Today is our last full day in Wales. We will be leaving our caravan site and heading home early tomorrow. It’s raining now but this morning the sun was out and so we drove up to the picturesque village of Beddgelert to pay our respects to the holy dog, Saint Gelert. As someone whose actions are constantly misunderstood (especially by my wife) I have a definite affinity for this poorly done by mutt from long ago.
 |
| Beddgelert parish church is an evil church. Not only do they not allow dogs in the church building but they are not even allowed in the churchyard. Therefore, we went no further than the gate where we wiped our feet, turned round and walked away. Obviously the dog hating parish council would turn away Gelert himself if he was to rise from his grave. |
 |
| English is more closely related to the Latin languages than to Welsh, but the two languages do have a common ancestor on the Indo-European branch of the linguistic tree. Therefore I find it interesting that the Welsh word for grave is “bedd.” I wonder if this is not just a coincidence. |
 |
| Delphi, contemplating a faithful hound’s lot in life. |
 |
| Weird or what? As we were coming down Snowdon on Tuesday we met up with a group of learning disabled youngsters and their adult companions. We chatted whilst taking refreshment together at the Halfway House. We left first and were quite a bit ahead of them. But we could hear them as they sang all the way down the hill. It reminded me, at the time, of the ending of this film. I had no idea that the movie was filmed here until I saw this plaque today. |
 |
| The Welsh “Tour De France” entry |
I suppose the large hills in the pictures earlier in the post would have substituted for the mountains of China, then. I loved that movie. Robert Donat was one of my favorite actors even though I have only seen him it ‘The 39 Steps’ and The Inn of the 6th Happiness. His son Peter Donat is also an actor and was a member of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. He was an excellent Cyrano when we saw him there.
I’m sorry the dogs were not allowed to go into the church yard. The church’s loss, I’d say!
Oh, I see that I was wrong about the relationship of the Donats. Peter is Robert’s nephew. Peter is an old codger now. He’s 85. I can hardly believe it. Must have been a lot older than I thought he was at the time we saw him! Oh Well. . .