Hay-on-Wye - the famous Book Town in Wales! ~In English~

Our next destination was Hay-on-Wye, 

right at the border between England and Wales:
 

From here on further "down" into Wales you can find many traces of the (very living) Welsh Language or Cymraeg. You can not only find it on street signs, in shops or on tourist leaflets and but it is also a language that is still used. An elder lady with whom we talked at length, told us that she didn't speak any English till she went to school where she learned it as a foreign laguage. I must admit that I hadn't realized before we went to Wales how much Welsh as a language is still in use. Okay, let's get back to books, even though languages are admittedly as fascinating as books but we are in Hay-on-Wye now, so, books it is!

This sign says it all, doesn't it?

Hay-on-Wye and books - that's an amazing combination as one can easily see when looking around at the numerous second hand book shops. To browse through all of the books that you can find in there, you' need many days. Fortunately there are some that are specialized so perhaps you can cross off some of them from your list. Alright, it's not probable but there is a teeny tiny possibility.  Well, considering that at the moment there are about 24 book shops, there will still bemany shops left to browse.

This is just a small selection of the books shops but I think one can easily see that books are a big part of Hay-on-Wye. You should bring enough time to browse though, not just because there are so many books to see but also because those books seem to draw quite a number of tourists.    It's still not overcrowded but at least in summer you should be prepared for having to share those shops with all those other people.

 

Rows and rows of books - a booklover's paradise!

  I did mention that books are taken rather seriously in Hay-on-Wye, didn't I?

Just a small number of examples for book shops in Hay-on-Wye. Some shops can also be found in the backyards, some are small and dark, some are chaotic and crammed, whereas others are well organised and neat but no matter what, they are always worth a look!

At the shops we were told that at times there have been were even more book shops but some of them already had to close due to the competition. 

We didn't manage to visit all of the shops that afternoon , so "of course" we had to come back the next morning before driving on to our next destination.

Apart from all those books we really enjoyed the beautiful landscape around and were amazed by the helpfulness and friendliness of the people we met!

The next morning we left for South Wales!

~To be continued~