a thatched roof as a ceiling and you needed a bed with a top to keep out things that would otherwise have fallen into bed with you!We were really impressed with this house, it was a pleasure to visit.

A light lunch was all we fancied so we bought Cornish Pasties and a sticky bun from a local baker and sat out on one of the benches in from of the church (just by the horse and carriage that gave rides, and really enjoyed this simple meal, it was very tasty.

By this time pat's hips and ankles were a little worse for wear, so we walked back to the car and came back to camp